Data governance brings meaning to an organization’s data. It’s the change management of data that ensures the effective and efficient use of information per the requirements, standards, or rules that an organization has set for its individual business goals.
But when do I need to implement a strategy?
It's never too late to begin a data governance plan—but there are three key instances where your organization will be better off having one in place.
During the Setup of a New Data Model
When you’re setting up a new data model, a data governance strategy will help you determine the guidelines around maintenance and who is allowed to make changes.
One of the goals of data governance is to bring clarity, transparency, and accessibility to your data assets—and it all starts with trust. Trust is everything, even in data governance. This means having a plan to keep data secure when it’s not in use.
To begin implementing data governance during the setup of your new model, start by collecting all your datasets somewhere that will be the cornerstone of your framework (e.g. your PLM or PIM). Regrouping all the trusted data in one place and giving access to specific members so they can immediately use it, protect it, and curate it is a great advantage of data governance.
After Going Live With a New System
Upon implementing a data governance strategy, you will likely have a team that is responsible for creating and implementing effective plans and policies to manage your data. Their plan guarantees the collection, storage, and collaboration flows smoothly and effectively across your organization. A collaborative data governance strategy gives people the opportunity to realize the value of data and understand the benefits of managing it properly.
If you need support in getting your data cleansed and validated, at Convergence Data we offer an exclusive software for high-quality parts and product data called Design For Retrieval (DFR). DFR is custom-built and provides a one-stop solution for cleansing, enriching, and validating your data to leverage built-in analytics tools.
When Adding New Items
Many PIM and PLM migrations don’t go as planned, often because system vendors don’t put ample resources into integration.
Data governance creates a plan that ensures data validity, completeness, and consistency. So when the time comes to add new items, you’ll need a data governance strategy in place to make sure new items are created properly.
When adding new items to your system, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does my system have standard fields to support the data I want to migrate?
- If I don’t have standard fields, what “custom” fields do I need to create?
- How should I define and categorize parts data?
The more you know about your parts and product data, the smoother your data migration will be and the better decisions you can make as an organization. At Convergence Data, we provide robust capabilities for migrating data for new systems. Our approach is based on using agnostic software that doesn’t depend on where the data is coming from or going to.
>>> Here’s how to make your data migration a success.
Follow the Data Governance Road
Are you ready to get started down the data governance path? At Convergence Data, we promote data services and data governance as a package deal with our ongoing customer engagement relationships. Contact us today to make certain that your organization is positioned to maximize data governance investments.
