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Expert Briefing | Association Insights

The purpose of each stage is outlined below. Note that
these six stages should not be seen as a strictly sequential
set of activities, with one stage completed before the next
begins, but more as a series of iterative action domains that
need to be tackled in any CRM data improvement initiative.

STAGE 1 – SECURE BUSINESS INVOLVEMENT
Recognise that data is a business asset and cannot
be improved in any sustainable way without business
leadership and active participation. To gain initial business
buy in it’s essential to:

I like this analogy from the Cutter
Consortium’s Ken Orr:
“Ultimately, poor data quality is like
dirt on the windscreen. You may be
able to drive for a long time with slowly
degrading vision, but at some point
you either have to stop and clear the
windscreen or risk everything”
So how can Associations start to tackle their CRM data
problems? First, it must be stressed that every organisation
is unique so the exact approach will depend on such
questions as:
• Is the data being improved to prepare it for migration to
a new CRM platform or to improve the performance of an
existing CRM platform?
•D
 oes the business side of your organisation understand
that data quality is their responsibility?
•H
 ow aware are your organisation’s people of the
principles and practices of good data management?
•W
 here are my particular pain points and what are my data
improvement priorities?

•L
 ay out a clear vision and intent for the data quality
improvement initiative. Why are you doing it? What
problems are you trying to solve? What benefits do you
anticipate if you get it right? Capture these motivations
in simple language and be able to present them in a
way that all Association employees can understand and
relate to.
• Identify and engage with all the key data stakeholders –
creators, inputters, data consumers and others - across
your Associatio n. Try to sell them your vision and use
these contacts to refine and enhance it. As you talk to
people gather evidence and examples to illustrate the
impact of current problems and the potential benefits of
addressing them.
•F
 ind and secure a senior business champion who can
help you sell your vision to the top of the Association
and support you in breaking down the barriers you will
probably face. Data improvement nearly always requires
cross-business collaboration and a senior business
champion can help you obtain this.
•F
 inally produce an initial outline business case for action.
Use this, with the help of your senior champion, to secure
some early funding and resource so that you can kickstart the work.

Nevertheless there are some strategies and approaches
that do work in all the above scenarios, albeit with
variations. From my experience with working with large and
smaller organisations I would suggest the simple six‑stage
approach illustrated here in Figure 1:

Figure 1: Six Stage Approach For Improving CRM data quality

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