Six Data Management Best Practices

Your customers may appreciate the intrinsic value of their data, but they also may need guidance on building a data strategy or creating a data-centric culture. Here are six ways you can help. 

  • May 31, 2023 | Author: Steve Zurier
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A survey by The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) found that although executives may appreciate data’s value, that doesn’t necessarily mean they will deliver the help needed to build a data strategy, work on a culture to support and fund it, or communicate the effort. 

An example: in TDWI’s Data Management Maturity Assessment (DMMA), 73% agreed that executives value data, and 71% agreed that the organization values data, but only 19% had a strong data strategy in place. On top of that, 45% said their data strategy wasn’t communicated, and only 37% believed a data-driven culture was defined in their organization. 

“So, there’s a ways to go in terms of some of the leadership and strategic components of data management,’ said Fern Halper, senior research director for advanced analytics at TDWI. 

Some forward-thinking companies are being proactive. In a 2022 TDWI Best Practices Report, 20% had a chief data officer (CDO) or a chief analytics officer (CAO) in charge of data management and 25% had the vice president or director of IT in that role. 

 

Here are six best practices for data management TDWI recommends: 

1. Lobby for executive support. Think about what’s most important for business operations, then the data needed to drive those business operations. Communicate the value of that data to the business in terms executives can understand, not tech-speak. Lobby for a CDO or someone similar if the company already doesn’t have one.

2. Make data quality omnipresent. People understand poor data quality and it’s easy to lose trust in the data. That’s why data quality must take center stage, both on-premises and in the cloud, and in place for all data types.  

3. Leverage automated tools. The volume and variety of new data to manage and the distributed nature of that data will necessitate using new tools for data management as well as analytics. Pay special attention to the automated and augmented tools coming onto the market. These can help to manage the complexity.

4. Measure success. It’s important to measure and celebrate success, and that’s why KPIs are important to building a data-centric culture. KPIs can help track progress and measure success. Use the KPIs to communicate with employees to identify successes and help foster a culture of data-driven decision-making. 

5. Optimize costs. Many companies make the move to new platforms and are surprised by the high cost. This has been particularly true for cloud platforms. Pay attention to some of the new cost optimization tools available. These can help track and optimize cloud storage and use costs.

6. Put data governance front and center. Without proper data governance, organizations may not meet compliance mandates or build trusted data that the company will use to drive decisions. It’s especially true as organizations move to cloud platforms.

Want to learn more? Watch “The State of Data Management” webinar on-demand with Fern Halper, senior research director for advanced analytics at TDWI and Steve Garbrecht, director of product marketing, DataOps Software at Hitachi Vantara.

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