Akshat Jasra tells most enterprises should be thinking about the platforms they can develop to harness this technology and data for the present and the future.
With the cloud came the democratization of technology and its unprecedented access to everyone. The differentiator is not the spend on technology anymore. Data is the new king. But wait, isn’t that been said for the good part of the last decade. The relevant question every executive should be asking is: Am I using my data(And Do I even have data?) to derive tangible business value to my firm?
For successful platforms, we need the following to start with
- Stakeholder Blessings and Alignment: CXO and Chief Data officer will need to align the firm priorities with the framework. This will include the discovery process, Technology stack etc
- Own your data: In addition, when a business maintains multiple data sets, its data strategy should specify who “owns” which data, meaning who is responsible for storing, safeguarding, and interpreting the different data sets.
- Start with these questions: How do you get value out of the data you use?
- Identify a Primary Use Case That Drives Action and Decision-Making
The foundation for effective data management is data governance, which establishes the processes and responsibilities that ensure the quality and security of the data used across an organization. Akshat Jasra shared an example, data governance might specify that a manager must archive data in an offline location if it’s no longer in daily use. Or a data governance policy may require data encryption to bolster security.
You should update data governance policies as your business needs change. You might store all of your data on-premises today, but if you move your data to the cloud, you may need to update your data governance rules to accommodate cloud-based data management. For example, data that is stored in the cloud might require stricter encryption rules.
Throughout your journey, create a guidance mechanism to measure your progress. A reference framework that I like comes from Gartner.
The Guidance Framework:
•Effective Data Strategies Are Concrete, Actionable and Specific
•Effective Data Strategies Articulate Metrics From the Outset
•Effective Data Strategies Balance Short-, Medium- and Long-Term Deliverables
•Effective Data Strategies Combine Business Use Cases, Governance Use Cases and Solutions
