Data governance: The first step begins with data quality

Your data, at its best, should be your most valuable asset.

Data governance is the process of organizing and administrating your data assets, and data quality is a way to unlock its potential.

As your organization grapples with the volume of data flowing in, you need to align people, processes, and technologies under a common data language. How do you do this? First, make sure you have quality data then, you build a data governance strategy. You can think of data governance as the exercise of authority, control, and shared decision making over the management of your data assets.

Data governance cannot succeed without data quality. Data quality lays the groundwork for building a truly effective data governance strategy.

What can data governance do for your organization?

Provide access to up-to-date, accurate data
Manage and mitigate compliance risks
Reduce costs due to operational inefficiencies
Formalize your data quality activities and helps you embed them into business as usual

Successful data governance projects start with accurate data

of companies feel they have some level of inaccurate data.

of companies have a data governance project planned in the next 12 months.

of companies have seen a return on investment from their data quality solutions.

* Source: 2019 Global Data Management Report

Why data governance needs quality data

If you think of data as water, data quality is the process to purify the water. Data governance helps ensure the right resources are responsible for the right aspects of the collection, purification, and distribution of the water. By focusing on the quality of your data first, you reduce the risk of half-baked data governance efforts that leave you chasing unnecessary issues or making inaccurate decisions. Starting with data quality gives you a strong foundation for you to have confidence in monitoring, auditing, and accessing your data.

To ensure your data is high quality, focus on making sure it is accurate, standardized, and fit for purpose. This way it can be used for governance initiatives, which supply the practices and tools your organization will use to ensure that you have data you can trust. Together, they help you to maximize the value of your data and strengthen your competitive edge.

Data quality in the data governance process

Improving data quality is the first step towards better governance, data-driven insights, and a greater customer experience.

Learn more about data quality management

Infographic: 10 do’s and don’ts of data governance

Data governance involves outlining who has authority over the data, who has access to it, how it’s used, how it’s stored, how it’s kept secure, and how it’s transformed through time. Check out our infographic for data governance do’s and don’ts for best practices.

Get the data governance infographic