by Angela Guess
Andy Hayler argues the necessity of business involvement in any master data management program in a new article. Hayler writes, “Implementing consistent master data and fixing data quality is only going to happen when businesses take ownership of their data, rather than just shifting responsibility to their IT departments, which typically do not have the authority to force business units to change their ways. The need for business involvement has led to rising interest in data governance programmes. Data governance is a process rather than a technology (though technology can help) and is fundamental to getting a grip on enterprise master data and improving data quality.”
He continues, “Without business ownership of data and the governance processes being put in place to resolve disputes about key data definitions, master data management projects will have at best limited success. Indeed, there is a danger of them just creating a new set of master data silos in addition to the application silos that so many companies currently have. The IT department cannot fix data quality after the event. Business users are the ones who create data about customers, products and assets, and those business users need to reclaim the responsibility for ensuring that the data being created is of sufficient quality to run the business effectively.”
photo credit: annie hazelwood
