Ensuring firms produce high-quality data will be a key requirement for IT contractors in 2010, according to a data community website.

There is a direct link between the quality of data a company uses and the service it provides, according to Dylan Jones, founder and editor of Data Quality Pro.

IT software which deals with data integration and data quality will be the most sought after in 2010, according to IT research and advisory firm Gartner.

Badly designed systems, lack of adequate training for staff and changes in business practices that are not reflected in the underlying data stores are just some of the reasons that data quality can be degraded, Mr Jones claims.

"However, there is one constant - organisations that fail to implement a data quality management strategy are guaranteed to experience degradation of data quality," Mr Jones said.

According to data quality solutions provider Datactics, there is often a knowledge gap between senior management and the real condition of data in quality terms.