Foundational Data

Confident Decisions are Built on a Rock-Solid Foundation

What is Foundational Data and Why Do You Need It?

Foundational Data is data that you can rely on to make informed business decisions. Basic metrics such as Impressions Delivered to blended KPIs like Revenue per User need Foundational Data. Switchboard's data automation platform transforms raw data into Foundational Data. This enables you to make confident business decisions knowing your data is reliable and trustworthy.

Raw Data vs. Foundational Data

Raw data is just that—messy, chaotic, and disorganized. Foundational data is accessible and actionable—clean, verified, from multiple sources, easily queried in real time. It's always up to date and ready for analysis.

Omniture Raw Data

Omniture Foundational Data

Raw Data is Not Ready for Prime Time

Incomplete Data
Hiccups in vendor systems or networks can create gaps in data delivery. When key data isn't delivered as expected, results end up skewed

Corruption

Incorrect formats or errors in transmission result in incorrect or unreadable data. Corrupted data breaks existing workflows or damages previously pristine datasets

Duplicate Data
Correct data can be delivered more than once. Duplicate data, once ingested, can be especially difficult to detect and remove

Unmatchable Data
Keys to match across datasets can be mismatched. For example, a match for “LineItems” can be thrown off when one vendor formats the ID as “xxxx-xx-xxxx,” while another formats the same ID as “xxx-xxxx-xxx”

— Barry C., Head of Advertising Data Operations

The more we can use big data with Switchboard—from reporting in hours versus days, and eventually seconds versus hours—the closer we get to our vision of providing an unmatched information experience for our customers.

— VP of Digital