Doing Data Intelligence the Inexpensive, Smarter Way

Doing Data Intelligence the Inexpensive, Smarter Way

StockSnap_SDM03P88BO_DG_Inexpensive_Way_BPWe are a firm believer of just-in-time data intelligence.  In this blog post we will cover less expensive, smarter ways to do data intelligence (data governance) over the more typical (and more costly) ways. 

Here are side by side comparisons:

Typical Costly Way

Less Expensive, Smarter Way

Try to solve everything at once – knowledge, security, quality, lineage, etc.

Focus on current reporting demands and data requests

Create new positions and hire new people

Identify existing staff as data stewards in each area

Get everyone’s input and approval before moving forward

Grant data stewards the authority to make unilateral decisions in their own domain

Create multi-tiered hierarchical committee structure

Allow data stewards to establish standards and escalate issues regarding the management of data

Not having a roadmap for data intelligence initiative or taking a long time to create the roadmap

Having a simple roadmap for data intelligence initiative

Create definitions as a committee

Build up descriptive metadata as reports are built and have the data stewards create definitions

All data steward tasks are done by technical people

Promote the attitude that data belongs to everyone, work on the functional definitions first and allow non-technical data stewards

Focus data intelligence efforts on the IT and technical teams

Enable and support the data stewards of all teams as well as focus on training, buy-in and accessibility of all data users

Focus training and implementation time on tools training and technical issues

Focus training on people, process and data, not tools

Build a data warehouse to enforce that everyone shares a single version of the truth and promote controlling attitude

Create a shared knowledgebase for data definitions (functional and technical) and promote a data guidance attitude

Develop a big, targeted data intelligence initiative and force it on all departments without justification and buy-in

Develop small and practical data intelligence processes that can be done every day or as we say just-in-time and explain reasons for data intelligence

Have philosophy that data intelligence is about control, is rigid and is only about the data

Have philosophy that data intelligence is about guidance, being flexible, helping people and making decisions

Only allow access to data deliverables to a few individuals

Allow access to data deliverables to as many folks as need it

There is no central knowledgebase

There is a central knowledgebase

Purchase different packages to handle various data intelligence items (data quality, data requests, business glossary, data steward workflows, etc.)

Purchase best of breed data intelligence solution like the Data Cookbook that handles all the necessary data intelligence items

Use general purpose packages (SharePoint, spreadsheets, etc.) to handle data intelligence that requires a great deal of development and setup time as well as being costly over the long run

Select best of breed data intelligence solution like the Data Cookbook that provides framework for data intelligence and can scale

Create your own integrations to grab information about data from various sources that requires a great deal of development time and is very costly over the long run

Use a data intelligence solution like the Data Cookbook that has integration capability with other data systems saving time and cost

Work with vendor that does not understand data intelligence which means additional ramp up time and cost

Work with vendor that understands data intelligence  who can make an immediate impact

Data governance and data intelligence is not easy but does not have to be harder than it must be.  And harder usually means more costly.  Take your time with data intelligence.  You can not do it all at once.  Focus on the items in the right-side column which we feel is the most effective, smarter, and less costly way to do data intelligence.

All getting started resources (including videos) can be found on our Getting Started Resources blog post.  And check out all our other data governance / data intelligence resources by clicking here.

IData has a solution, the Data Cookbook, that can aid the employees and the organization in its data governance, data intelligence, and reporting initiatives. IData also has experts that can assist with data governance, data intelligence, reporting, integration and other technology services on an as needed basis. Feel free to contact us and let us know how we can assist.   Contact Us

(image credit StockSnap_SDM03P88BO_DG_Inexpensive_Way_BP #1211)

Jim Walery
About the Author

Jim Walery is a marketing professional who has been providing marketing services to technology companies for over 20 years and specifically those in higher education since 2010. Jim assists in getting the word out about the community via a variety of channels. Jim is knowledgeable in social media, blogging, collateral creation and website content. He is Inbound Marketing certified by HubSpot. Jim holds a B.A. from University of California, Irvine and a M.A. from Webster University. Jim can be reached at jwalery[at]idatainc.com.

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