Governance Increases Data’s Value

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Data analytics creates value for business – and nearly everyone knows it.

Pre​viously the domain of business publications, analytics success stories now flood popular media. Even the non-technical reader is likely to be familiar with Facebook and Google’s business models – and how each firm has created massive wealth through leveraging their data assets.

The evidence is everywhere: Big data adoption in enterprises rose from 17 percent in 2015 to 59 percent in 2018. ​​

In 2019, 82 percent of enterprises are prioritizing Analytics and business intelligence as part of their IT budgets.

Again, Data analytics creates value for business – and nearly everyone knows it.

However, not all data is equally valuable – and fewer people understand that critical insight.​

Governed vs. Ungoverned Data

​​​Data Governance – the central tenant of data management – provides clarity on a data element’s use and meaning throughout an organization. This empowers analysts and business users alike to make meaningful findings in data assets, rather than spending valuable time seeking to understand the data in question.

Expanding on the common ‘data is the new oil’ analogy, imagine ungoverned data as raw crude. It certainly has value, but requires a lot of refinement to turn it into fuel. On the other hand, governed data is easy to understand and ready to be utilized in reports, models or predictions for the business.

Ungoverned data is not just heavy lifting for analysts, either. It frequently creates headaches for business and IT as well. I recently heard from a client who has been struggling with migrating applications to the cloud. With no existing context about their application’s data sources, it has been impossible to evaluate security concerns effectively – they simply don’t know their data well enough to evaluate the potential impacts.

A Small and Worthwhile Investment

Many organizations shy away from launching a data governance program, assuming it is difficult and expensive. It is not. Agile data governance requires a small time investment to get started, and even less to maintain. 

If you are just starting on your analytics journey, this is the perfect time to launch a data governance initiative. And if you are running an existing analytics team without governed data – you can ensure more value creation through launching a data governance program today.

Tomorrow’s technology is shaping business today. To learn more about how MNP can help you can make Advanced Analytics work for you, contact Brian Foster at 204.336.6131 or [email protected]

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