There can be little doubt that in the ever more technology-saturated, interconnected 21st Century, IT departments play a vital role in the gathering and management of business data. Gone are the days when IT technicians were only there to install antivirus software and reboot your office PC when it crashed. Nowadays they are often the front-line, hands-on custodians of mission-critical business data, and as a result, all too aware of the need for active data management. Far too many companies still struggle to effectively manage this highly valuable asset.
But in such a technical field, where do the responsibilities of IT end and those of management begin? An intriguing new white paper by First San Francisco Partners explores this very issue. The Role of IT in Business-led Data Governance highlights a growing trend towards the efficiency-driven centralisation of information technology resources, noting that in many cases this has bestowed additional prominence on the role of IT technicians within the data management process. But a great deal of emphasis is placed within the paper on the importance of clearly defining spheres of responsibility. This definition should take the form of widely circulated written guidelines, states the paper, and we would fully endorse this approach. If different departments – especially within larger organisations – operate from different perspectives on the same issue, their actions may conflict and this will inevitably inhibit operational efficiency.
The US data governance consultancy set out seven specific ways in which the IT specialists within a particular organisation can best assist management when it comes to data governance:
1/ Through overall technical leadership.
2/ Through the provision of technical guidance.
3/ Through linking data quality with business needs.
4/ Through the creation and maintenance of a metadata repository.
5/ Through data integration oversight.
6/ Through the creation and maintenance of an Enterprise Data Model.
7/ Through data custodianship, working closely with data stewards and data owners.
Of course not all of those categories will be applicable to every organisation, but we do believe these principles are sound ones. With effective data governance so dependant on information technology, a close alignment between the operational activities of IT and management could not be more vital in effective business data governance.
To quote white paper author Kelle O’Neal: “A comprehensive data governance strategy not only aligns business and IT to address data issues but also defines data ownership and policies, data quality processes, decision rights and escalation procedures.”
For more information on the Evaxyx range of data management solutions, please visit our website.
Possibly Related Posts:
- FDs Prioritise Improved Data Management (At Last!)
- Proactive monitoring comes directly from data governance
- On-demand hardware and data management platforms
- Referring to business
- How data management systems are helping the Japanese relief effort
