What is one of the initial tasks in ensuring data quality during the consolidation process?

Defining quality standards is a crucial initial task in ensuring data quality during the consolidation process. Establishing these standards sets clear criteria and benchmarks for what constitutes high-quality data. This includes specifying attributes like accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness of the data. Having defined quality standards allows organizations to systematically assess the data against these criteria throughout the consolidation process. It informs all subsequent tasks, such as data cleansing and validation, and is vital for aligning the data with business needs and compliance requirements. By setting these standards early on, organizations can more effectively identify and address data quality issues as they arise.

While other tasks like implementing data quality checks or dealing with duplicates are important in the overall data quality management process, they typically come after the initial establishment of quality standards. Thus, defining these standards is foundational for guiding the entire consolidation effort.