he Hidden Cost of Duplicate Data: A CDO’s Perspective

The Hidden Cost of Duplicate Data: A CDO’s Perspective

In an increasingly data-driven business environment, information quality has become a strategic asset. However, many medium and large organizations continue to face fundamental issues such as duplicate and inconsistent records. For Chief Data Officers (CDOs), these challenges are no longer just technical matters—they represent risks that affect operational efficiency, decision-making, and institutional trust.

According to the MIT Sloan Management Review, companies can lose between 15% and 25% of their annual revenue due to poor data quality. This situation not only impacts financial results but also the customer experience and a company’s ability to adapt and compete.

The challenge of duplicates

Duplicate data appears when the same entity—customer, supplier, or product—shows up multiple times in different systems such as CRMs, ERPs, or legacy applications, without proper integration. This fragmentation prevents the construction of a single source of truth. Institutional studies like those published by Esri ArcNews highlight inconsistency between sources as one of the main obstacles to data quality, stemming from disconnected environments and misaligned processes.

These errors directly impact organizational trust. When different departments work with different versions of the same data, the information loses value, analysis processes slow down, and key initiatives like automation or the use of artificial intelligence are put at risk. Harvard Business Review has documented that many analysts spend up to 80% of their time searching for, cleaning, and preparing data before analyzing it.

Business impact

Duplicate records generate concrete and cross-functional consequences:

Financial loss: Poor data quality creates inefficiencies and errors that result in significant losses. IBM estimates this problem costs the U.S. economy over $3.1 trillion per year.
Operational inefficiency: Time spent on rework, validation, and manual reconciliation can represent up to 27% of the workday in many organizations.
Customer experience: 73% of companies acknowledge that inaccurate data negatively affects user experience, according to a global report by Experian.
Regulatory risk: Under regulations such as GDPR or data protection laws in Latin America, duplicate data complicates compliance and increases the risk of penalties and failed audits.

A case that highlights the problem

A telecommunications company discovered thousands of duplicate customer profiles across different systems. As a result, many users started receiving duplicate invoices for the same service. This led to a sharp increase in complaints, a drop in customer trust, and significant losses due to cancellations and rework. The company implemented a Master Data Management (MDM) strategy along with specialized deduplication tools. In just a few months, it reduced errors, regained efficiency, and restored trust in its database.

From problem to solution: the role of technology

Faced with this scenario, data leaders need more than awareness of the problem: they need concrete tools that tackle the root cause of duplication and ensure trustworthy decisions. Automating the detection, comparison, and consolidation of records is now essential to healthy data.

There are platforms that allow these practices to be implemented quickly and with minimal manual intervention. For example, the data matching module of Conciliac IDM integrates with APIs, databases, and files to identify duplicates and consolidate them into a single record. The solution includes artificial intelligence to suggest complex matches and generate reconciliation rules with greater speed and accuracy. This enables organizations to handle large volumes of information without losing control or reliability.

In addition, organizations like the OECD have highlighted that good data governance—based on quality, traceability, and consistency—is key to improving productivity and competitiveness in both the public and private sectors. Data quality, far from being a technical detail, has become a strategic advantage.

As operational complexity and data volumes grow, having a clear strategy and specialized tools becomes increasingly urgent. Organizations that work with clean, unique, and up-to-date information make better decisions, respond faster to the market, and minimize regulatory risks.

If your organization is facing any of these challenges, or if you want to learn how a smart platform can help you solve them, we invite you to request a demo. Discover how to turn your data into a real and measurable advantage.

Sources

Let's talk info@conciliac.com