Getting the first data governance use case for your business
If you are already aware of the necessities and implications of a stable data governance framework, you are a part of a small club. Many businesses have just been introduced to the concept of data governance and hardly have a clue. This does not come as a surprise, because governance has hardly even been directly associated with sales or product development.
Nevertheless, be it the data regulations or the increasing amount of data being fluxed in every moment, data governance has earned a place on the front row.
The Use Cases
Whenever we talk about enterprise-wide data governance, the first thing that comes to mind is the use cases. (Well, it may not be the first thing, but it is important nonetheless). Defining a use case has its challenges. Let us say when you have a system involving a few steps that have a definite outcome, it is called a use case.
This is a hard way of referring to the set of rules that are directed to solve a particular problem. The power of data governance is judged often by the quality of the use cases. Getting your first use case is often quite a challenge. Businesses struggle with problems like lack of data literacy among the employees, inconsistency of definitions, challenges with data cataloging, and the list goes on.
Finding the right starting point
When you take one use case out of a large enterprise-wide data governance program it feels out of context and difficult to implement. Hence, it is imperative to start at the right spot. Once you have determined that your business can have a data governance framework, the next step is to find certain levers that have maximum impact on your processes. These levers are nothing but those aspects of your business that will lead you to the first use case.
By the time you get your first use case, you will have become familiar with the process. It should be a little easier for you to get more use cases. However, you will be well advised to seek professional help to go through with the process.
Choosing the right lever
Every aspect of your business that comes can be mapped for value and complexity. If you are starting out, you would like to start with high value and low complexity. The value of a lever can be determined by asking some simple question like whether it increases revenue, reduces cost, or helps with regulatory compliance. A lot of computation and engineering go underneath these decisions.
The right tool
There are many data governance tools to choose for, but if you are starting out and do not want your tool to sit quietly on the shelf, Informatica is probably the best choice for you.
It allows you functionalities like data quality management, master data management, and metadata management. But these are things that every tool will let you do. The special thing about Informatica is its ease of operation. You do not have to create the relationships from scratch, unlike Collibra. And it also makes sure that you do not tamper with the data architecture – things that happen to new users. Informatica migration may provide you with the starting point you have been looking for.
Breaking the silos
Complete visibility of enterprise-wide data goes a long way when trying to implement data governance and maintain data quality. If you have your data stored in siloed systems that do not communicate with each other, the chances are that you will have multiple versions of the truth. Moreover, the maintenance cost and the lack of scalability keep bogging you down.
A unified cloud-based architecture helps you eliminate the siloed systems and take control of your data from a single platform. Once you have ensured data visibility across the enterprise and set up the rules and policies for data quality management, you can use it to draw insights. These insights can be used to further improve business processes and create more data to work with.
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