Governance Structures Are Not Self-Organizing

Governance represents the discipline required to provide the quality, policies, processes, and risk controls to organize the management of data. It includes the "constitutions" around Guiding Principles, taxonomies, and value metrics.

Data governance processes are needed to:

• Be fair and represent all constituencies, not only localized ones
• Focus on the entire data lifecycle from creation to purge
• Generate support with feedback on the condition, usage, risk, and cost of data assets

Data governance is required to optimize service to users, by aggregating demand for the shared data assets, as well as improving the use of shared data assets, and by pooling financial resources and marshaling data stewards and technology resources. To be effective, data governance should not only cover the technology delivering the data and the hands-on maintenance of the data, but should start with consistency in the shared meaning of each data item and its business need.

With most shared sets of data, there is not a single natural "owner" of the data who can successfully make decisions about the meaning of the data, the technology architecture, and the maintenance. Productive data governance most typically requires dedicated data resources (not tied to any one area of business or IT) working in concert with highly participatory business owners and IT partners, with active senior executive sponsorship able to help clear roadblocks and articulate the vision for the advantages gained from healthy data.

Client Impact

Designing and implementing data governance that works requires both an understanding of the data asset and its strategic value to the company, as well as a clear understanding of the organizational structure and decision making processes of the enterprise. Sagence Group has helped both large and small organizations define guiding principles and bring structured governance to diverse sets of data assets, ranging from purchasing data, to client data, to key performance indicators. As a result of Sagence Group's guidance, client organizations are able to more successfully understand and operate their businesses applying the appropriate resources to managing data.

• A $4 billion HR outsourcing & consulting services firm required both the vision for and implementation of an enterprise-wide information management program that would improve transparency into operational and financial performance indicators, reduce manual overheads of reporting key operational information, and standardize global data definitions & processes. Read More...

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