Data Strategy Helps You Use Resources Efficiently. There is no better place to define the metrics or service level expectations that should apply across the enterprise. What is data Strategy? This includes clarifying t… // ]]> Stephen Lahanas is the Vice President & IT Architect of Semantech Inc. His work is primarily focused on SOA, Data, Strategy, Cyber Security and Semantic Technology. Having a data strategy is also important when it comes to making better business decisions. No, I am not being ambitious but being direct and blunt about it. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. I’d like to use couple of statistics from IDG’s Enterprise 2016 Data & Analytics Research to start this article. Data Architects make good candidates for helping to craft Enterprise Data Strategy because they are typically charged with defining all existing and future data related systems capability. And worse yet, these businesses may be dealing with inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent data leading them to wrong business decisions. Having a chief data officer and a data-management function is a start, but neither can be effective in the absence of a coherent strategy for organizing, governing, analyzing, and deploying data. WHO in our organization should drive this Data Strategy? You may currently spend £5000 to generate £7000 but with a data strategy you may be able to spend (say) just £3000 to generate that £7000. It requires a major effort to align data collection, creation and classification across organizational boundaries, and thus, data governance has become one of the core elements of an overall data management strategy. Data Architects make good candidates for helping to craft Enterprise Data Strategy because they are typically charged with defining all existing and future data related systems capability. This part of this series addressed the 5 ‘W’s and I’ll tackle the ‘HOW’ part in the next part. Based on the thesis of my article so far, the answer obviously is at the corporate level. Make the Data Strategy incorporate some guiding principles to accomplish the data-driven vision, direct your company to select specific business goals, and be a starting point for data-driven planning across the company. That’s exactly what we shall do in this series of articles on data strategy starting with some basics. Our framework addresses two key issues: It helps companies clarify the primary purpose of their data, and it guides them in strategic data management. But getting a handle on data can be a huge challenge for organisations. With so much data to look at and so many tools to consider, however, it is easy to invest in the wrong platforms and capabilities. He has provided critical technical and leadership support in a number of industries including defense & government, telecommunications and education. Data Natives 2020: Europe’s largest data science community launches digital platform for this year’s conference. I believe that a comprehensive enterprise-wide Data Strategy can give significant competitive advantage in the marketplace. Twitter text analytics reveals COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy tweets have crazy traction, Empathy, creativity, and accelerated growth: the surprising results of a technology MBA program, How to choose the right data stack for your business, Europe’s largest data science community launches the digital network platform for this year’s conference, Three Trends in Data Science Jobs You Should Know, A Guide to Your Future Data Scientist Salary, Contact Trace Me If You Can: Muzzle Your Data To Ensure Compliance, Machine Learning to Mineral Tracking: The 4 Best Data Startups From CUBE Tech Fair 2018, The Next Tech Wave: Why Businesses Use Data Science Platforms, How Big Data Brought Ford Back from the Brink, A Data Strategy is not a list of generic principles or obvious statements (such as “Data is an Enterprise Asset”), A Data Strategy is not merely a laundry list of technology trends that might somehow influence the organization in coming years. Finally, a data strategy can also help you to cut … A determination in regards to roles (organizational) in terms of who owns what data or data systems. We can argue about the exact semantics of this definition but the key points are the bold words. A Data Strategy is not a vague list of objectives without a clear guiding vision or path for actualization. Once you know how you want to use data, your next task is to turn that into a data strategy. David Phillips explains why you should never, ever have a data strategy. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. Other benefits of a data strategy: Our discussion led onto a wide range of topics and resulted in a white paper called “Why you cannot have an effective marketing strategy without a data strategy”. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. If your organization has a Chief Data Officer (CDO), let him/her be the owner of this Data Strategy. HOW should we go about with Data Strategy? One of the most important tasks that a Data Architect is often asked to help with is the creation of an Enterprise Data Strategy. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Initial or top level expectations for enterprise-wide service level metrics (for data systems and data quality). Ramesh Dontha is the Founder of Digital Transformation Pro, an award winning/bestselling author and podcast host. The more detailed and comprehensive it is, the better the chance that both sides will fully understand each other. Copyright © 2020 by Digital Transformation for Professionals. A data strategy is about imbedding data-driven decision making, about being able to create data applications inside a company to help it achieve its strategic goals. eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'dataconomy_com-box-4','ezslot_6',105,'0','0']));There are in fact few other roles qualified to lead this type of an effort. Either you won’t have answers to these questions or you will be answering them very inefficiently consuming lot of resources. I have seen instances where a business unit started Data Strategy which raised some uncomfortable questions for the corporate level entities. These initiatives may be some kind of Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Master Data Management, Data Governance, Data Quality program, or Data warehouse. Data strategy is a plan designed to improve all the ways you acquire, store, manage, share, and use data. Start with a Data Strategy Moving towards a more data-driven culture is certainly attainable, and it starts with a Data Strategy. My broad guidance is to make it actionable for your specific organization and industry and somewhat evolutionary to adjust to disruptive market forces. Please feel free to comment. A data strategy helps by ensuring that data is managed and used like an asset. Each department, for example, may put raw data into … We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Data has become critical to achieving competitive advantage in business. A data strategy is a common reference of methods, services, architectures, usage patterns and procedures for acquiring, integrating, storing, securing, managing, monitoring, analyzing, consuming and operationalizing data. In other words, having a data strategy ensures that data is managed and used as asset and not simply as a byproduct of the application. On a high level, data strategy entails creating a strategic plan to use data in an intelligent way to achieve business objectives. Not that long ago, for nearly all businesses, data was a byproduct of the business processes. This question may be asked in multiple ways but the essence of this question is: Is it worth it? Now we will attempt to define what an Enterprise Data Strategy really is: Enterprise Data Strategy is the comprehensive vision and actionable foundation for an organization’s ability to harness data-related or data-dependent capability. What is Data Strategy? It all depends on who is evangelizing it and how much political clout they have in the organization. If so, shouldn’t you treat data the same way? This inevitably leads to duplication of both data and data systems across the organization and thus makes it quite difficult to determine the ‘truth’ of one’s data and will also drive up costs. Without a centralized vision and foundation, different parts of the enterprise will view data-related capabilities differently. It also represents the umbrella for all derived domain-specific strategies, such as Master Data Management, Business Intelligence, Big Data and so forth. When we combine data-driven business strategy with data analytics, together, they become an essential competitive difference. It could even be tied to a merger and acquisition event. Architects often also have a good deal of experience working directly with business stakeholders and thus help to ensure both business and IT perspectives are taken into consideration while crafting the Data Strategy. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. [CDATA[ It’s about time we gave data some respect and have a data-focused strategy. While CTO, CIO or CDO’s (Chief Data Officer) might quality to lead such a task, often times they are stretched too thin to focus on building the comprehensive Strategies necessary to make a real difference for the organization. The Data Architect can typically dedicate their full attention to this task and have the full support of all necessary resources (including the CXO level personnel) to ensure that the necessary analysis, negotiation and planning goes into the Data Strategy so it can be relevant and ultimately successfully. I am sure you are expecting an answer like ‘NOW’. A definition of what types of data or information needs to managed from an enterprise perspective (and yes this ought to be fairly specific). Without it, … Let’s review what it isn’t first…. A Typical Enterprise Data Strategy includes the following components: Now we’re ready to address why Data Architects are typically involved in creating and executing Enterprise Data Strategy. Without a comprehensive enterprise-wide Data Strategy, how can you expect to solve any of those problems mentioned above? It is, in effect, a checklist for developing a roadmap toward the digital transformation journey that companies are actively pursuing as part of their modernization efforts. By the way, if you are in the job market, check out our job listings or if you want you can submit your resume here. Would like to hear from you. Data governance is the process of managing these datasets in terms of ownership, integrity, compliance, quality, content, and relationship with other datasets. In fact, the opposite can be true. According to the IDG research I mentioned above, the top 3 problems that organizations expect data to solve problems are as follows. Here are a few of the reasons why…. The reality is that almost all large companies have data silos that contain inconsistent data and classifications. They have transformed the way performance is delivered, and the way organizations do business. Do you have a data strategy to achieve better organizational analytics? In this age of big data it's easy to believe that we inevitably understand more and more of the world around us. Architects often also have a good deal of experience working directly with business stakeholders and thus help to ensure both business and IT … Relying on gut instinct may have been acceptable once upon a time, but with such detailed insights now available it makes sense to lower your risks before committing to new plans. Take a reactionary approach and end up with a week-long company shutdown due to a ransomware infection or … I am not saying that it can’t be done but based on my prior experience, it is easier to get it off the ground tying to some other business event / initiative. But why is Data Strategy so important and what exactly does it consist of, and lastly why is this a task that a Data Architect should be leading or supporting? Identification of key enterprise challenges and anticipated design decisions. According to Donna Burbank, it: “It’s the opportunity to take your existing product line and market it better, develop it better, use it to improve customer service, or to get a 360-degree understanding of your customer. Just to make sure we are all on the same page, let’s start with some fundamental questions. The Data Strategy is the tool that allows for unification of Business and IT expectations for all enterprise data-related capabilities. I know I’ll get lot of flak for saying this but I’ll say this anyway. A good data strategy is not about what data is readily or potentially available – it’s about what your business wants to achieve, and how data can help you get there. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)? This is the best place to explain thoroughly how management of enterprise data can be leveraged to support organizational mission objectives or processes. In my opinion, enterprise Data Strategy belongs at Chief Operating Officer (COO) level. Our VP of Corporate Sales, Sam Hedberg, believes that a well-executed data strategy is necessary to complete a company’s digital transformation: Data is the lifeblood that pumps through your digital transformation. We can argue about the exact semantics of this definition but the key points are the bold words. Without a Strategy, the organization will be forced to deal with myriad data-related initiatives that most likely are in progress by various business groups/departments. Introductory versions of all domain-level or specific sub-strategies, such as; Information/Data Governance, EDW, MDM, Content Management, Big Data etc. I hope that CDO reports directly to CEO/COO. A Data Strategy is often viewed as a technical exercise, but a modern and comprehensive Data Strategy addresses more than the data; it is a roadmap that defines People, Process, and Technology. Ramesh can either be reached on LinkedIn or Twitter (@rkdontha1) or via email: rkdontha AT DigitalTransformationPro.com. Data Architects are specialists within the larger field of IT Architecture, while some have wider architecture experience – others do nothing but work with data and data systems. how it is structured, in some cases it might be practical to start at some business unit. Data Analytics and Big Data are at the pinnacle of any corporate agenda. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); We can become blinded by the data we have to the realities not covered numerically. As per their research, 78% of enterprises agree that collection & analysis of big data has the potential to fundamentally change the way their company does business over the next 1 to 3 years. So it’s important to show employees how data has a positive impact on business, like decreasing expenses and taking some of the risk out of new ventures. Creating a Data Strategy, like a Business Strategy, is an art. It is an IT governance process that aims to create and implement a well-planned approach in managing an organization’s data assets. I’ll address the 5 ‘W’s in this article and address the ‘How’ part separately at this link as it deserves much more detailed attention. But depending on the organization’s operating model i.e. Data Strategy The idea behind developing a data strategy is to make sure all data resources are positioned in such a way that they can be used, shared and moved easily and efficiently. Signup today for FREE Digital Transformation Newsletter. I define Data Strategy as a strategy that lays out a comprehensive vision across the enterprise and sets a foundation for the company to employ data-related or data-dependent capability. Follow @DataconomyMedia We can argue about the exact semantics of this definition but the key points are the bold words. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. It is practical to justify having a data strategy initiative if you don’t have one. I have nothing against CIOs but data is a corporate asset and not just an IT asset. Not sure if you belong to the camp that believes data is an asset to the organization but if you do, you must believe that data that your organization owns is a resource that has economic value and you expect it to provide future benefit just like any other asset. Therefore, if companies want to avoid drowning in data, they need to develop a smart strategy that focuses on the data they really need to achieve their goals. Book Review: Data Management and Governance Services, 1,000 Artificial Intelligence Case Studies, Artificial Intelligence Primer and Glossary – FREE for you, IDG’s Enterprise 2016 Data & Analytics Research, Finding correlations across multiple disparate data sources. This in turn resulted in a corporate wide Data Strategy initiation. Top level planning decisions or expectations for making those designs. //

why have a data strategy

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why have a data strategy 2020