Judy Windle Sunflower Systems How to Clean Up Your Property Data: From Plan to Execution

Purpose To describe how to address data cleanup challenges To present steps required to effectively plan and clean up property data To review an Asset Catalog example To describe how to maintain clean, consistent data

Overview Understand how to achieve the following cleanup steps:  Address the challenge  Create a plan  Execute and Manage  Maintain policies and procedures Keeping data accurate, consistent and reportable is the key to success!!

Address the Challenge Begin with the following suggested questions:  Is there one, centralized office driving polices, procedures and guidance on how to manage and track property?  Do the property managers and custodians understand the importance of entering clean, precise data into a property management system? Are they motivated?  What are the weaknesses of your property management system?

Address the Challenge “If you take care of the small things, the big things will take care of themselves.” Lets focus on the weaknesses… Step 1: Recognize the need for data cleanup Step 2: Understand the importance of a cleanup effort Step 3: Identify the cause behind the inconsistencies

Create a Plan Step 1: Assign one, centralized office or person to lead the cleanup effort Step 2: Establish uniform naming conventions  This will drive consistency and accuracy Step 3: Develop training and education processes  Train and re-train users on how to use the system properly  Educate users on the new or updated naming conventions  Plan weekly, for example, meetings with system users to discuss concerns, questions, ideas, etc.

Create a Plan cont. Step 4: Prepare to analyze the data  Assign resources  Understand the amount of data you may have to clean up  Plan how to organize the data Step 5: Define the scope  Determine the number of users that need to be trained on the system and educated on the new naming conventions  Decide what problem area (s) you want to focus on (if not all)  Define a timeframe

Create a Plan cont. Step 6: Document…Document…Document  Document the following:  The centralized office or person leading the effort  Naming convention (s) or guidance (e.g. ASTM standards)  Training and education processes and manuals Determine where the manuals can be found Determine who will train and what users (in general) Training schedules Weekly meeting platform

Create a Plan cont.  Document cont.  Scope involved to implement the cleanup Why conduct a cleanup effort What problem areas and how much [data] The amount of time expected Anticipated risks and assumptions  Approach Who is carrying out the effort How to analyze the data How to execute the cleanup process  Maintenance Strategy How to keep data intact Who will update all of the above

Execute: The Cleanup Step 1: Complete all steps in the “Create a Plan” phase Step 2: Once the plan is documented, start to train and educate users as the cleanup effort begins Step 3: Analyze the data  If limited resources are available, focus on one problem area at a time  Assuming a technical resource is available, multiple queries should be run organizing data into categories (e.g. asset catalog, accountability, locations, etc.)

Execute: The Cleanup cont. Step 4: Execute the cleanup  Once all categories are organized and broken down into elements or levels, it is time to clean up  Key steps to follow:  Eliminate duplicate entries  Correct misspellings  Adjust entries to reflect new naming convention  Map asset records to correct entries

Execute: The Cleanup cont. Step 5: Wrap up!  Re-run all queries  Review categories along with each level  Make adjustments and correct discrepancies  Repeat until desired outcome is achieved

Asset Catalog  Cleanup category example: Asset Catalog  What is an asset catalog? The metadata below are suggestions and are not limited to the following:  Core data elements: Manufacturer Model Number Model Name Description

Asset Catalog  Additional data elements to consider: Federal Supply Classification (FSC) Part number Stock Number Unit of measure

Asset Catalog Asset Catalog Cleanup  Manufacturer :  Eliminate all duplicates and correct misspelled manufacturers  Map all assets to the correct manufacturer HEWLETT PACKARD HEWLETT-PACKARD HP HEWLETT PACKERD HEWLET PAC HPC HPACKARD HEWLETT PACKHARD

Asset Catalog Asset Catalog Cleanup  Model Number/Name:  Eliminate all duplicate entries specific to each manufacturer  Correct inaccurate entries to follow the naming convention

Asset Catalog Asset Catalog Cleanup  Model Number/Name cont.:  Decide if the model number column or field should include the model name (e.g. Latitude E4310 or E4310)  Model name can be included in a additional field or column  Map all assets reflecting eliminated models to the correct models

Asset Catalog Asset Catalog Cleanup  Description:  Eliminate all duplicates, misspellings and “like” entries  Decide if the common denominator should be labeled first  Map assets to the correct description  Federal Supply Classification (FSC)  Correct all FSC discrepancies  In general, the same descriptions should have the same FSCs

Maintain  Lessons learned  Knowledge transfer  Continue to train system users  Continue to educate and enforce naming conventions  Consider list of value data fields  Continue to host weekly meetings  Run queries on an annual basis (for example)

Summary Understand the BIG picture Balance structure, flexibility and usability of the system Property data should be…  Descriptive  Standard  Reportable Review  Address the Challenge  Create a Plan  Execute and Manage  Maintain

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