Mastering Data Management

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It’s the time of year again for New Years’ resolutions.  Each year starts out

Achieving New Year's resolutions may hinge on data quality.

with pretty much the same list – things that I maintain pretty well over the first half of the year but seem to taper off as the year goes along.

• Get retirement investments aligned across my household
• Keep up to date with regular doctor and dentist checkups
• File my tax returns by Valentine’s Day

Seems like a pretty simple list – but this year brings an additional challenge.  In 2009, I was married and changed my last name and also changed health insurance providers.  From a data perspective, I would estimate that I exist 60% with my old name and 40% with my married name.  These are some of the challenges I expect to face:

• Needing to complete new medical history forms when I show up at my doctor’s office
• Requiring new insurance eligibility verification
• Receiving W-4 documents that to not align with my new married name on my tax return
• Not being able to receive my homeowner’s tax exemption because my home remains registered under my maiden name
• Having my 1099s not reflect all of my tax deductable investments because of mid-year name changes.

So my Christmas wish – is that any organization I need to interact with as I knock off my New Year’s resolutions this year - has a master data management application that can locate relevant information about me, regardless of my last name.

I need them to easily identify what I own, my history and where I deserve credit regardless of whether it is linked to my current name or my previous name.  It sure will make accomplishing the items on my list easier to do.

Has anyone else been through this? What other challenges should I be prepared for?