An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is true in terms of Grandma logic and in the world of data management. Organizations spend millions implementing new ERP and business application solutions but frequently neglect the foresight to plan out master data management after the transformation occurs.
Implementation partners are the best in the world at implementing new solutions, whether it be Oracle Cloud, SAP, Workday, D365, or another solution. Implementation partners/consultants know their stuff. I've worked with tons of them. They're whip smart and driven to make the solution work. However, the focus is making the solution work for you and not how to improve and sustain your data's value and cleanliness.
I'm going to spend a minute with you today outlining how to start a conversation on data quality and data management in a way that can help prevent it from backsliding and costing a fortune to fix in a few years and invigorating the organization's data governance.
A good way to start that conversation is to talk through how data quality is going to be maintained on an ongoing basis and that if it is not measured, it will degrade.
- Work with the stakeholders to rough out key data areas that cause significant impact and the impact of that data if it degrades
- Create a rudimentary scorecard by outlining the acceptable level for each issue
- Collaborate with the team to identify who owns these metrics and if there are mechanisms in place that capture them
Once the basics of the process and the seed is planted about measuring data quality and how it affects the organization, start to dive deep into the types of data quality issues that affect the business.
Think cross platform data flows and how/where data can go south as it moves across the landscape. After the data conversations has started, there is a lot more that the team can do, but the important part is that everyone is starting to recognize the value and impact data has.
This small mindset shift will pay off dividends in terms of efficiency and insights as the data governance and master data management culture begins to take shape.
If you have questions about data management, data quality, or data migration, click the chat bubble below. I'd like to learn about them and work with you to figure out solutions.
