| More than ever, corporations are expanding their | | | | Address formats, monetary values, naming |
| business scope and engaging in business activities | | | | conventions, and language all change the way |
| on a global scale. International business success | | | | international data must be cleansed. An address |
| means understanding different cultures, politics, | | | | parsing rule for a United States address will differ |
| monetary variables, and more. However, an | | | | from rules for handling Mexican or Canadian data. |
| important component companies often overlook is | | | | Similarly, naming conventions in South America |
| the quality of the data being acquired from global | | | | vary greatly from its North American neighbors. |
| sources. | | | | A company or data vendor must take into |
| As information is accumulated in databases on an | | | | account a variety of factors before beginning any |
| exponential scale, companies must be diligent data | | | | international data cleansing endeavor. |
| stewards in order to maximize the value of this | | | | Many companies have failed in the global |
| information. We have often heard that data is a | | | | marketplace because they weren't prepared to |
| business's strongest asset, providing the | | | | handle the demands of international information |
| foundation for customer relation management, | | | | acquisition. However, before undertaking any global |
| cross-sell and up-sell opportunities, and prospect | | | | data standardization projects, a business must |
| identification. Many companies currently have | | | | make sure that their domestic information is in |
| processes in place to handle this domestic data. | | | | order or any efforts will be wasted. A good data |
| However, when international data is added to the | | | | quality vendor can help with database assessment |
| equation, a company must take into account | | | | and provide valuable data cleansing |
| different rules for data standardization. | | | | recommendations. |