The development of information technology has not only changed people’s daily lives, but also the organizational system of companies. They have evolved from a tool to support other sectors to an important factor in strategic business decisions. This makes all decisions in this area increasingly important. Of these, data processing has become one of the most challenging and therefore data governance plays a key role in companies of all sizes.
Data Governance refers to the management of the organization’s data and the access, use and security of information exchanged within the organization. It is the control of processes, people, objectives and their achievement. Control of information shared and communicated by the team is no less important, as everyone acts on it.
Control ensures that data entered by employees or through automated processes meets requirements and standards such as integrity, business rules and objectives, etc.
What Is Governance?
There are many definitions of governance, but the one we use here is broader. Governance is the explicit and implicit set of decisions and commitments that an institution makes to its customers, partners and society.
In other words, it is about how an organization’s decisions and the consequences of those decisions affects the organization’s goals and the people involved. At first glance, this definition seems very broad and complex. For example, a person running a personal care business. She knows that one of her clients’ concerns is whether the company is engaging in ethical animal practices. Nor do her partners, suppliers, and investors, want to be associated with companies that engage in such practices.
Avoiding animal testing is not only ethical, it is even better when the end user and the partnership are considered. If we take all stakeholders into account in the decision-making process, we will act responsibly.
Objectives Of Data Governance
Data governance is a decision making system based on a model that describes who acts, when, on the basis of what information, by what methods and under what conditions, and with what results.
- Better Decision Making: When everything is specified, informed decision-making is more secure.
- Data Security For Investors: More control leads to greater security.
- More Efficient Processes: The standards and repeatability provided by data governance make processes simpler and easier.
- Cost Reduction: Coordinated efforts help reduce cost.
- Transparency: Every step is clear and transparent.
Step-By-Step Data Governance
A thorough data governance solutions includes governance, clear processes and a well-defined plan. Information is a valuable resource. Protecting corporate and customer data is a growing and increasingly complex challenge. With all employees connected to the network 24 hours a day, it is difficult to control all the information flowing through the company. So let’s look at what steps need to be taken to achieve this.
Identify Who Owns The Information
The first step is to identify who is responsible for each aspect of the data. This person will act as a custodian and may set up a committee to formulate policies and report on progress.
Understanding The Current Situation
It is important to identify where we are now before making any changes. What are the current practices? The evolution of methodology is very important here.
Develop A Strategy
Research on data governance framework suggests that management should develop a strategy for managing the company’s information in the coming years. One of the most common problems with this task is the lack of follow-up. To avoid this, management can start to identify priority areas within the company, such as marketing, to facilitate analysis and monitoring. Areas should be selected according to their ability to deliver positive results quickly and easily.
Optimal Use Of Data
The definition of data is essential for good data management. Make sure that everything is available. Data can be available in different formats, in blocks, separately, sequentially, etc, so it is important to keep it organized and accessible.
It is also important to calculate the value of the information. You cannot protect and develop something whose value is unknown. This can be difficult because data is intangible and giver governance helps the organization to value its data over time.
Identify Risk And results
Monitoring is the most important part of projects, without it there is no way of knowing whether results have been achieved and what needs to be improved. Organizations are constantly changing and so is the data they hold. Unfortunately, most organizations are only evaluated once a year.
The Importance Of Data Governance In Business
One of the biggest data gaps occurred when companies started to use and rely on data for decision making. This may have become commonplace, but it has meant a fundamental change in the way companies do business.
Previously, most decisions were made on the basis of the individual or collective options of a specific group of people, for example, managers, based on their life experience and personal beliefs. This model of decision making has some specific characteristics:
- It fails when leaders misunderstand.
- Leadership is responsible for failure.
However, using data to make decisions changes the process, as these decisions are based on a more accurate understanding of reality and are more likely to be correct in the long run. Data-driven decisions are less influenced by human experience and better informed.
Examples of this methodology have been used by large companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple, which have achieved excellent results. However, this also means that certain measures need to be taken to ensure that the data is real, complete, secure and accessible.
To ensure this, a number of issues need to be clarified and addressed, including:
- Who has access to the data?
- What are the data protection measures?
- What data should be stored and which data should be deleted?
- What are the consequences of having data stored?
- What are the uses of this data in the company?
- What are the risks associated with this data?
The area of data governance seeks to answer these questions.
Data protection can be defined as the process of accessing, managing, storing and protecting corporate data, taking into account all stakeholders, in order to ensure data integrity, availability and security.
Role Of Data Governance In Legal Protection
If data governance means involving data subjects in the decision-making process, then governments are one of the institutions involved in these processes. They have an interest in ensuring that legal protections and rights are respected both in the digital environment and in the use of customer data.
Some countries have therefore already adopted specific legislation on this issue. One of the most important international instruments in this area is the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As the United States of America (USA) does not have a single basic data protection law, hundreds of laws have been enacted at federal and state level to protect the personal data of US citizens. At the federal level, the FTC Act gives the US Federal Trade Commission broad authority to take enforcement actions to protect consumers from unfair or deceptive practices and to enforce federal privacy and data protection laws.
Both aim to protect consumer data from unauthorized use by any organization.
The common and very advanced point of these laws is that the owner of the data is not the one who collects or uses it, but the one who created it. This ownership means they have more power over this data, for example, they know what data the companies hold.
Summary
A good data governance system not only helps your company keep data secure, but also helps you retain customers, reduce costs and seize opportunities. Well-defined processes are a great help to the project and bring many benefits to the company. Find out more about Existbi Data Governance Consulting and learn how to analyze, plan and optimize business processes to make data transparent, accurate and accessible.
