Moving Past Business Obstacles With Data Governance
- By Kensuke Ishii, Talend
- June 08, 2023
In today's fast-paced and interconnected world, disruption abounds at every corner for businesses. Companies not only need to ensure that their output is functional, high quality, and efficient but must also ensure security to safeguard the confidence of partners and customers.
In Singapore, e-commerce customer complaints are on the rise, surging from 2,206 in 2021 to 2,530 in 2022, according to the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE). From missing items to failed deliveries and unmet customer expectations around products, protecting online consumer rights and promoting a safe shopping experience is not something to scoff at.
Organizations must take responsibility by creating risk-mitigation strategies to meet customers' needs and regulatory compliance. Data governance must be central to this, as it ensures each piece of information is of the highest quality, relevant to the business and secure from threats. They also provide clear guidelines on who can take what action, upon what data, in what situations, and with what methods.
Regardless of what focus or goals the organization wants to achieve, its data governance strategies must adhere to these six fundamental principles to ensure complete trust and confidence.
Defining the scope of data governance
Creating an effective strategy requires organizations to understand the data they possess. This includes taking stock of the nature of their data, its purpose, where it comes from, and where it is located. Simultaneously, they must identify which people are more likely to use which data. For example, sales teams will find data on customer feedback and purchase numbers more useful than IT to predict future demand.
Establishing policies and standards
The next step is to define and enforce rules and policies that ensure the data is kept secure and meets quality standards. Each company is different, meaning that executive-level decision-makers need to think about how they can align their strategies according to goals and objectives. For instance, critical data stored for an extended period, such as customer conversations or infrastructure performance, should be secured with an extra layer of authentication. This measure is essential to prevent them from being exposed to unapproved internal or external users.
Assigning roles and responsibilities
Three operatives primarily oversee the role of data governance. The first is data stewards, who manage each data point's quality while informing teams and stakeholders of their importance. In particular, data stewards can identify customer feedback and social media interactions that enable marketing teams to create engaging campaigns that maximize retention.
The second is data owners, who maintain accuracy and resolve issues of specific data domains. For example, finance directors may be the data owners of profit/loss statements and earnings reports. Lastly, data custodians are IT professionals who ensure that storage and security infrastructure remain robust. This function ensures that organizations stay compliant with local and global regulations and avoid ruinous penalties that can put them at the back of the pack.
Developing a data governance framework
When creating a data governance framework, executive-level decision-makers must consider the nature of the business, operations, and people involved in utilizing the data. They also need to assess the extent of controls needed based on how critical the data is to conducting operations. By getting both of these right, organizations can maintain the trustworthiness and security of the information they possess.
Implementing data governance processes and tools
Choosing the best data governance tools depends on the business benefits organizations want to achieve. Generally, they must empower employees to capture, manage, improve, and document data to understand internal processes or external developments better. Open source, scalable tools or cloud-based platforms provide a simplified and cost-efficient approach so that employees can focus on extracting the best outcomes from data.
Monitoring for continuous improvement
Even the most effective data governance strategies can encounter points of failure. When that happens, data retrieval becomes a struggle, and organizations face more significant risks of cyberattacks. For this reason, regular audits or KPI tracking are essential to prevent issues from escalating and even identify areas for improvement.
It is critical to remember that data governance is a maturity journey, a long-term one that progressively involves more stakeholders with time and which allows the business to modernize its data strategy.
Organizations looking to master the power of data should not treat governance as an optional addition but as a necessity. An effective framework for driving data operations allows users to harness insights easily to stay in control, mitigate risks, and drive business value. Ultimately, investing in data governance pays for itself, positioning organizations to improve efficiency and avoid losing millions in fines or losses from mistaken strategies.
Kensuke Ishii, a professional services consultant at Talend, wrote this article.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CDOTrends. Image credit: iStockphoto/ArtHead-