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By Laton McCartney
Focusing attention on the business case for data management is more important than considering what types of technology might solve information governance issues. So said the majority of 400 IT executives polled online by Deloittee Consulting during a recent Deloitte webcast, "Information Management Goes Enterprise Wide: A Unifying Approach to Data Governance."
Almost 61 percent of the same group said that metrics that gauge cost, time, quality and risk, along with governance compliance dashboards, are the most effective types of data management and governance maintenance.
"The first question I hear from clients is about the technology they need for successful data management, when the truth is the systems have been available for years but not the business focus on the process and measurement of their data," said Jane Griffin, principal with Deloitte Consulting.
Griffin and the other webcast presenters agreed that doing data management for the sake of doing data management simply is not worthwhile. Data management, they noted, has to be connected to something worthwhile in the organization, such as having a supply chain-related discussion with a vendor regarding quality control issues. Further, the panel asserted that executives need to return to basics and understand the root of their data management problem before it can be effectively addressed. Determining the business need and business outcome should be the first step.
Tim Walsh, senior manager with Deloitte Consulting, outlined the following steps for executives to consider regarding data management and governance:
- Demonstrate the value early and deploy a set of governance capabilities to meet a prioritized set of business requirements, and then broaden the program to achieve greater measured value. This, Walsh said, is vital to success.
- Measure adoption against framework regularly -- that is, measure the maturity and adoption of the data governance program on an annual basis against an effective framework.
- Mobilize the stakeholder community to operationalize a new process and sustain change.
Among the other polling results:
- Only 7.4 percent of respondents said their companies tried to implement a data governance program and were either unsuccessful or were searching for new ideas and guidance on implementing data governance.
- More than a third believe the CIO should sponsor and be accountable for data governance in the enterprise; 8 percent favored the CTO for this responsibility.
- Just over 20 percent of respondents believe enterprise information asset optimization (i.e., data warehouse rationalization) represents the most pressing problem within their organization. More than 15 percent chose data asset specific optimization (i.e., customer, products and suppliers) as their top problem.
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