Invisible Data Quality Issues in a CRM Implementation

Poor data quality can have a severe impact on the overall effectiveness of an organisation. Data quality problems, which are prevalent in many customer relationship management (CRM) implementations, receive limited attention in the literature. Few organisations account for these problems when planning a CRM project. This is often because data quality problems do not become apparent until the project is underway, when the time and costs required to address them can be substantial and beyond the project budget limits. This paper uses illustrative case study examples of problems encountered when implementing CRM and highlights the need for further research in this area.