Outsourced data cleansing and validation within database marketing outsourcing

Data cleansing and validation outsourcing are subsets of the broad field of database marketing outsourcing. Database marketing outsourcing is marketing through the integration of various marketing channels such as the web, social media, catalogue and in-store sales, to help retail companies achieve better targeted campaigns to a chosen audience. Aside from outsourced data cleansing and validation, database marketing outsourcing also covers data mining, analytics and reporting; data licensing; campaign management, and many more processes.

Data cleansing is identified by many terms. It is also known as data scrubbing, data cleaning, database cleansing, and other permutations. Data cleansing refers to correcting, updating, refreshing, adding or even enriching information in a database by removing data that is incomplete, duplicated, out-of-date or incorrectly formatted. The outsourcing provider has its data collection agents making calls or doing web-based research to solicit up-to-date, comprehensive and accurate information. This process is usually a form of market research to extract and collect basic contact information as well as consumer or customer demographics, preferences, buying habits, needs, wants and other data to facilitate identification of potential markets, and factors that can influence demand for products and services, and assist a business to determine its position in the market.

As the data is being cleansed, it will also be validated. Validation means to verify, match and bring consistency to sets of compiled data, based on the clients’ business requirements. Validation may be performed manually or by using software. Data validation outsourcing is not as simple as it sounds. It also includes designing and developing the data validation plan to root out inconsistencies and missing data. A sound quality assurance process must be in place for data validation to be effective.

The more advanced form of data validation outsourcing is not merely a facet of database marketing outsourcing, but is used in the field of clinical data management where statistical analysis is done on instrumental and market research data. Data validation outsourcing specialists would need skills and knowledge in statistics and advanced software, as well as in the medical industry.