A data quality management framework for electronic customer relationship management systems: the case of MTN Uganda

Abstract

Data quality management in electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM) for telecommunication companies faces data management complexity such as diverse data sources, different data formats, and poor handling practices, among others. This has resulted in critical data management challenges and data errors such as incomplete or missing data, outdated information, and inaccurate transaction data, which have impacted business processes, customer retention, service delivery, and decision-making, and in the long run, the customer base and revenue. The study's main aim was to develop a data quality management framework to assist electronic customer relationship management. To further ground the research, a thorough literature review was conducted. The study used design science as an overarching methodology with a case study as an appropriate method to investigate the phenomenon at hand. The data was collected from 28 key stakeholders such as IT experts, data analysts, customer care specialists, and digital marketers within the MTN as the selected telecom of study in Uganda. Expert and critical case sampling techniques were used to select respondents to validate the framework. To test the applicability of the framework, a walkthrough and checklist method were used. The findings revealed a lack of top management support, poor data quality management skills among staff, limited and poor communication, inadequate training of staff, poor data quality governance and data inconsistences, lack of proper data quality policy documentation, variety of types, formats, data acquisition and validation, system failure and validity, data clean up and post-policy, as the main challenges affecting data quality in the telecommunication companies in Uganda.