Some say data is a company’s greatest asset. People aren’t the most valuable resource. Data governance ensures accessible, secure, usable data. It identifies trends, cost savings, behaviors, etc.
Data governance improves data analytics. This improves decision-making and operations. Data governance reduces inconsistencies. Poor data quality, bad decisions, and other issues can result. A bad decision starts a train wreck. Unavoidable train crash.
Regulatory compliance requires data governance. This helps companies meet requirements and reduce risks. It improves data quality, reduces data management costs, and increases data accessibility. This improves business decision-making. ROI is good.
Strong Data Governance Strategy
While it is clear that strong data governance will have many benefits, there are specific organizational objectives that you need to consider when creating and implementing one. Every organization is unique.
However, there are some key points to remember when you develop and implement your data governance plan.
A Few Key Objectives Are
- Data accuracy and use: This prevents data errors and sensitive data misuse. Clear data usage policies and effective monitoring and enforcement are needed to achieve this goal. Technical and business metadata should be well-defined.
- Meet all regulations: Data governance should follow this rule. Throughout development and execution, remember this.
- Privacy: Data governance ensures data security and prevents unauthorized access.
Consider these goals when creating and implementing a data governance framework. Consider other company goals. This creates your organization’s ‘why.’ Why implement Data Governance? This, along with change management and data governance, will drive your initiative. Your initiative will become a program.
Understanding “Why” Is Important
Knowing why your company is implementing Data Governance is crucial. You must know the ‘why’ to guide your data management and change management strategies. Knowing your company needs good data governance isn’t enough. Everyone must understand what good data governance entails. If nobody understands the ‘why,’ the initiative could fail.
Numerous organizations have built excellent data governance structures for businesses. Many of these frameworks failed because they ignored culture change. Everyone involved in the implementation must believe it can succeed. If you don’t address culture change early on, you won’t be able to manage your data and realize its value.
Potential Whys’
Although data governance will not be implemented by every company for the same reasons, there’s a common set of ‘whys’ that will provide stakeholders with a starting point to create a data-driven culture.
Establishing a data-driven organization
Data governance is the key to creating an organization that makes decisions based on reliable data. Companies with data expertise are more likely to grow than those that continue to operate from data silos.
Compliance With Regulatory Requirements
Data governance allows companies to ensure that they have clear control over data. It also aligns with pre-established business rules for compliance and privacy. Data governance ensures that organizations have data control processes and comply with data privacy regulations. This makes compliance easier and prevents costly fines.
Improving Quality
Many times, people who input data in large organizations aren’t aware of the quality requirements of data users or the different business processes. Data users can improve the quality of their data by creating a company-wide data governance plan with clearly defined roles.
Unlocks Data and People Silos
Data governance assists with the organization and mapping out of institutions’ data. It also ensures that organizations have more control over the data being gathered throughout their organization. This allows data professionals to share information and eliminate data silos. Proper data governance training and collaboration across departments foster greater insights, improve decisions, and promote data-centric cultures.
Provides An Understanding And Control Of How Data Is Used
Data governance enables users to analyze data usage, troubleshoot problems, and prevent data breaches. Companies that have greater data visibility will be more likely to grow, as we’ve discussed.
Data governance should move with your business. Data changes constantly, and so do business demands.
Data governance should adapt to the business’s needs. Data governance is flexible and adaptable to your business. It will continue to bring value. While companies may struggle to achieve it, all companies can succeed by changing the way they think about data governance.
