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Data Governance: The Surprising Solution to Better BI

Nowadays, organizations no longer question the necessity of business intelligence (BI). Instead, they all try to figure out how to get as much value as they can from the massive amounts of data they’ve been collecting as a result of these newfound BI efforts.

In a recent report, Forbes Insights asked more than 400 senior executives about their current BI programs. They discovered that the greatest challenge to really getting more out of BI comes down to just one thing: How to rein in and shore up all of that available data, so that it can be used as one single, reliable source of truth for your entire organization. The report also reveals a surprising solution to this challenge, something we may have overlooked: data governance.

While BI delivers results, there’s still lots to do.
According to the report, many organizations across every industry already achieve fantastic results from their BI investment: 81% report significant benefits from BI, with positive results including everything from greater profitability and enhanced brand recognition, to accelerated time to market and improved customer metrics.
But while many execs get plenty out of their BI programs, the survey also reveals that most organizations still feel something is lacking: Less than half of survey respondents believe their current approach allows them to take full advantage of the many varied opportunities offered by BI.

What holds them back? Unfortunately, it’s a lot of the same challenges that have plagued BI since the beginning: Data that’s tough to access. Data that isn’t available to everyone who needs it. Inconsistent data that leads to multiple versions of “the truth.” Siloed or incomplete data that doesn’t cover the entire scope of the business.

The good news is that a common thread runs through all of these obstacles – which means a common solution can help fix them. That solution? Data governance. But before you shudder at the idea of introducing a rigid governance program into your BI policy, hold up. This is a new approach to the way we govern our data.

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A new approach to data governance.
The term “governance” has a bad reputation, says Saum Mathur, SVP of Big Data Analytics & Information Management at CA Technologies, “because most people associate [the] term with strict control [of data].” But governance doesn’t have to be that way - as counterintuitive as it sounds, governance done right, says Mathur, can actually help enable your organization.

As Venilla Vetrivillalan, Senior Manager of Integrated Information Technology Service at Singapore Management University (SMU), puts it, the real role of governance is to provide a “foundation” for good data you can actually rely on. After all, Vetrivillalan says, “if the data is no good… we obtain no actual value from BI.” By securing data, standardizing definitions and formulas, and providing better access and control, governance helps ensure that the entire business works from one consistent, trusted data source. As a result, there are fewer debates over data, greater confidence in the insights uncovered from that data, and better, more reliable results as a whole.

Thankfully, despite governance’s bad rep, executives are starting to take notice of these benefits – and take greater advantage of governance as a result. More than three-quarters of the companies surveyed say governance is either vital or important to their BI operations – and 59% say governance is critical to “all we do.”

A BI platform that strikes the right balance.
If governance is going to truly lead to better BI, it can’t be done the same old way with the same old tools. Instead, this new approach to data governance must be introduced under a platform of flexibility and enablement. “Governance requires a really fine balance,” says Mike Saliter, VP of Global Industry Solutions at Qlik. “[You need] governing to the point where consistency is assured, but flexibility remains.”

Finding that proper balance has taken some time, though: 57% of survey respondents said that organizations who made or acquired their own decentralized BI systems (i.e., where BI is in the hands of teams, not IT) are now actually coming back to centralized BI, because of all the benefits of enhanced governance. But not fully centralized BI, though – most companies (68%) say their BI solution now provides the perfect cocktail of centralization and decentralization, delivering governance while still giving teams access to the data they need.

Qlik is one such BI magic bullet, providing a trusted, governed environment that also supports self-service analysis – allowing teams to uncover insights that matter to them, while ensuring they can truly trust the data those insights are based on. By striking this balance, and letting teams take advantage of the new approach to data governance, Qlik has helped companies get more from their data, and better realize the full potential of their BI efforts.

For more information on what it means to become a data-driven enterprise, visit qlik.com/whole-story.

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