by Angela Guess
John Ladley recently wrote in Search Data Management, “Data, whether it’s viewed as a potential liability to be managed or a valuable asset to be exploited, has entered the mainstream of enterprise activity. With organizations accumulating more and more data, and using it to drive more of their internal decision making, there’s an increasing need to ensure its integrity so business executives and other users can be confident that they’re working with accurate, consistent and high-quality data. This is where data governance — and with it, data governance software — comes in.”
Ladley continues, “Data governance isn’t the actual management of data, but rather a formalized approach to managing a company’s data assets. A data governance program establishes the rules of engagement for corporate data and information, in areas such as business alignment, policy, direction and oversight. It generally includes a governing body or council, plus a set of policies and procedures and a plan to execute them. The policies, which ideally should be jointly established by IT and the business, specify who is accountable for various aspects of an organization’s data and the procedures that define how it is to be structured, stored and used.”
He goes on, “Many companies implement data governance frameworks to address regulatory mandates, audit issues or a lack of data quality. Also, with network intrusions and cyberattacks on the rise, companies need to adopt more rigid oversight of their data for security reasons. While once the province of primarily compliance-driven industries such as financial services and healthcare, data governance programs are now being adopted by retailers, consumer product manufacturers and other businesses looking to better manage their growing volumes of business information.”
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