Every organization needs data for day-to-day operations. Data is used in different ways, such as facilitating communication, decision making, and performance improvement, among other benefits. However, this can only be possible if data is properly managed, governed, and its quality maintained at all times. What is data governance? Governance of data is a very important function in every business, and its main focus is on ensuring that data is available and serving the purpose it is intended. It is concerned with data availability, usage, processing, and resolving issues concerning data. Proper governance of data doesn’t happen without challenges such as data ownership issues or data inconsistencies, among others. To overcome most of these challenges, focus on using the following professional secrets known to perfect governance of data.
1. Compile Data Into One Platform
A good data governance framework should be able to allow easy usability of data without compromises. One of the ways to ensure this is by housing data in one platform rather than multiple platforms. This strategy will help you to break all the silos, and your data will be easy to govern. Look for data from different sources, including organization databases and third-party sources. Once you collect the data, compile, and group it in one platform because big sets of data can be inherently chaotic and difficult to govern. Use a system that allows to store and govern both structured and unstructured data for easy access and use.
2. Uphold Security Policies For Your Data
For data to be used in the organization, it must be easily accessible to those who need it in their specific tasks. However, security for that data is also crucial, and you must uphold it at all cost. Most data owners will not feel safe to share their data on your system if they are not guaranteed security for that data. You will, therefore, need to have strict security measures for data shared and enforce them. With good security of data, more people will trust you with their information and therefore collecting relevant data for decision making will not be an issue. Apart from gaining data, you will also protect both customers or vendors’ information and corporate data. Start by providing appropriate and specific access rights to different users for accountability.
3. Emphasize On Quality Of Data
Data can only be used in crucial decision-making processes if and only if it is of good quality. You all know that garbage in means garbage out. Therefore ensure that the data getting in or being processed in the system is reliable, relevant, up-to-date, complete, accurate, and consistent. You do this by using manual and automated processes to clean old and new data in the system. Data users will only trust the data in the system if they are satisfied with its quality. If they cannot use the available data in their work or decision making, then it means that data governance has failed. Data quality is a major ingredient or secret that will improve data governance in your business.
4. Make Use Of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence may not do everything for you, but it can be very helpful in improving your data governance framework. You can hand most of the data governing functions to AI for proper functionality. AI will help you in automating processes such as cleaning of old data, identification of data anomalies, backing up information, and resolving of data issues. The good thing about using AI is that it will be accurate in everything it does, and again, it takes most of your work burden. This is one of the secrets that most companies are using to perfect governance of data.
If you value data quality, you will do everything to ensure that it is properly managed and governed. Use these secrets, and your data quality will never be the same again.
