How to Develop a Data Strategy for Cooperation, Not Conflict
A comprehensive, flexible data strategy is the key to taking on every challenge. Are you having the right conversations about your data?
These days, many organizations have decidedly mixed feelings about becoming data driven. They know they must make the change if they’re to remain competitive, but the exponential growth and near-constant evolution of data can make new data initiatives feel like battles they can’t hope to win. This combination of factors can often lead to conflicts, both between business users and IT and between data users and their data.
At the root of these conflicts, though, you will often find a single, fundamental oversight — the absence of a comprehensive vision for how the organization acquires, integrates, protects, analyzes, and exploits its data. In short, these organizations lack a data strategy.
Most IT organizations are prepared to discuss technology strategies covering platforms, tools, and methodologies, but few are equipped to discuss their overall data strategy. However, as IT costs continue to grow, this is exactly the kind of discussion that needs to happen. Companies need to talk about how they are ensuring data is being managed and used effectively — and to develop a strategy for how resources will be allocated to the effort.
“A successful data strategy isn’t just about data management, naming standards, or governance methods,” says Evan Levy, vice president of business consulting for SAS. “Rather, it’s about supporting the goals and the execution details for the effective adoption and use of your company’s data assets.”
According to Mark Madsen of consulting firm Third Nature, it’s just as important to ensure your data strategy is an ongoing process, not a static plan.
“You don’t create a plan once and execute it,” Madsen warns. “The nature of strategy is planning your way through ambiguity and positioning for the best long-term outcomes.” Despite this, many enterprises gather requirements and create multiyear plans based solely on current needs. This leads to resource shortfalls, technical gaps, and missed opportunities — ironically, problems that having a strategy is specifically intended to address.
