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Data Governance – the blueprint for digital transformation

Data Governance – the blueprint for digital transformation
Published: 07 February 2018

As a strategic enterprise technology provider, SSA advises on the establishment of a strong governance team and strategy before taking the digitisation journey. This means creating a blueprint that includes the establishment of policies and procedures to ensure your legacy data becomes usable, clean and valuable current data, through a structured process that ensures accuracy and longevity.

Importantly, what your organisation requires is a cohesive view of information for all who have access; within a platform that enables the speedy management of data quality issues as they arise.

When creating your data governance blueprint, SSA takes into account:

Accessibility - critical data must be accessible to the right person when they require it; in a format that is standard across the platform for ease of use; effectiveness in assisting decision-making; and efficiency in output.

Data hygiene – governance must focus on revising, updating and formatting data to create and maintain consistently high-quality data that is fit for purpose. Data hygiene continues throughout the lifecycle of your data, and is a critical component of your digitisation strategy.

Integrity - As regulatory audit requirements change in a data-driven world, ensuring the legal and ethical integrity of your data is vital. Compliance with international standards is essential in the global economy.

Security measures – robust measure must be put in place to mitigate ongoing network infrastructure threats. Security solutions that involve threat management and alerts are vital to your protection and business trust.

Data governance comprises technology, processes and people working in combination to oversee your enterprise information management. SSA assures your organisation’s peace of mind that your data is clean, meets required standards, is secure and is accessible only to the right people at the right time.

Business opportunities bring risk

As data becomes an ever-increasing part of daily business practise, the risks associated with breaches have not gone unnoticed. This risk factor will not go away and should be part of the blueprint mapping your data journey.

Even as organisations work to meet the challenges of breaches and malware, they must also deal with the escalating scrutiny on data governance practices now required by law across the globe. To maintain data value by closing security gaps and managing data continually, careful planning of data governance will increase value while mitigating risk.

Creating your governance blueprint: Questions to ask

  • How do we get our data from where it is now to where it will support better customer experience?
  • Can we trust our source data? If not, what is the first step to be taken in data hygiene?
  • How do we create data quality that is consistent and repeatable?
  • Will the analytics we get provide users with an inclusive view of our business?

Outsourcing to SSA provides your organisation with 90 years of collective global experience in creating the blueprint and the journey that brings measurable value data. The SSA Executive Team is an international strategic enterprise technology provider with a digital division that consistently delivers for clients.