I came across this recent article from 1to1 Media on the importance of having a “Data Rock Star” on your team. Over the past few months we have been involved in some significant data migration projects as part of bringing new clients live on our customer reference management system (RMS).

The work involved in getting raw data extracts from CRM systems, home-grown operational systems, wikis, Sharepoint and others, is not for the faint of heart. We happen to have a Data Rock Star on our team, and a very capable support staff that can turn the barely-usable into clean, reliable information for the reference team’s benefit.

The main point here is reaffirmation of the oft-used, but true cliche “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” Before considering any reference management system, do what’s necessary to ensure the data you want to import is clean, consistent and reliable. The extra upfront effort will make the import process less stressful and expensive, and ultimately yield a better database down the road. Here are some other data considerations/tips:

• Continue to ask the question, “Will this data be essential to the customer reference team’s needs?” Try not to pollute the RMS with data that won’t get touched, and will therefor fall out-of-date quickly and simply clutter your database.
• Find a solid data resource in your IT department that not only has technical skills, but has the skills to ask how you intend to use it in your RMS. That leads to discussions about whether it needs to be refreshed or synced, and if so, how frequently.
• Take ownership of the data. This seems obvious, but so often the data becomes somewhat overwhelming and the true ownership is ceded to providers like us. It’s critical that you understand your data when the project is complete and that means playing an active part in the strategy and QA of the data.
• Make sure that things like product names and the hierarchy related to names (e.g., family, segment, etc.) you standardize on make sense to the primary end users (Sales). That means you may need to resolve differences between how marketing thinks of these things, and how Sales does—before populating the RMS.
• Accept that data changes over time. Once the initial data migration project ends, fields will be added, fields will be removed, new logic will be applied to prepare new data, etc. The customer reference database is a living, evolving thing. Expect change and when it’s called for it won’t be traumatic.