Sometimes, the thought of sorting through thousands of client listings to find duplicates or outdated addresses can seem like more trouble than it's worth. Yet the only possible outcome of putting the project off and burying your head in the sand is a problem that festers and gets even more difficult to contain.

James Standen writes on Datamartist that delaying an address standardization project or other data cleansing program may seem tempting, but making the excuse that there are simply not enough people to run the tests or verify contacts can be dangerous. It's better to just do it.

"Rather than worrying about how much of your data you are going to be able to cover, or that you can't devote enough resources to tackle all of your reference areas at once, work at the problem from another direction," Standen says.

He also suggests that those running the project take some time to agree on what pieces of data are the most important, such as an account chart or customer addresses.

For instance, contact data quality would be a main priority for a company that relies heavily on its client relationships. "If you have lots of interaction with your customers, and errors in the customer master cost you business, then start with that," Standen advises.