INTRODUCTION
In today’s digital economy, all organizations must pass the basic tests of data governance if they want to keep operating. Data governance – an area which includes cybersecurity, regulatory compliance and data residency – forms the foundation of organizational data management. Its basics are, in most cases, not difficult to implement. But the stronger a business’ policy and technology framework for data governance, the less risks it faces and the more efficiently it can process, store, and grow its data footprint. That provides organizational leaders with strong incentive to go beyond the minimum requirements and seek to achieve as high a grade of data governance as possible.
This whitepaper looks at how businesses can improve their scores on the tests of three fundamental data governance areas, providing several sets of self-assessment questions to help leaders evaluate and improve on their current governance levels.These three areas include:
The integrity of organizational data, which leaders can tighten by installing rigorous processes for authorization and documentation of data access;
Maintenance of data quality to both industry and international standards, an area which demands a mix of automated and manual checks; and
Security – and compliance-conscious organizational behaviors, which organizations can foster with their own governance scorecards for teams and individual employees as well as incentives and disincentives depending on their scores.
Organizations must constantly adapt to maintain good data governance. They can make this task easier by choosing data providers who not only understand its importance, but also constantly invest in the latest technologies and refresh their own policies to keep security and compliance levels high. More importantly, however, business leaders of all stripes should consider the implications for data governance in all their major decisions. Doing so ensures the good health of the organization and allows it to turn data from a potential liability into a high-value asset.
