Data governance

What is data governance and why should you care about it?

Data governance is a term mostly used to describe the internal policies and data standards in place to ensure data availability and integrity. Although this is the common understanding, data governance should not be recognised solely as a controlling body ensuring policies are followed. Instead, it can be considered as a business enabler continuously improving the quality of data available, which will lead to a competitive advantage since modern organisations all rely on data. Through a sound data governance practice, organisations can improve and maintain the data quality of master data over time, leading to more efficient business processes. This recognition is reflected in companies with a strong focus on data, which has introduced data governance alongside master data management as an essential part of the enterprise data management strategy.

Why is data governance important?

Companies around the world have already started their journey towards data-driven decision-making and automation. The reason for this drive is that some major companies have developed competitive advantages from managing their data considerably better than their competitors. This is why we are seeing a spike in the number of companies with the aspiration of being data driven across all industries. One of the first steps towards becoming an industry leader in the field of data is to build a strong data governance setup that will build data capabilities. Therefore, it is essential that data governance is framed as an enterprise must-win battle and not an IT issue.

How do you get started?

Since data governance is a hot topic, there are a multitude of approaches and guides on how to build a data governance framework; however, translating these to your business context can be challenging. At Implement, we recognise that all business and process improvements grow out of a change in behaviour in the organisation. This means that any data governance project must start with managing the change in mindset and behaviour needed to build a successful data governance framework.

A big challenge is to prioritise and focus the approach when taking the first steps on this journey. This is where an outside-in perspective can be very valuable and where Implement can help. We have extensive experience in designing the approach to delivering impact fast. Therefore, we are offering companies to sit down with two data governance SMEs for the price of one for half a day to help you get started on this journey. We will help you focus on the areas where the most impact can be achieved in the fastest possible time.