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• The Role of Data Integrity and Information Systems Reliability on an Organization’s Success

  Introduction

  Today’s companies and organizations have the ability to gather more information/data than ever before. Data has been demonstrated to be a very powerful instrument, if accurate, to businesses because organizations make choices based upon real-time information/data (Li et al., 2019). Crucial in the success of modern organizations are data integrity and information systems reliability. Data integrity refers to the maintenance of and assurance of the consistency and accuracy of data across its entire lifecycle (Dong et al., 2018). Data integrity is crucial to assessing trustworthy and reliable information since making data-propelled business choices based on corrupt data can lead to serious implications for a business’s future (Li et al., 2019). Just fixing a data integrity issue can result in reduced downtime, improved troubleshooting time, as well as better utilization of information for better decision-making in a business (Dong et al., 2018). Similarly, nearly all businesses operate some form of information systems (IS). The reliability of IS is a crucial factor that influences businesses’ competitive advantage. It also affects businesses’ operations, as well as their capability to effectively compete in the marketplace since it has the potential of affecting customers’ satisfaction (Yan et al., 2019). This paper critically analyzes the nature of data integrity and IS reliability to the success of an organization.

  Data Integrity and Business Success

  According to Sun et al. (2020), without data integrity, a business’ information is best a diminished resource, and at worst, could be a hindrance to the business’ success. This informs why various businesses endeavor to employ strategies to avert the potential dangers of data integrity and IS reliability issues. There are two main types of data integrity. First is physical integrity, which relates to the protection of a business’ data as it is used, stored, and moved between applications (Tworek & Liu, 2018). The second is logical integrity, which includes design flaws, software bugs, and human error (Li et al., 2019).

  Data integrity is crucial to the success of businesses for a number of reasons.  First, data integrity functions to ensure search-ability and recoverability, connectivity, and traceability (Garg et al., 2020). Protecting the accuracy and validity of data equally increases a business’ performance and stability while bettering maintainability and reusability (Dong et al., 2018). Yan et al. (2019) note that data integrity improves customer interactions. Collecting data is a vital part of present-day customer relations; through the gathered data, for example, a business can track their various customers’ behaviors, gather email addresses, conduct surveys, as well as observe several metrics that can better customer satisfaction and relationships (Dwivedi et al., 2015).

  The reliability of a business’ data system is, therefore, very critical in ensuring that the information gathered is reliable. When information is inconsistent or inaccurate, businesses lose the edge that often accompanies having all that information since they will not be able to make crucial decisions that positively influence customer relationships or even make poor decisions based upon erroneous data (Tworek & Liu, 2018). Sun et al. (2020) add that data integrity enables a business to deliver robust customer experiences that are individualized to every customer, trust the data in their apps, maximize their return on investment (ROI) with pertinent data intuitions, make the most educated business choices, and have faith in their reporting, and avoid money wastage on storage for poor data quality.

  Additionally, data integrity is crucial to businesses since the corruption of a business’ data would negatively affect the data’s usability and value (Yan et al., 2019). For instance, unintentionally altered application codes would hamper the application’s function and if systems logs are inconsistent and inaccurate would make it impossible to detect system changes and intrusions. According to Guo et al. (2018), when data integrity is not upheld, a lot of time is often lost in fixing the errors, leading to a company’s brand and image being put at risk, and its relationship with stakeholders and partners is severed.

  Further, data integrity is important to system integration management (SIM). System integration refers to the process of merging various information technology (IT) applications and systems to function as a coordinated unity. System integration enables a business’ operations to be more innovative and agile, increase worth both to the business and its customers by bettering performance and product quality, increase customer satisfaction, enhance response time, and minimize operational costs (Guo et al., 2018). Most legacy systems, according to Dwivedi et al., 2015), are not able to cope with the volume and type of data that comes from various sources in present-day’ system architecture. Data sources and types are increasingly becoming unstructured and complex. Traditional systems for managing data quality are not sufficiently sophisticated to handle such data. For this reason, system integration is crucial to businesses today. Consequently, businesses are forced to undergo a digital transformation or they are left behind. New and existing systems need to integrate to ensure there is operational business efficiency. Data integrity is crucial during the integration process because it secures and guarantees the traceability and search-ability of a business’ data to its traditional source (Tworek & Liu, 2018). Additionally, stability and data performance also rise when a business ensures its data are protected and accurate.

  Data integrity is also crucial to the success of a business since it assures that data can only be modified or accessed by authorized persons. Sun et al. (2020) note that businesses ensure their data integrity by regulating their physical environments of networked servers and terminals, restricting data access, and practicing rigorous authentication practices. By executing the above and other measures, businesses ensure the privacy and safety of their customers and increase their customers’ confidence to use their online tools and apps and this helps in increasing businesses within the digital economy. Moreover, data integrity assists to safeguard data from end-to-end transfer over distribution media.

  IS Reliability and Business Success

  To run a successful business, a business requires quality IS to process all the statistics and data, both organizational and financial. One of the threats to data integrity is human errors. Tworek and Liu (2018) reason that to minimize human errors and maximize work efficiency within an organization, which are the crucial objectives of any business owner, the organization needs a superb IS that is capable of providing the needed data in the shortest convenient time. There are several ways in which IS aid the success of a business. First is organized data. A great organization of data is important for any organization trying to be successful. With a robust IS, a business will be organized, able to quickly come up with solutions, and make quicker decisions under any condition (Dwivedi et al., 2015).  A business’s staff will be able to manage all their business’ data and better the execution of their business’ processes.

  Second, IS are crucial to business success since they allow a business’s management to perceive the organization’s future.  Any business manager seeking improvement to institute a broader viewpoint of their business with the assistance of a great IS. IS can track the complete business in an organization and allow for an easier technique of assessing independent processes (Reddy & Prakash, 2019). These processes, according to Garg et al. (2020), comprise organized work activities, knowledge, and information to yield worthy services and products. A business can hardly compete with other successful ones without having a well-coordinated and organized IS.  By integrating an IS in a business, the business reduces the amount of money and time that would otherwise be spent on unnecessary activities by putting a business’ focus upon the main business objectives.

  Thirdly, IS are convenient in terms of data storage. Manual saving of data costs businesses a lot of time and searching for particular information can be tedious and time-consuming (Reddy & Prakash, 2019). A quality IS groups a business’ data by time and date, making the process of searching for specific data convenient.  Additionally, by using a high-quality IS, a company can quickly and conveniently analyze their stocks and see their previous performance so that they can forecast a possible crisis (Guo et al., 2018). IS keeps track of a company’s profits and margins so that the company can have the information needed for assessing and preventing a crisis.

  IS also makes decision making easier and faster. Without an IS, the decision-making process of a company can take a lot of energy and time. Garg et al. (2020) maintain that business success is founded upon quality decisions and strategic plans made by the business’ management. A business can use the IS to design its strategic plan and make educated decisions concerning the business’ next appropriate steps. By assessing a company’s data from all sources, IS is capable of coming up with the best inferences concerning the general economy, and suggest the steps that should be taken.

  Conclusion

  This paper has demonstrated that data integrity and IS reliability are crucial to the success of a business’ success. When data integrity is upheld, time-wasting is minimized, brand and reputation are improved, and relationships with stakeholders and partners are enhanced. Corrupted or compromised data can result in fatal implications for a business since corrupted data losses its usability and value. Moreover, data integrity and IS reliability enhances interactions and relationships between businesses and customers. Lastly, IS reliability and data integrity ensures customers’ privacy and safety, increases their confidence to use business’ digital apps, and assists in safeguarding data from end-to-end transfer over distribution channels. These benefits enhance the chances of business success.