TO THE BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL
Gaining consistency in your data would be easy if the world never changed. But corporations are constantly in motion. Products, customers, and assets are changing and expanding their identity all the time. As your organization adds applications and data sources to automate processes, you also begin to find that these data systems don’t really talk to each other. This means while one system may have an updated address, your others likely don’t have the updated information. This can get incredibly frustrating and begin to affect your processes and your organizations strategic relationships.
The focus of a Data Governance Program is to gain both consistency and synchronization of your data. Accomplishing this requires a multifaceted approach which is overseen by a Data Governance Council. With Intricity’s guidance this Council can begin an evolution of your organizations data starting with quick wins and then moving to full mechanization of the data management process; putting you in control of your data’s consistency and synchronization with a world in motion.
Data Governance is not just building a golden record. It also encapsulates the entire lifecycle of your data and it's security. This includes setting standards on when it becomes archived, or deleted. Also a fundamental understanding of who has access to data and how to keep your sensitive data from those that should not see it.
TO THE TECHNICAL PROFESSIONAL
If there is any data initiative that cannot see success without business ownership, Data Governance and Master Data Management is it. This is because we really start needing to understand what the data is rather than just understanding where it is. And the only people that know what it represents are the people that created it. While Master Data Management requires true technical prowess, you will fail if it becomes IT’s pet project.
Information Lifecycle Management is no different, as it requires Business Users to set ground rules on data retention and security. This is commonly a topic that business users are unsure about right off the bat. However, the risks of unsecured data and the costs of not retiring production data more than compensate the effort.
INTRICITY'S CONTRIBUTION
Businesses need to understand the value and return on implementing a Data Governance, Master Data Management, and Information Lifecycle Management Program. Hence, Intricity commonly starts with a Value Assessment, building a picture around the impact to the business and it's investment payback. Once the Business is fully behind the effort, Intricity plans a roadmap for transforming the organizations data consistency and synchronization.
This starts with a focused understanding of a subject matter that the organization is seeking to govern. These subjects can be related to Customer, Product, Asset, Supplier, or any subject matter which the organization tracks. In this process, Intricity also assists its clients in generating a Data Governance Council which can ensure Business ownership over the long run. At first, the Data Governance tasks may be process oriented and manual in nature for quick wins. However, over the long run the focus of the Data Governance program is to mechanize and automate the manual processes that go into fixing inconsistencies, securing data, and reducing infrastructure costs. This means implementing Master Data Management and Information Lifecycle Management applications that can interface with the Data Governance members and Data Stewards to speed up the capturing and fixing of inconsistencies, as well as simplify data ownership requirements. This transforms the organization by putting them ahead of the curve of it's constantly changing data. Often external data suppliers will act as an effective mechanism for validating and extending the data.
The establishment of an Intricity Data Governance Program creates an effective framework for conducting long term data consistency within an organization.
