Senior managers are unable to evaluate the importance of data quality as it is difficult to assess its effect on income, it has been claimed.

In addition, the problem is further masked by the hard work done by IT contractors and data professionals to synchronise data and clean it up, according to online community resource Data Quality Pro.

"As a result it is not apparent to senior management as this activity is simply viewed as business as usual; there are often no reports or metrics created to highlight the issues," said Dylan Jones, founder and editor of the website.

It is this use of staff time on non-value adding activities that is most damaging to a company's bottom line, Mr Jones added.

According to the latest statistics from research practice Forbes Insights, poor quality data is costing large companies in excess of $5 million (£3.27 million) each year through operation faults and wasted man-hours.