Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Data Quality: Perception versus Reality
A new white paper, "Data Quality: Perception versus Reality", by Graham Rhind and sponsored by Capscan Ltd, reporting on the results of a data quality survey, is available for download here
Monday, December 29, 2008
BBC resurrects Serbia and Montenegro
For a country that lasted only existed for a few years, Serbia & Montenegro has real staying power! In an online news report on the BBC News website from 26th December 2008, the BBC used a map of Serbia & Montenegro in a report instead of just Serbia.
To be fair, the image was corrected a few hours later:
but it does leave me wondering how long it will be before these errors are no longer being made. Perhaps a bloody war is required to force change into people's consciousness?
To be fair, the image was corrected a few hours later:
but it does leave me wondering how long it will be before these errors are no longer being made. Perhaps a bloody war is required to force change into people's consciousness?
Thursday, November 6, 2008
The world according to Barclaycard
A letter in the Guardian pointed me to a competition being run by Barclaycard (a UK credit card company) to win an Aston Martin car, coinciding with the release of the newest James Bond film.
The terms and conditions take the term "geographically challenged" to new heights.
The United Kingdom, for the record, is the island of Great Britain with its islands, and Northern Ireland. If Barclaycard had wished to exclude Northern Ireland they could have used the term "Great Britain". "ROI" (Republic of Ireland) has been an independent nation for getting on for a century, and The Channel Islands are not now, and never have been, part of the United Kingdom.
One wonders, though, what the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight have done to upset Barclaycard!
The terms and conditions take the term "geographically challenged" to new heights.
The United Kingdom, for the record, is the island of Great Britain with its islands, and Northern Ireland. If Barclaycard had wished to exclude Northern Ireland they could have used the term "Great Britain". "ROI" (Republic of Ireland) has been an independent nation for getting on for a century, and The Channel Islands are not now, and never have been, part of the United Kingdom.
One wonders, though, what the inhabitants of the Isle of Wight have done to upset Barclaycard!
GRC Database Information, welcome to the club!
Yes, inevitably.
After creating these posts about companies taking years to realize that, for example,the country Serbia and Montenegro no longer exists, I thought it was perhaps best that I checked my online shop to be sure that there were no surprises there.
What did I find? Yep, Serbia & Montenegro, nestling in the countries list.
I hasten to add that this list is built in to the e-commerce software and can't be changed by the user, and the developers have since apologised and promised to correct it. But this does show how hard it can be to keep up with all real world changes in all parts of a company.
After creating these posts about companies taking years to realize that, for example,the country Serbia and Montenegro no longer exists, I thought it was perhaps best that I checked my online shop to be sure that there were no surprises there.
What did I find? Yep, Serbia & Montenegro, nestling in the countries list.
I hasten to add that this list is built in to the e-commerce software and can't be changed by the user, and the developers have since apologised and promised to correct it. But this does show how hard it can be to keep up with all real world changes in all parts of a company.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
DHL, welcome to the club
It didn't take long after writing the entry below about Barnes & Noble to find a further example of a company failing to effectively make its data quality initiative(s) continuous.
DHL has a list of country codes and postal code formats here.
Apart from missing a number of countries which have recently (and not so recently) created postal code systems, the list still contains Serbia and Montenegro, a country that hasn't existed since 2006;
it has the pre-1999 postal code format for Argentina, and the pre 2006/2007 formats for Armenia and Malta.
Postal code and addressing systems change at a surprisingly speedy rate, and information resources such as this one from DHL decay over time if they are not maintained. I don't know whether DHL's systems expect the same formats as are listed in this document (which I acknowledge has been posted on the Singaporean DHL site and may simply have been overlooked), but it would be, to say the least, commercially damaging if they did.
DHL has a list of country codes and postal code formats here.
Apart from missing a number of countries which have recently (and not so recently) created postal code systems, the list still contains Serbia and Montenegro, a country that hasn't existed since 2006;
it has the pre-1999 postal code format for Argentina, and the pre 2006/2007 formats for Armenia and Malta.
Postal code and addressing systems change at a surprisingly speedy rate, and information resources such as this one from DHL decay over time if they are not maintained. I don't know whether DHL's systems expect the same formats as are listed in this document (which I acknowledge has been posted on the Singaporean DHL site and may simply have been overlooked), but it would be, to say the least, commercially damaging if they did.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Barnes, Noble and hoops ...
I recently came across this page on the Barnes & Noble online shop:
Entering international postal codes
explaining how they expected their customers to enter international postal codes so that their systems can validate the order.
One of the most obvious, but most overlooked, aspects of data quality is that it is a process and, importantly, that it is a continuous process. I'm all in favour of providing information, and lots of it, so that customers know what you expect, but posting a list like this and then forgetting about it demonstrates that the continuous aspect of data quality is being forgotten. The world has moved on, Barnes & Noble have not.
Like this, for example:
Yes, Argentina had a numeric, 4-digit postal code ... until 1999. Now their alphanumeric 7-digit code apparently is disallowed by Barnes & Noble. Or this:
Australia has never has a 7-digit postal code. I would give Barnes & Noble the benefit of the doubt an presume that they had mixed up the entries for Argentina and Australia, were it not for the insistence on a numerical code, whereas Argentinian codes contain 4 letters.
The other aspect of this page is the expectation that customers must jump through hoops to keep Barnes & Noble happy, to fit to B & N's technical requirements rather than B & N ensuring that their systems are correct. Take this example:
Grecian postal codes contain a space between the third and fouth digit. How long would a customer from Greece have to struggle to make their order? How much effort are they being put to to alter their (correct!) data to fit somebody else's system? Is this quality? Is this customer service.
No.
Entering international postal codes
explaining how they expected their customers to enter international postal codes so that their systems can validate the order.
One of the most obvious, but most overlooked, aspects of data quality is that it is a process and, importantly, that it is a continuous process. I'm all in favour of providing information, and lots of it, so that customers know what you expect, but posting a list like this and then forgetting about it demonstrates that the continuous aspect of data quality is being forgotten. The world has moved on, Barnes & Noble have not.
Like this, for example:
Yes, Argentina had a numeric, 4-digit postal code ... until 1999. Now their alphanumeric 7-digit code apparently is disallowed by Barnes & Noble. Or this:
Australia has never has a 7-digit postal code. I would give Barnes & Noble the benefit of the doubt an presume that they had mixed up the entries for Argentina and Australia, were it not for the insistence on a numerical code, whereas Argentinian codes contain 4 letters.
The other aspect of this page is the expectation that customers must jump through hoops to keep Barnes & Noble happy, to fit to B & N's technical requirements rather than B & N ensuring that their systems are correct. Take this example:
Grecian postal codes contain a space between the third and fouth digit. How long would a customer from Greece have to struggle to make their order? How much effort are they being put to to alter their (correct!) data to fit somebody else's system? Is this quality? Is this customer service.
No.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Personal names at Beijing: two steps forward, one step backwards
Holding the Olympics Games in East Asia has had one small effect on spreading an understanding of global differences in personal name patterns. As East Asians write their name in a different order to us Anglo-Saxons, participant names are being written, for some countries, in the correct order, and with the family name shown in upper case:
WU Minxia
Stephanie RICE
It seems however, that this recognition is fairly limited: not all countries have had their personal name patterns recognised. And, with all that money spent, not a sign of a diacritical mark anywhere. A wasted opportunity to be truly global.
WU Minxia
Stephanie RICE
It seems however, that this recognition is fairly limited: not all countries have had their personal name patterns recognised. And, with all that money spent, not a sign of a diacritical mark anywhere. A wasted opportunity to be truly global.
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