Your heart beats over 100,000 times per day providing organs with enough oxygen to keep you alive. Similarly, organizations need a robust data management system that can support every business unit with the information needed to maintain daily operations. Like a symphony, both systems follow specific structures to ensure your body or organization is as efficient as possible. And when it comes to the latter – governance, architecture and compliance are critical components of how effective data management is used to support business operations. Here are the simple reasons why:

Good governance defends against “bad blood”

Given that companies collect 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day, organizations must use data governance to ensure information is accurate across all business units. This prevents “bad blood” from entering the system and allows trustworthy data to be used. Additionally, data shared within the organization must also be consistent. Similar to an individual’s blood type, business units should follow the same company policy to prevent confusion in terminology and data management rules. This might sound simple, but is a highly effective tactic that prevents siloed data from building up in different business units, allowing multiple data sources to be brought into a single platform.

Address data architecture and storage

Storage allows businesses to keep records of operational and customer data. But for this data to be useful, organizations must design an architecture for how it’s managed and integrated within operations. A well-designed data architecture provides a firm foundation for data governance on how internal data is standardized. Indeed – as an organization grows, so do its storage requirements. This means it’s essential to have a proactive approach to designing a flexible and scalable data architecture.

Compliance is crucial

Many companies consider compliance to be a rigorous process of managing data that comes with a lot of state and federal red tape. From an internal perspective, organizations must safeguard information used to run the business. This includes implementing policies and protocols to ensure data is only being accessed by authorised people. Yet, on average, more than 70% of employees have access to data they shouldn’t. So, when adhering to state and federal regulations, you must conduct compliance activities including documentation reviews to monitor what information is accessible or editable and who has access. This ensures the right files are in the right place to be quickly accessed for routine operations and reporting – or available in the event of an audit, subpoena, or retrospective. Consider California’s latest data privacy and protection laws: the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Similar to the General Data Protection regulation (GDPR), these protections grant individuals more power and protection over the personal information collected and used by businesses and employers. Companies are required to respond to data requests within 45 days and non compliance (due to improper disclosures, collections, breaches, responsiveness, or purging) is subject to fines of $2,000 -$7,500 per violation. Wherever your organization is based, it’s important to understand both local, national and international compliance requirements and frequently conduct tests on data that is stored to ensure you meet them.

Why data management will help you stay ahead

According to business writer Pearl Zhu: “We are moving slowly into an era where big data is the starting point, not the end.” Using a data management strategy ensures that you can meet the operational demands of tomorrow. Proper governance, architecture, and compliance allow business units to have the right data that can be used as that organization continues to grow. Employees are the backbone of any business, so why not equip them with the right guidance and tools required to reach both their, and the wider business’s, full potential. 

Our team of data experts can create an end-to-end data management strategy that is tailored to your operational needs. Whatever your data management challenge, we’ll help solve it.

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