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IQ INSIGHT FOR DATA QUALITY ASSESSMENT/ANALYSIS

Firstlogic Inc, a global provider of enterprise information quality solutions, introduced IQ Insight, a data quality assessment and analysis program that complements the firm's industry leading Information Quality Suite. The new offering enables companies to quickly inspect their data stores and quantify quality problems. IQ Insight is Firstlogic's comprehensive software and services solution for monitoring, analyzing, and reporting on the quality of information contained in data marts, data warehouses, ERP systems and packaged applications, as well as other data sources.

IQ Insight provides detailed analysis, measurement, history and reports about a particular source or target data environment. It allows measurement of business rule compliance, and offers clients a dashboard through which data quality can be improved and measured over time. Used in conjunction with Firstlogic's Information Quality Suite, companies will now be able to monitor and manage data quality over time to ensure that proactive information quality initiatives deliver measurable and consistent benefits to their organization.

"We are seeing increased interest from our clients in the areas of data analysis, profiling and auditing as organizations struggle to identify and quantify the severity of their data quality problems," said Ted Friedman, senior research analyst, Gartner Inc.

According to Art Petty, Firstlogic's vice president of marketing, "Even companies that recognize they have data quality issues find it difficult to justify to executive management the required investment in information quality initiatives. Quantifying return on investment (ROI) speaks volumes to IT decision makers looking to get projects off the ground," Petty said. "IQ Insight enables them to assess and measure data quality issues and help them maximize the benefits they can derive from their information infrastructure."

SC Johnson Benefits from Data Quality Assessment

SC Johnson, one of the world's leading manufacturers of household cleaning products and products for home storage, personal care and insect control, has utilized internally developed data auditing and assessment processes which have helped the company discover areas where it can improve internal and external information that the company shares with partners, suppliers and customers.

"The data quality assessment program that we have implemented has reduced our IT staff workload, allowed us to establish a repeatable process to track and measure the quality of our data, and most importantly, allowed us to share the data discovery process with the business owners of the information," said James D. Funk, SC Johnson's manager, global information architecture, and a leading authority on information quality. "One of the major benefits from our information quality assessment program is in identifying areas that we can streamline our internal processes and drive costs out of the supply chain."

According to Funk, co-author of Journey to Data Quality (forthcoming, MIT Press) and member of the Total Data Quality Management (TDQM) program at MIT, a data assessment and analysis service such as Firstlogic's IQ Insight can bring real value to organizations seeking to jump-start the investigation of their data quality issues. "Organizations that do not understand where their data quality problems reside most likely operate at a competitive disadvantage," he said. "Unfortunately, most organizations do not have the time and resources to dedicate to this critical issue."

IQ Insight Built on Sound Data Quality Principles

IQ Insight is built on the sound data quality principles of defect detection and process improvement, to help customers gain control of their information assets and get optimum value from their business intelligence infrastructure. IQ Insight helps organizations:

• Analyze corporate data to ensure that only clean, reliable data populates data marts and data warehouses.
• Reveal hidden business rules and test them for validity.
• Prioritize data quality issues so that investment can be made in the highest impact areas.
• Use business rules and data validations to cleanse data during the data movement process.

Another important aspect of IQ Insight is the structured and repeatable methodology for data quality analysis. In order to address the widest range of data quality issues, IQ Insight provides a step-by-step approach to identifying, quantifying and prioritizing data quality problems to answer critical questions about a customer's data.

Companies can also apply IQ Insight to source systems and target data environments to:

• Give development teams and business users the ability to audit, monitor and certify data quality at key points throughout the data integration lifecycle.
• Identify a wide range of data quality problems and business rule violations that can inhibit migration efforts and be costly to a company's business.
• Provide a foundation for a sound approach to the management of data in the business intelligence infrastructure, creating a rigorous, structured and repeatable process.
• Generate data quality metrics that can be used to gauge the financial return on an organization's investment in data quality improvement.
• Increase user confidence in the reliability of the target data for sound business decision-making.

Availability

Organizations interested in learning more about Firstlogic's IQ Insight, or the firm's comprehensive Information Quality Suite, should contact Firstlogic at 888-215-6442, (608-782-5000 outside the US), visit www.firstlogic.com or send email to information@firstlogic.com.

About Firstlogic

Firstlogic specializes in enterprise-wide information quality solutions and services for e-business, data warehousing, and print and mail applications. Firstlogic is recognized as the leading global provider of information quality tools that enhance and match business-critical information anywhere it is touched, stored, or moved across the enterprise. In addition to developing commercial solutions, Firstlogic partners with many systems integrators, consultants, and original equipment manufacturers to provide its unique technology to their end-user customers. Founded in 1984, Firstlogic today serves thousands of customers worldwide, including Fortune 1000 companies in the e-business, financial, insurance, healthcare, direct marketing, higher education, and telecommunications markets.

Contact Scott Humphrey, Humphrey Strategic Communications, 503-644-9709, humphrey@strategic-pr.com.