Solving the $600 Billion Problem? Preliminary results of ETL surveyData migration projects costing businesses more than 13 times the amount budgeted Flemington, NJ, Movember 26, 2002 -- Companies today spend millions of dollars and exhaust countless hours (above and beyond estimated time and costs) in their attempts to successfully complete data warehousing, customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence (BI) and other data-centric projects. The Data Warehousing Institute estimates that data quality problems cost U.S. businesses more than $600 billion a year. In an effort to improve data quality and to create the necessary information exchange resources required by today's challenging and dynamic business landscape, many companies have turned to ETL and other related data quality tools. But how are these tools impacting project timelines and cost? A survey, released in November by Information Architecture Team (IAT), has already returned some eye-opening results. Most survey respondents have participated in several data migrations, yet they continue to be plagued by the same problems over and over. Preliminary results are as follows: 1. More than 60% of respondents cited bad data and duplicate data as the primary reasons for data quality problems. 2. Over 90% of respondents indicated that incomplete mapping, speed of data movement over network and load monitoring were the most critical problems resulting in project delays or failures. 3. The median cost of a data migration project was 13.5 times the amount budgeted. 4. Mapping typically took nearly three months longer than planned. 5. Testing typically took over four months longer than planned. 6. More than 30% of respondents required additional hardware to exclusively support data migration activity. 7. The median cost of this additional hardware purchase was $225,000. "Data quality and information exchange are two of the biggest issues facing corporations today," says IAT president Joseph Hudicka. "ETLs can play an important role in data migration. However, ETL tools alone will not guarantee a smooth migration. Poor data quality coupled with the absence of a solid information exchange methodology means that data migration projects start out with two big hurdles blocking the project's success." The survey's final results will be presented in at the 2003 ODTUG (Oracle Development Tools User Group) conference in Miami and will be available online. To participate in the survey, or to see the specific questions being asked, visit www.ia-team.com/etl-survey. About Information Architecture Team: Information Architecture Team (IAT) is a company that specializes in data quality and information exchange and empowers organizations to become faster, more flexible and more intelligent. By implementing their PETL (Pre-Extraction Transfer and Load) methodology and by creating a standardized, well-designed information architecture, IAT provides a solid foundation upon which an enterprise can build solutions to meet both the current and future needs of its decision-makers and knowledge workers. This foundation maximizes the value of enterprise data and supports the organization's investment in information as a strategic resource. For more information about Information Architecture Team, please visit www.ia-team.com.
### Information Architecture Team Contact: Eric Pilkington (973) 927-5643 epilkington@ia-team.com |