Alation Brief: Learn about the Open Data Quality Initiative

Note: Alation now has 17 data quality partners instead of the 10 mentioned in the original session. 

Is your data house in order? Can people find high-quality data they can trust? Or does low-quality data lurk in the shadows?

Poor data quality can have serious financial consequences. For instance, a study from Gartner found that businesses lose an average of $15 million annually due to data quality issues. These errors can lead to misguided business decisions, wasted resources, and lost revenue opportunities. Imagine a retail company forecasting demand using inaccurate sales data—it risks overstocking or understocking, leading to higher operational costs or missed sales. Ensuring high data quality isn’t just about preventing mistakes; it’s about safeguarding the organization’s bottom line.

The Alation Open Data Quality Framework (ODQF) is a comprehensive solution to the data quality problem, as it delivers valuable quality details to those who need it where and when they need it – as they’re searching for and working with data. This framework integrates data quality directly into workflows, ensuring that trustworthy data is easily accessible to users across the organization. 

Part of the broader Open Data Quality Initiative, ODQF includes APIs and best practices that standardize data quality metrics from various tools, enabling seamless integration with Alation's catalog. This approach eliminates silos, improves trust in data-driven decisions, and empowers organizations to manage unique data quality challenges flexibly, with the freedom to choose the data quality vendor that best aligns with their unique needs.

Key takeaways

In the Alation Brief webinar titled Alation's Open Data Quality Initiative, Marlene Simon, a data quality expert, formerly at Alation Professional Services, outlined the importance of integrating data quality into data governance practices. She emphasized that trusted, high-quality data is essential for making informed business decisions.

Simon opened with a question: "Do you make decisions with confidence, or do you hope you're right?" She pointed out that data professionals often rely on outdated or unchecked data, leading to uncertainty. In today’s fast-paced business environment, it’s crucial to base decisions on accurate, current, and relevant data. Simon highlighted the need to trust the quality of data being used, noting, "We need to know we have the right data coming from trusted sources."

Alation's Open Data Quality Initiative is designed to help organizations integrate data quality processes into their data catalog. Simon clarified that Alation isn't a data quality tool but enables organizations to bring data quality information into the catalog. Whether you have SQL scripts or rely on a preferred data quality tool, Alation allows for seamless integration of data quality results. "Regardless of what solution is best for you, we allow you to make that choice," Simon explained, stressing the flexibility of the initiative.

Simon also introduced the Data Health Tab, a feature that displays the quality status of data based on the data quality rules executed by your tool of choice. This functionality helps users assess whether data is trustworthy or needs remediation. She added, "Maybe the quality of the data is not quite there. Maybe I need to do something about it." The integration of trust flags and alerts further enhances visibility, ensuring users know if critical errors exist before making decisions.

In conclusion, Alation’s Open Data Quality Initiative empowers organizations to confidently navigate their data governance efforts, building trust in their data while providing flexibility and transparency. To learn more, book a demo with us or skip ahead to 6:51 in the video above to see a demo of Alation’s data quality integration in action.