Navigating the complexities of data governance and management can be a challenge for any organization. However, it can be particularly tricky for businesses that must consistently meet and maintain strict regulatory requirements for their data handling.
The first step to streamlining these processes is to understand what they are, how they differ, and how data management depends on governance. That’s where we come in. In this guide, we’ll discuss all of these points as well as the role that technology plays in simplifying both governance and data management.
The Difference Between Data Governance And Management
To make the most of your data, it’s important to understand two key concepts: data management and data governance. Although these concepts are related, there are differences in what each role does, how they work together, and why they’re both essential for effective data handling.
Data governance
Data governance refers to the framework of policies and procedures that ensure effective management of an organization’s data. Its main objectives are to maintain data quality, enforce data security and privacy, and ensure compliance with relevant regulations and requirements.
Additionally, it aims to provide a clear structure for managing data throughout its lifecycle and maximize its value to a business. The key components of data governance practices include:
- Policies: These are formal guidelines that outline how data should be handled. This includes the rules for data access and usage.
- Standards: Data governance standards are specific criteria and benchmarks that data must meet, such as quality and format standards.
- Practices: These are the day-to-day procedures for managing sensitive data according to established policies and standards.
The roles and responsibilities of data governance are usually shared between business managers, data stewards, and committees like advisory groups. Together, they create, implement, and monitor the business’s data strategy to ensure data assets are managed effectively.
Data management
Data management focuses on the practices and technologies that businesses use to collect, store, organize, and process their data. It ensures that it’s always available and reliable to help the decision-making process within an organization.
Managing data includes:
- Data collection: This involves gathering data from different sources, including internal and external systems and user input.
- Storing data: Data must be securely stored in databases or different types of management systems like cloud storage platforms. To manage it effectively, it should also be secure and easy to access. This is why it’s crucial to pick a comprehensive platform to store data.
- Processing: This process takes raw data and transforms it into useful formats. It can be done through data integration, data analysis, or data cleansing.
How they differ and work together
Data governance is more focused on the ‘rules’ of how data assets are used. It helps to set the strategic direction and ensures data is managed according to these rules.
On the other hand, data management activities are focused on the execution of the rules and regulations. Typically, it involves data governance tools and software solutions that handle day-to-day tasks like data collection and storage.
Without effective data governance, data management wouldn’t be possible. After all, it follows the guidelines set out in data governance policies to ensure regulatory compliance.
Benefits Of Streamlining Data Governance And Management
Streamlining governance and data management can significantly improve how businesses handle their data, offering them several important advantages.
Better data quality
One of the most obvious benefits of streamlining data governance and data management is improved data quality. This is done by establishing consistent standards and practices across all departments of an organization.
When practices are standardized, businesses can ensure their data is handled uniformly. As a result, they’ll benefit from more accuracy and reliability. It can also create a ‘domino effect’ by reducing the risk of errors. This makes the information more trustworthy for analysis and decision-making processes.
Increased compliance
Another important benefit is better compliance with regulations. When data management and governance are streamlined, businesses can align their data-handling processes with the relevant legal requirements. Of course, this reduces the risk of data breaches and misuse. This not only protects sensitive information but also maintains trust with customers by safeguarding their privacy.
Operational efficiency
With a strong management and data governance program, organizations can boost their operational efficiency. This is done by eliminating data silos and integrating streamlined workflows.
When certain barriers between departments are removed, the data flow across the business allows for more efficient decision-making. Plus, the integration enables quicker actions based on data insights.
Better decision-making
Better decision-making is a direct result of access to high-quality and reliable data. When these processes are streamlined, decision-makers can rely on accurate and consistent information.
Essentially, the ability to analyze data quickly and gain insights supports timely and strategic decision-making, giving the business a competitive edge.
Strategies For Streamlining Data Governance
Streamlining data governance is the first step in proper data management. It’s extremely important to implement robust strategies to simplify and strengthen the process since the effectiveness of data management depends on it.
Some helpful strategies for streamlining data governance include:
1. Develop clear policies and standards
Effective and streamlined data governance is essential for managing and protecting an organization’s data.
One way to streamline this process is to create clear rules and guidelines. This means deciding who owns the data, setting up access controls (for privacy), and establishing how data quality will be measured.
When these rules are clear, everyone in the organization will know how to handle the data consistently and responsibly.
2. Implement a governance framework
Businesses need to build a strong governance framework. This involves defining specific roles by assigning data stewards and forming a data governance committee.
These roles – and the people who fill them – are responsible for tracking and enforcing data policies. Plus, these roles ensure that data governance is well-organized and any issues that crop up are quickly resolved.
3. Use governance tools
Finally, using governance tools like business process management software can make the process more efficient. These tools help to enforce rules, organize data, and ensure regulatory compliance.
By implementing workflow automation, businesses can reduce the risk of human error. They can also ensure that data is handled according to established guidelines, leading to better data quality and easier compliance tracking.
Strategies For Streamlining Data Management
Managing data and information efficiently is essential for any successful business. Luckily, companies that simplify their data can work smarter and make better, more informed decisions. Your organization can use the following strategies to help streamline this process:
1. Use efficient data management tools
Simplifying data management is crucial for better data handling overall. One foolproof approach to do this is to use the right data management tools. These tools help with things like grouping data into data catalogs, as well as storing and analyzing data. This makes it easier for companies to handle large amounts of data.
Additionally, when organizations use technology and software in their processes, data is usually more organized and easily accessible. In turn, this helps them to make more informed decisions.
2. Standardize data processes
Another approach to data management is to standardize how data is processed. Standardization helps lower the risk of mistakes and enhances the quality of the data, making it easier to manage (especially when it is coming from different sources).
When everyone follows the same methods, teams can work more effectively for better results. Of course, this requires a strong deployment strategy to implement these processes efficiently.
3. Automate data management tasks
Automating routine data management is also important. Typically, automation can handle data quality checks, backups, and updates without needing much manual input. This is especially true if you’re using a no-code automation software like HighGear.
By automating tasks, businesses can save time and (once again) reduce the risk of human error. As a result, data management becomes much more reliable and consistent.
How HighGear Can Help Streamline Governance And Data Management
At HighGear, we’re serious about streamlining processes and helping organizations thrive. This is especially true in sectors that require strict regulatory compliance and data handling, such as government organizations. In fact, our platform is designed to get rid of traditional paper-based systems and focuses on modernization.
By automating tasks like policy enforcement and data quality checks, HighGear is here to help you ensure that policies are consistently implemented across departments. We know how crucial this is for maintaining high standards of data integrity and security.
To stay ahead of the curve, we at HighGear always strive to be at the forefront of workflow management trends. That’s why our software is designed not only to meet your needs today but also to adapt to future developments within data governance and management.
If you want to see what we can do for your organization, then be sure to book a free demo with us today.
FAQs
What are the four pillars of data governance?
The four pillars of data governance are quality, management, security, and compliance. Here’s a more detailed explanation of each of these pillars:
- Quality: This involves using strategies and processes to define data standards and implement regular data quality checks. It helps to ensure that data is always accurate and consistent across an organization.
- Management: The management of data includes all of the practices and tools that are used to handle it. With effective management, organizations are guaranteed that their data will be properly organized and accessible, as well as being well protected until it can be disposed of.
- Security: Protecting data from unauthorized access is essential to avoid security threats. This is why it’s important to implement things like encryption and access controls.
- Compliance: This involves following the necessary rules, regulations, and laws related to data handling within an organization.
Who should manage data governance?
There isn’t usually one specific person in charge of data governance. Instead, it requires a dedicated team to create, implement, monitor, and adjust, as time goes on.
This team typically consists of:
- Chief Data Officer (CDO): CDOs oversee the data governance strategy and ensure that it aligns with the business’s goals.
- Data governance committee: These committees generally include senior stakeholders who set policies and provide strategic direction.
- Data stewards: Data stewards manage data quality and compliance within their areas. They usually act like liaisons between teams.
- Data owners: Data owners include the business leaders responsible for specific data assets and adherence to policies.
- Data custodians: Custodians are IT professionals who cover technical aspects of data governance like storage and security.
Final Thoughts
Streamlining governance and data management is simple, and only requires a few well-implemented strategies and processes. Of course, it also requires the help of dedicated and comprehensive business process management software like HighGear.
When you use this guide along with our top-notch enterprise data management solutions, you’ll be simplifying these seemingly complicated data handling processes in no time. So, what are you waiting for? Try HighGear out for yourself today with our free demo.