IT executives no longer need to be convinced about the high cost of poor data. Most will freely admit that customer records are incomplete, not always consistent, rarely consolidated and frequently contain errors. Each day, however, brings new challenges, new business requirements and time-of-the-essence business demands.
In a recent CTO Edge Corner podcast hosted by Mike Vizard, Jay Bourland from Pitney Bowes Business Insight explains how IT organizations need to bring good data governance practices to bear if they ever want to get a real handle data quality.
I would like to invite you to take a few minutes this week to listen in as Mike and Jay discuss how some IT execs are dealing with long-overlooked challenges. For example:
- Juggling access and security. Data becomes more valuable when accessible by more people, but every new approved user represents a threat to data quality and privacy.
- Responsibilities for data governance. Is it a committee? A person? Is this an IT function or something everyone needs to be accountable for?
- Relationship between IT and business units. Where in the process should business users engage IT, and vice versa? The good news is, effective collaboration is attainable.
- Organizational roadblocks. Are data profiling, cleansing, updates, governance and integration all managed by the same person on the same schedule? If not, you can still get everyone on the same page.
In addition to these insights, Mike and Jay also touch on the capabilities organizations should look for to achieve the greatest ROI. If you want to get more practical, you will also want to catch the new 8-minute data quality video from Kit Hamilton that outlines the day-to-day and business challenges and an innovative three-step solution.