Sound Data Governance leads to more sales and fewer costs

What is it and how do you tackle it?

In any digital implementation project, Data is on the agenda.

"Whether it's a new ERP, CRM or APQ, my advice to any organization is not to leave the topic of 'Data' until the time when you start effectively transferring data from the old to the new system.

Start early and ask yourself questions like: What about the quality of our data? How do we guard that quality? Which system is the Master, which is the Slave? Are we taking all the data to the new system? What data do we throw away?" said Kathleen, Senior Project Manager at Mentor and Men.

An implementation project is a huge opportunity to consciously reflect on how you handle data as a company. In other words, an opportunity to put Data Governance under the microscope. Organizations would do well to seize that opportunity because:

Right data leads to more sales
Companies with quality data operate more cost-efficiently
Organizations that combine strong data smartly are more innovative

Handling data in a thoughtful way makes the difference between leaders, followers and dropouts.

‘There is never time to do it first-time-right, but there is always time to do it twice’,

Alex Leigh, Data Strategist

So what does that mean 'Reflecting on how you handle data in your organisation?' You can start by asking yourself the following questions.

Is our data unique, complete, always up-to-date, accurate, substantively correct, complete and valid?
Is my data set up and configured so that we can aggregate, combine and analyse data from different sources, with the aim of making better decisions.
Am I aware enough of the risks around data? Is our data protected enough against those risks? Think loss of data or data falling into the wrong hands resulting in unauthorised use or misuse.
Is there a logical structure in my data? Are relationships between data clear? How does data move through my business, from source to destination? When modelling data, always start from the layout of what is called the conceptual model. This is a visual representation of the roles and entities in your organisation, how they interact and what hierarchy they have among themselves. Such a conceptual model helps to better understand data, databases and data flows.

‘Good decisions made on bad data are just bad decisions you don’t know about yet’,

Scott Tayler, The Data Whisperer

If you engage with these questions, then you are consciously working on your company's Data Governance. Data Governance, that is all activities revolving around the management of data in your company. Get to work on it, because handling data in a well-considered way makes the difference today between leaders, followers and losers.

Is your company on the eve of a digital business transformation? Or are you in the middle of it and are things going wrong with data and data governance?

Be sure to check out this article: 7 Questions to assess your company's data maturity