Data Governance

Data governance has, for a long time, been considered the centre of most other data management disciplines. Without proper data governance, your MDM, PIM, Analytics, integration, data quality, data architecture efforts are not going to provide as much value as you hoped. Here at DHI, we offer data governance services beginning with the advisory stages through to implementation and support.

What is data governance?

Data governance is not one practice but a collection including processes such as master data management and product information management. As such a broad practice, there is no one size fits all approach - each company that comes to us has different priorities. At DHI, our bespoke services are structured to offer your assistance, right from the initial advisory and implementation stages through to ongoing support as you expand and develop.

Advisory Service

Our advisory service is strategic. We help you understand what you need from a data governance strategy, offering recommendations for implementation. We assess your current position and help you discover where you want to be - this allows us to create a bespoke implementation plan. Specific activities at this level will include:

• - Maturity assessments
• - High level framework design
• - Roadmap creation
• - Strategy creation
• - Technology selection
• - Organisation design

Implementation Stage

The implementation stage is crucial for the design and delivery of your data governance framework. In our advisory stage, we gain a full understanding of your vision – using our findings, we are able to design a relevant framework tailored to your requirements. In the implementation stage, we aim to leave you with a functional data governance framework that you can roll out, safe in the knowledge it has been created with your business goals in mind.

Support Services

With a comprehensive MDM strategy, and the right MDM software to support it, you can:

• - Improve efficiency with data
• - Benefit from a better customer or product information
• - Explore digital innovations, from eCommerce initiatives to personalisation
• - Improve insight and decision making
• - Comply with regulatory compliance with ease
• - Fuel better outcomes for AI, Machine Learning and Automation initiatives further along the data value chain

Why you need data governance

• - Data quality – data governance and data quality go hand in hand. Data quality is a combination of tooling, people, processes and how individuals interact with data and each other – this is all intrinsic to data governance. Data governance provides a framework for high data quality.
  
  
• - Value – data governance combines people, process, technology and data into simple frameworks that any organisation can adapt. The simple ingenuity of data governance improves efficiency and ultimately, improves data quality.
• 
  - Efficiency – most challenges around data, including manual work and bad communication or siloes, are due to a lack of management of data. A data governance framework will help improve efficiency in your day-to-day work life.
• 
  - System Implementation – data systems are expensive, especially if the data being inputted and used is of poor quality. Strong data governance frameworks provide you with the reassurance that any data systems you invest in, will be as helpful as possible.
• 
  - Decision making – by implementing a data governance framework, you can make decisions based on your data systems safe in the knowledge that your tooling and data is of high quality.
• 
  - Reduce costs, increase revenue - The old adages of reducing costs and increasing revenue can be tied to successful data governance. When done right, your business efficiency will rocket and you will notice the benefits to the bottom line.
  
  
• - Reduce risk –rules and policies regarding compliance mishaps can be embedded into data governance frameworks. This reduces the risk of any careless errors.

How we can help with data governance challenges

• - Prioritisation – once benefits can be imagined, we work closely with you to prioritise based on your business goals and plan your roadmap accordingly.
• 
  - Implementation – getting people to adopt new ways of working and stick to it is difficult but our consultants work closely on an implementation strategy to make the move as smooth as possible.
• 
  - Buy in – sometimes business leaders cannot imagine or tangibly understand the benefits - we work closely to offer comprehensive reporting to curb this issue.
• 
  - Perception – data governance allows you to create and evolve and spread through your organisation until it is naturally part of the day job.

Our Data Governance Process

Our data governance process has been carefully structured to get the best results.

At the beginning of our work together, we run an in-depth analysis how your business is currently run and what you want to achieve. Once we’ve collected and shared our findings with you, we design an implementation strategy to fit with your business goals and deliver this to the highest possible standard.

Once your data governance system is in place, we continue working with you to operate and extend the framework – this includes progress monitoring and continual improvement.

We use Gartner’s 7 building blocks as a base line, focusing not only on the technical but on the people we’re helping and the goals they want to fulfil.

• - Vision – what you want to achieve with your data
• - Strategy – how you are going to get there
• - Governance – the way that people, processes and systems interact with your data
• - Organisation – how your data strategy will be managed, supported and maintained
• - Process – the business processes
• - Performance metrics – measuring your MDM initiative’s success
• - Technology – choosing the software and systems that are right for your business needs

How can DHI help with data governance?

As leading data governance experts, DHI's primary aim isn’t to strategise but to implement through change management and immersive coaching of individuals and groups. Our focus is on ensuring our framework has the desired effect through practical and achievable recommendations that are tailored to how your business is structured and its goals.

We don’t believe in being invasive and pushing our knowledge onto you – this has to work for your organisation long term. At the centre of our data governance approach is the importance of tailoring the best practice to your organisation and embedding improvements tactically.

Ready to kick-start your data governance with a practical, action-led solution? Get in touch with our experts. Alternatively, discover our full selection of data management services.