DataFlux launches Release 6.2

With the growing awareness of the importance of data quality, major data management companies are ramping up their real-time features and talking up the business value.

Last week, DataFlux, an SAS subsidiary, unveiled DataFlux Release 6.2 which will include real-time data monitoring, trend reporting, and e-mail alerts sent when data does not match a pre-existing data profile.

Trillium Software, a division of Harte-Hanks, incorporated data monitoring into its solution, Trillium Software Discovery Version 4, in February when it acquired Avelino Technology.

Although profiling data to uncover problems in the design stages of a project is common, the ongoing monitoring of data quality only became an issue when companies moved from data batch processing to the real-time accessing of data residing in data marts and data warehouses, according to Len Du Bois, vice president of marketing at Trillium.

As real-time access to data becomes a reality in the enterprise, it begins to serve more divisions within a company and having accurate data becomes essential to making informed business decisions.

"On a total, companywide basis, data is used to create business rules in terms of what the data means to a particular division. Data serves different purposes according to market forces. It is not static and you need to track these changes," said Robert Lerner, senior analyst at Current Analysis.

Data quality management is no longer about names and addresses, but it includes part numbers, product information, SKUs, and in biotech it could even be code numbers for specific genes, according to Lerner.

Although not every data quality management company has a monitoring tool, Ascential Software's Harald Smith, product manger of data profiling and analysis, says Ascential has used monitoring to cleanse data, track changes, and send alerts for approximately two years.

Two weeks ago, Ascential launched Version 7.5 of the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite, which includes Ascential ProfileStage, AuditStage, QualityStage, and DataStage.

Among the newer trends in data quality management is expanding the richness of corporate data by integrating it with additional external data.

"We license demographic data and geo data from the census bureau," said Scott Gidley, senior director of research and development at DataFlux.

Vendors are also incorporating unstructured data into data management suites.

Even a part description is incredibly free-form, because each manufacturer has a different way of understanding parts, according to Ascential's Smith.

"One of the things we are doing is taking technology components and embedding them into monitoring so you can get an understanding of changes in unstructured data," Smith said.