Should Data Quality Trump Quantity?

We are all familiar with the soundbite about data explosion-that we will create more data in the next few minutes than we did in the first few millennia.  What is left unsaid is that ironically-at least in enterprise data-this tsunami has led to signal-loss.  Analysts responsible for regulatory reports know that is harder to generate accurate reports than it was a decade ago-despite the proliferation of reporting and dashboarding tools.  Marketers know that model accuracy and response rates have dropped in every industry and channel, often by an order of magnitude-despite massive advances in modeling techniques.  As a friend who pioneered credit models recently quipped, we may be better off sprinkling marketing offers from helicopters.  The quantity of data has grown, but quality has plummeted.  Size isn’t everything-it’s time to shift the focus to what matters: data quality.