Data Glossary

Data privacy is the safe and secure storage of information free from unauthorized observation and use.

Data standardization is the process of applying an accepted rule or guideline for the correct format, storage, use, and management of data.

Malformed data is data that cannot be used in the course of business operations due to one or more errors. Examples of malformed data are: Email addresses Missing username (e.g.   @sampledomain.com) Bad syntax (no @ sign or top-level domain (e.g...

Data deduplication is the process of removing copies of existing data from your database.

A winner rule is an automated set of criteria used in the DemandTools Dedupe module that, when applied, defines which record is the most up to date and should remain in your CRM after merging duplicate records. 

Data mining is the process of exploring and analyzing large volumes of data to identify useful patterns and trends.

Data security is the process and procedures put in place to protect an organization’s data and digital information from unauthorized access, corruption and/or distribution through each stage of its lifecycle. Data security encompasses every level ...

Data migration is the process of transferring data from one system to another. Migrating your data typically occurs due to: Replacement of legacy software systems Storage system capacity expansion Implementation of a new system to work with an e...

Data purging is the process of permanently deleting data that is obsolete or unnecessary to your business.

Data loss prevention is a security strategy that directs human and technology resources to detect and prevent the unauthorized transmission of sensitive or confidential data outside of an organization.  

PII is any information that can verify or be traced to the identity of an individual. For example: Name Home address Phone number Credit card number Email address

What is a cookie? A cookie is a small text file stored in a web browser and is used to create personalized experiences on a specific website or targeted advertising on the internet. The information stored in a cookie is typically not personal and ...

Lower case is a letter or text written without capitalization. For example: a lower case

Upper case is a capitalized letter or text. For example: U UPPER CASE

ANSI is a North American member-based agency that provides a framework and neutral setting to public and private organizations for the purpose of developing voluntary industry rules and guidelines that help foster safety, quality, innovation, and ...

The ISO is an international member-based agency that develops voluntary industry and technology rules and guidelines that help foster safety, quality, and innovation.

A data lake is a centralized storage repository for large quantities of unprocessed structured or unstructured data.

A naming convention is a set of agreed upon guidelines or standards to name your files or data in order to describe what they are and how they relate to each other. For example, you decide to name all project documentation with the following descr...

Data hoarding is the excessive collection and storage of data and an unwillingness to delete data that no longer has value.

A sales cycle is a series of steps taken to sell a product or service. The number of steps may vary based on the organization and other factors, but generally include: Initial contact Qualifying a lead to ensure they are a good fit for your produ...

A sales pipeline is a method of tracking sales opportunities as prospects move through the different stages of the sales process. It allows a company to forecast revenue, see new sales opportunities, identify stalled sales opportunities, and track...

Missing data occurs when there isn't a value stored in the database field for a given CRM object. Missing important data such as billing addresses, email addresses and phone numbers disrupt the sales and marketing process and can lead to a poor cu...

Data masking is a security technique used to protect sensitive data from unauthorized users by replacing real data with fake data. For example, you create a test database for a third-party software consultant that contains customer information suc...

Multi-factor authentication is a security method that requires more than one form of credentials in order to validate a user's identity and grant access to an application.

Data maintenance is the process of identifying and correcting data that doesn't comply with internal data standards with the goal of improving overall data quality.

A database schema describes the organization and structure of data to show the relationships between data and how the data is stored.

Data decay is the gradual decrease in CRM data quality over time due to changes in account and contact information. Data decay reduces sales and marketing effectiveness and may cause a bad customer experience due to disrupted communication. Exampl...

Data profiling is the process of sorting through your data to examine, analyze and summarize it into a high-level overview. Through this process, your company can identify any potential data errors, such as missing values, duplicated records, unus...

Dark data is all of the data acquired from various sources but not used by your organization.

Lead segmentation is the process of dividing up leads into groups that share similar characteristics. It allows a marketer to deliver more personalized, targeted content based on those shared characteristics and move leads down the sales funnel mo...