You want to use data to make business decisions, but is the information you need organized, readily available, and usable?
To make data-driven decisions, you need data that is secure, accurate, and accessible. The only way to achieve this is through data governance. A strong data governance framework gets your entire organization on the same page, so everyone knows where data is collected, stored, and managed.
What Is Data Governance?
Let’s start by looking at what data governance entails. Data governance is the process and procedure used to manage data through its lifecycle. The first step in a data governance program is defining what data means to your organization.
From there, you can build a framework that ensures your data is:
- Secure
- Accessible
- Accurate
- Consistent
- Organized
The overall goal is an organization where everyone has access to the data, knows how to use it, and understands who is in charge of it.
Improved Data Accuracy
One of the biggest inhibitors of using data is when you don’t trust it. If you’re not 100% sure the data is inaccurate, you won’t use it when making important decisions. Too often, businesses end up with inconsistent data making it hard to determine if it’s correct or not.
Data governance fixes this issue by creating a standard for your data. Your standardized data remains managed through its entire lifecycle — from collection to analysis. Above all, it ensures your data stays accurate and consistent throughout the process. No matter where you need to draw data from, you’ll trust your data.
Makes Data More Secure
Cybersecurity is more important than ever. Sloppy, unorganized data is a security risk. Without a data management process in place, you might not know when something goes wrong. Excessive unorganized data might also make it impossible to tell which data is legitimate or a security risk, leaving your employees, clients, and vendors vulnerable.
You can increase the security of your data through a governance framework. Data governance tools make it easier to monitor your data as it moves through your pipelines. Your system can alert you if something doesn’t look right, and that data can be examined and repaired before the data is compromised.
Eliminates Duplicate Data
Collecting and storing duplicate data costs your organization time and money. You’ll likely end up paying for extra data storage or data analytics software to manage the additional data. Meanwhile, your employees might waste time sifting through duplicate information. When you’re ready to analyze the data, you then run the risk of using the same data multiples times. Interpreting duplicate data could lead to inaccurate insights that end up hurting your business more than helping.
A solid governance framework accounts for each piece of data. Your insights will be more accurate since you won’t have to account for overlapping information. You’ll also save time and money by eliminating the need to sort through data and manually find and fix duplicates.
Removes Data Silos
Data silos create barriers between teams within your organization. Let’s say the sales team collects and stores one type of information. They use a particular platform for managing this data. On the other hand, the customer service team collects and stores different information on their preferred platform. These data silos could be holding the organization back from making better insights to improve the client experience.
You can use data governance to eliminate data silos, whether they’re departmental or technological. Your governance strategy should incorporate platforms and processes that work with each other for improved collaboration across your organization. These platforms and processes help remove data silos and make it easier for everyone to access and analyze data. The result is more powerful, data-based business decisions.
Reduces Data Management Costs
Reducing errors, duplicates, and security risks in your data also eliminates the cost of managing data. Having no governance plan in place means your team is less efficient. They’ll have to track down incorrect information, duplicate accounts, and potential threats. Any issues found will need to be fixed manually.
Properly managing data through a governance plan removes the time it takes to find and fix your data issues. Less time fixing errors means your organization is more efficient while wasting fewer resources. The fewer resources wasted, the less it costs to operate your data management program.
Risk Management and Compliance
Very few businesses operate in industries that don’t have some measure of regulations and oversight from governing bodies. With the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, businesses with clients who are residents of the European Union (EU) need to follow the data compliance guidelines. Even if you operate outside of the EU, your business should consider incorporating rules, processes, and protocols to stay in compliance and manage risks associated with not doing so.
Unorganized and ungoverned data could put you out of compliance with the GDPR or industry regulations, leaving you vulnerable to potential risks, including fines. The easiest way to stay up to date on current regulations is through data governance and risk management. Your governance framework allows you to manage data according to the latest guidelines. This allows your organization to be ready to adjust your data management procedures whenever new laws or regulations are introduced.
Learn More About Data Governance with 5P
Now that you understand the importance of data governance, how do you implement a governance framework? Most executives don’t have the time or data industry knowledge to design, build, and implement a new data management system from scratch.
Data governance and management consulting from 5P can help. We understand you need a solution that fits your needs and your budget. Let our experienced team analyze your existing strategies and look for ways to improve your systems. Learn more about data governance and how it could streamline your organization’s data in a free consultation today.
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Originally published December 5, 2020.