People are the most critical asset of any business. The second most important asset is data. Data governance ensures that this data is usable and accessible, as it encourages enterprises to treat data as a tool for identifying customer behaviour trends and cost-saving activities.
Using data governance effectively leads to better data analytics, business decision-making, and operational support. It also helps avoid inconsistencies or errors in data, which can lead to various business problems. A decision based on bad data is a wrong decision that could easily have been avoided.
Data governance also plays a vital role in regulatory compliance, as it helps businesses comply with all relevant regulatory requirements. This is critical to avoid being slapped with a hefty fine for non-compliance.
The return on investment (ROI) is there when it comes to data governance, as good data governance leads to a decrease in data costs, an improvement in data quality and an increase in access to good data for all stakeholders.
What makes up a robust data governance strategy?
The benefits of a robust data governance strategy should be clear by now, but there are certain things you should keep in mind when implementing one in your business.
Individual businesses will have unique data governance strategies, there is not a one-size-fits-all model, but there are three key objectives that they all share:
- Compliance with all regulatory requirements must be kept in mind throughout all development and implementation phases.
- Ensuring all data is used correctly prevents personal/sensitive data misuse.
- Improvement of data security. A key objective of data governance is ensuring all data is kept secure, and there is no unauthorised access.
When creating a data governance strategy for your business and keeping these three objectives in mind, you should also consider your “why.” Why is your business choosing to implement a data governance strategy?
Why is it important to understand why?
The most important reason you need to understand why your business is implementing a data governance strategy is that it will help to guide your strategy within your organisation.
It is not enough to communicate to all stakeholders that you should have a strategy; you should be able to explain clearly why it is also essential. People need to know and understand the “why” to buy into any change management programme.
Some reasons why you might adopt a data governance strategy
Some of the reasons why a business might choose to implement a data governance strategy include the following:
- Be compliant with regulatory requirements – organisations with data governance policies are more likely to have the processes to control data and ensure all regulations are met.
- Breaking down data and people silos – good data governance practices not only help with sharing insights and eliminating data silos but also improve collaboration and fuel better decision-making across the board.
- Creating the foundation for a data-driven organisation – data-savvy companies are more likely to grow and succeed than those operating in a data silo.
- Improvement of data quality – having a company-wide data governance policy in place allows all users to measure, monitor and improve the data quality dimensions that are relevant to them.
Data is constantly changing, as our business needs. Data governance and related policies must also change to match the organisation’s needs.
If you want to add more value to your business with a strong data governance team or are looking for data governance jobs, don’t hesitate to contact the experienced cloud and data recruitment team at Agile Recruit.
