02/09/2024

Whether or not you actually use the term, your business probably already engages in some form of data management. If you use time-tracking data to bill clients, you’re managing data. If you use customer relationship management (CRM) software, you’re managing data. Inventory tracking? Also data management.  

Data governance goes beyond simply managing data — it defines how you manage data and why. It’s an extensive, ongoing process that brings together all of a company’s diverse data points, organizing and making them accessible to the right people at the right time. As your business grows and accumulates more data, the process continuously evolves, focusing on constant optimization and adjustment.

While most organizations have basic data governance in place, challenges can still arise. For example, when a key individual responsible for specific data or products suddenly leaves the organization, they may take crucial knowledge, data, and processes with them, without fully documenting their job responsibilities. 

In contrast, consider the benefits of having a smooth onboarding experience for a new employee, who quickly becomes a valuable contributor thanks to a well-defined process.

A data maturity assessment offers valuable insights into how an organization addresses these scenarios. By evaluating the current state of data governance and identifying potential gaps, it helps develop strategies for improvement. This ensures smoother transitions, minimizing the impact of unexpected personnel changes, and fostering an environment where new employees can start contributing to the organization’s success quickly.

Step 1: Define your goals

No data governance is complete without a well-defined goal to guide your efforts. What purpose should your data serve? What value do you want to extract from it? 

If you’re not sure where to begin, start with your business goals. No matter where your target is— whether  cutting costs, increasing employee productivity, driving profits, enhancing cybersecurity measures, or ensuring compliance — mature data will help you reach it. 

If you’re still unsure how data fits with your business goals, contact one of our experts and we’ll help you come up with a strategy. 

Step 2: Gather all current data 

Just as companies that sell goods need to take inventory of their products, any company that wishes to valorize its data stores needs to first know exactly where their data comes from. Depending on your industry and tools, you may have several different sources of data, for instance:  

• Enterprise resource management (ERP) software
• Customer relationship management (CRM) software 
• Excel
• Inventory management software 
• Time tracking software 
• Website analytics 
• Marketing automation
• Human resource management (HRM) software 
• Business intelligence software 
• Business process management (BPM)
• Internet of things
• Ledgers

Step 3: Assess your data maturity level 

Once you know where your data comes from and what you want it to help you achieve, it’s time to analyze that data to understand its current status, assess risk, and assign responsibilities. 

At Solvership, we’ve developed the Data Maturity Assessment to do precisely this. Using the internationally-recognized TM Forum Maturity approach, our assessment serves as a review of your complete data estate. We’re not here to punish; our mission is to offer you a genuine view of where you stand at the moment and shine a light on the aspects that could use some fine-tuning. This equips you with the insights needed to govern your data in harmony with your business objectives, assisting you in pinpointing areas for improvement and deciding where to invest.

At the people, processes, and technology levels, this assessment tracks a company’s metrics across the following 8 data domains: 

• Metadata management
  This is the collecting, organizing, and implementing activities related to data about data
• Data stewardship
  Enables ownership, boosts accessibility, and enables quality, safe, and trustworthy data
• Master data management
  Ensures consistency and efficient use of an enterprise’s shared data assets, reduces risks, and lowers costs associated with data integration
• Data privacy management
  Concerned with privacy, regulatory compliance, and data ethics
• Data security management
  Management of an enterprise’s security policies and procedures, including authentication, authorization, and secure access
• Data policy management
  Rules that govern the creation, acquisition, integrity, security, quality, and use of data within an organization
• Data strategy
  Driven by business strategy, data strategy is built on principles of managing data as an asset and extracting value from it
• Organization and roles
  Defines how data governance will be executed by assigning accountability, roles, and responsibilities to data management procedures

The results of this assessment reveal your organization’s strengths and areas needing improvement. With this understanding, you can prioritize efforts, define data-related responsibilities, and delegate tasks to suitable team members.

Step 4: Start implementing 

Now it’s time to act on your data governance maturity assessment results and start implementing your data strategy. You can tackle this on your own or with the help of our experts.

Depending on your needs, we offer various support levels for implementing data governance structures. Our team can work with you to create policies, processes, and technology solutions that align with your goals. We also provide training for your team, empowering them to use the new structures to improve business performance across departments.

By partnering with us, you’ll benefit from our extensive experience in data governance, ensuring a smoother and more successful implementation. We’ll collaborate with your team to monitor progress, tackle challenges, and adjust as needed, making sure your data strategy evolves with your organization’s changing needs.

After assessing your data governance maturity, we get ready to put your data strategy into action. Choosing the right technology solutions to support your efforts is essential.

Remember:
• Data governance is implemented step-by-step, highlighting the need to begin with a smaller scope to showcase quick wins, gain executive buy-in and support from stakeholders.
• Iterative implementation process ensures continuous advancement of data governance program, fostering constant improvement and optimization.
• Data Governance is not just about technology or IT, as is commonly thought. It is a critical aspect of overall business strategy and operations.

Every data-driven enterprise has to start somewhere. No matter where you are in your data governance journey, you need a smart strategy built around an expert audit of your current data estate. 

To help you reach your goals, our data maturity assessment addresses several key aspects of your organization’s data-related operations. Here are some of the main benefits of including it in your data governance strategy:

• Identify gaps in business strategy By evaluating the current state of data management, you can identify key weaknesses and prioritize areas for improvement.
• Assign roles and responsibilities By defining clear roles and responsibilities for data governance, you can streamline processes, and ensure efficient and secure data handling.
• Discover data-related pain points Pinpoint problems such as data silos, data quality issues, or compliance challenges, and address them effectively.
• Take the first step toward achieving goals Create a roadmap for achieving ambitious goals, providing a clear starting point and aligning data strategy with business objectives.
• Cut costs, boost revenue Identify areas for optimization in data management practices, reduce inefficiencies, and drive better decision-making to help your bottom line.
• Improve customer experience (CX) Uncover opportunities to enhance customer experience, ensuring accurate and up-to-date customer data.