Data Governance special report

October 2014 -- Sponsored by Eagle Investment Systems and Infogix

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Shoring Up Governance

Data governance efforts can backslide into becoming more about documentation and cost savings, but to be effective, they must be firmly anchored in communication between the business and technology departments of firms trying to implement them, as participants in the Virtual Roundtable and Q&A features in this report make clear.

While tensions between business and IT are often present, as Aratinga Consulting's Justin York says in the Roundtable, a governance forum to facilitate discussion between the two can make progress on policies and processes. Eagle Investment Systems' Paul McInnis suggests data governance is a "shared responsibility" for business and IT, and Infogix's Bobby Koritala concludes that successful data governance, in turn, helps both sides.

So, how can firms achieve success with data governance? York, McInnis and Koritala all point to senior management - supporting governance discussions and
a governance framework, becoming enlightened about the value of data and how it can be obtained through good governance, and evangelizing for governance efforts instead of seeing them as a waste of resources.

As Aite Group's Virginie O'Shea points out in the Q&A (page 14), data governance cannot be completely outsourced. Internal business users have to take responsibility for establishing data governance that produces higher quality data and getting management to support governance efforts, she says.

Progress on data governance is a mixed bag in the industry, as these experts
indicate. The increasing appearance of the chief data officer role is making
management more receptive to data governance concerns. The risk benefits that data governance can bring are helping to sell managements on making the efforts.

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