Jenna McAuliffe

This year’s AAMVA International Conference (AIC) was held in the “City of Brotherly Love”—Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As it does each year, the AIC attracted representatives from across the North America who work in the public sector, particularly those that work in the motor vehicle space. The conference, which ran from August 21 – 23, covered many of the most pressing topics currently facing those in the motor vehicle space. There is a major emphasis on improving the customer experience and reducing wait times at department of motor vehicle branches in regions across America. One of the major areas of emphasis comes around the regulations for REAL ID.

In the ever-increasing pace of today’s business environment, everyone is looking for ways to maximize the outcomes of their efforts and create more efficient processes. And more and more, organizations are looking to data to be the fuel that accelerates their business. According to our 2018 global data management benchmark report, 99 percent of businesses believe being data-driven gives their organization a competitive advantage. They believe that advantage includes better insight for decision making (57%), more efficient business practices (57%), and better customer relationships (56%). The thing is, though, that being data-driven only provides these benefits when the data driving the strategy is high-quality and accurate.

As mobile devices continue their rise to prominence, organizations in every industry are clamoring to find ways to optimize the mobile experience for their customers. At this point, a positive mobile experience has become virtually synonymous with a positive customer experience. Simply designing an app or making your website mobile responsive is a great place to start, but how do you continue to optimize the experience from there? A good mobile experience is all about making it as simple and frictionless as possible. And that’s where data quality can truly help.

Data lineage charts the full life cycle of data: the path from its creation through consumption, and everything that happens along the way. For organizations interested in achieving strong data management programs, data lineage is a key component. It provides a more granular view of your data, allowing you to gain insights from the ways in which data is manipulated and transformed from collection to application.

“Boo!” Is that a ghost or ghoul? No—it’s something much spookier: bad customer contact data. Did you know that less than half of retailers trust their data to make important business decisions? In fact, 57 percent of retailers say that they rely on educated guesses or gut feelings to make decisions based on their data. While blood and guts may have a place in horror movies, gut feelings are simply not enough to go on for important business decisions. Accurate, reliable data to drive decision-making is a far stronger retail strategy.

Data conversions are tricky undertakings. There is no way around that. They are time-consuming, expensive, and can feel downright overwhelming. For many agencies in the public sector, the constraints on budgets and resources are a challenge day in and day out. When it comes to data conversions or modernization projects, there is no exception. Across organizations in the United States, approximately 80% of data migrations fail. Why, you ask? Let’s take a closer look. 

Have you ever met someone who made a great first impression, but the more you got to know them, the more flaws you noticed? Maybe they said one thing but did another. Or you expected them to show up at the designated place and time and they failed to show up. Or sometimes, they are just nothing like what you’d thought and you realized you made false assumptions. Well, sometimes your data can be the same way. At a first glance, it isn’t always immediately clear what issues may be lurking just past the surface within your data. That’s where data profiling comes in. 

The Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC) is a charity bike-a-thon across the State of Massachusetts to raise money for cancer research and treatment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. As a corporate sponsor for the event this year, Experian has had the honor of showing our support for this worthy cause in a number of different ways. The PMC, which has been held annually since 1980, will take place tomorrow, August 5. We have three employees who will be riding: Matt Chase, Wes Forsyth, and Steve Cargill, and several of our employees will be volunteering at the lunch spot we sponsored at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School. We will be cheering on the riders and passing out water. 

When it comes to storing and accessing information for an organization, there are several processes involved to help users get the data they need in a timely fashion. As one of the most valuable business assets, managing data and leveraging it to improve business operations is of paramount importance. As more and more business decisions become data-driven, organizations continue to place greater emphasis on effectively managing their data. Since most processes are now informed by data and constantly monitored, it’s easy to see how process management and data management go hand in hand. But has it always been that way? Not exactly.

According to a study by 451 research, the cloud storage market is expected to double from 2016 to 2017, with cloud storage costs jumping from $19 billion to nearly $40 billion. As organizations prepare to invest even more in storing their data, it is important to remember that storing vast amounts of data is only valuable when you know what to do with that data. Storing data you do not use can cost more than you may think.