Crossfire

"CIOs today are now open to converse around data"

Suganthi Shivkumar, MD, South Asia, Informatica said data has become a life-line for organizations and that the data quality can often determine the fate of an enterprise in these uncertain times. Rajendra Chaudhary talked to her about the importance of data quality

Suganthi Shivkumar MD, South Asia, Informatica

Despite a gloomy economy and a time when most IT companies have struggled to post decent results, Informatica has done fairly well. What were the key factors responsible for your growth?

As you rightly pointed out that regardless of uncertain economic times we have managed to keep our head way above the water from a financial perspective, customer acquisition, product development, or even from a partner ecosystem perspective. The driving force behind this has been the need shown by our clients. They have found that, in these uncertain economic times, data has become a very key and competitive tool for them. The intrinsic value in every piece of data within the organization wherever it resides or in whatever form it resides, whether it is financial or operational in nature, we have brought it together to their attention in a relevant, timely, and trustworthy form. Today the competitive advantage is in the timeliness and the completeness of data. It is not just about surviving the economic downturn today, but it's also about revival and leapfrogging the competition. It is in these efforts that the customers have taken to the technologies and best practices that we offer as vendors in the market.

Does the enterprise understand the value of a strategic approach to data integration as a discipline?

There remain two classes of users when it comes to enterprise data integration. Certain people are working on a tactical mode without realizing the value of enterprise data integration because for them it's a like a glue stick that they look for in every little project that they might have. In these situations quite often there is an oversight on the quality aspect. As a user I may be stitching all the data pieces together but have I actually looked at any mechanisms to refine the quality of the data I'm working with? Many a times it is forgotten and this patchy approach continues.

The more forward looking and progressive enterprises have realized that instead of looking at the data integration on a project-by-project basis it is better to look at it from a long term strategic perspective from project A to project Z. They realize that there must be a repeatable, re-usable process in place. So a lot of these organizations are looking at data integration in its broader sense encompassing data quality as not just a project discipline but a competency that they want to build across an enterprise.

How do you rate the data quality efforts of Indian organizations as compared to their foreign counterparts?

India is in a very advantageous position. Indian don't have to make the same mistakes that their western counterparts made in the past. When it comes to their data quality improvement efforts, Indian companies are currently at different stages of understanding and adoption. While the small and mid-market companies are still at very nascent stages of adoption, some of the larger enterprises are in advanced stages. The more progressive and forward looking organizations are already looking at data in its entirety and engaging in comprehensive data quality efforts. Then again, as I said earlier, there are organizations that continue to have isolated data quality projects which despite fancy dashboards, executive cockpits aren't delivering appropriate and timely data to the executives.rajendra.c@expressindia.com