What is data cleansing and why is it important to your company?

Data cleansing, data cleaning, datawash or data scrubbing is the process of detecting and correcting (or removing) corrupt or inaccurate records from a record set, table or database.

Used mainly in databases, the term refers to identifying incomplete, incorrect, inaccurate, irrelevant, parts of the data and then replacing, modifying, or deleting this dirty data.”(Wikipedia)