What's the difference between PDQ and CDQ?

Customer data deals solely with customer information such as names, addresses, and social security numbers. Customer data fields always have common characteristics (such as name, address, etc) describing the customer. Moreover, because the data is usually based on a reference directory, it is easy to verify.

Sample Customer Data

ID	First Name	Second Name	Street	No.	City	State/ County	Country	Zip	Phone
2347811	David	Shannon	Lomb Memorial Drive	85	Rochester	NY	USA	14623-5603	1-585-475-7892

The problems caused by incorrect customer data are obvious: Direct mail doesn't reach its destination, customer billing goes undelivered, and millions of dollars are wasted annually. By contrast, incorrect product data can be hard to identify and even harder to rectify.

Product data describes the product features and specifications, which vary greatly from product to product and from category to category. The descriptions are frequently inaccurate, unclear, and inconsistent, making it very difficult to identify the same or similar products. For example, the product descriptions below from a global company’s purchasing departments located in Korea, Israel, the United States, and Germany actually describe the same product, an Allen screw.

1. DIN 912 10x1x30-2.9 mat304
2. ALLEN SCR M10x30 stainless steel
3. SOCKET BOLT M10x1 LG30 SS
4. M10x1mmx30mm SHCS-SS

What makes product data more complex to handle?