A well-architected data governance plan will give your company a competitive edge. Through the process, you’ll establish an infrastructure and protocols that allow you to leverage data and derive insights with maximum efficiency. Though data governance is part of data management, it also extends beyond, encompassing a far wider breadth and addressing different goals.
The primary objectives of your company’s data governance plan may include the following:
- Establish an organized, well-structured data environment;
- Create a user-friendly system for accessing data and running that information through data visualization tools or predictive analytics engines; and
- Establish measures to ensure that data maintains secure, while also increasing the overall accountability for your enterprise data.
What Data Platforms and Tools Will You Utilize?
Your data governance plan will need to address your data architecture, detailing the different platforms and tools that you’ll be using to store, process and display data. These tools and platforms can include:
- The original data sources (such as a point of sale system, website or enterprise mobile app);
- Data lakes;
- Data warehouses;
- Data visualization tools;
- Predictive analytics engines; and
- Other data processing tools.
The best data governance strategies will articulate precisely how data flows between these various platforms or portals. You may opt to map out this data flow, specifying which platforms are directly connected and the nature of data flow between two or more platforms. For instance, you may opt for continual real-time data flow, periodic updates on a set schedule or on-demand data flow that occurs only when a user requests it.
Once you have a good idea of your data architecture, your development team can work to make this vision a reality. Some platforms may be easy to connect, while others may require custom software to facilitate an appropriate data flow.
What Data Management Tools Will You Need?
As you craft a data governance plan and begin to consider data lake and data warehouse creation, you’ll need to address the issue of effective data management. This is particularly important for companies serving customers or clients in the European Union, which is protected by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
GDPR compliance requires a few useful data management tools:
- The ability to “forget” and delete a user’s data upon request;
- The ability to document the deletion of a user’s data (and other actions involving the data set);
- The ability to detect security breaches, which must then be reported to affected users.
These are important capabilities that you will need to integrate into your data governance plan in order to ensure full GDPR compliance.
Data Encryption and User Permissions
It goes without saying that your company’s data will need to be encrypted in an effort to limit liability. The level and type of encryption will vary according to the industry and the nature of the data.
Another strategy for limiting liability entails isolating different data sets. For instance, one database may contain a hospital patient’s personal information, while a separate database houses that patient’s medical records. These data sets can be configured and encrypted in a manner that makes it impossible for a hacker to determine which patient name aligns to a particular set of medical records (and vice versa). This strategy essentially limits the amount of data that’s compromised in the event of a breach involving one of the two data sets.
Your data governance plan should also include the creation of different user roles, which should be architected so users can only access the information that they need in order to fulfill their role within the company. Different roles may be established to grant varying levels of access for different positions or divisions within the business or organization.
At 7T, our expert team has the experience and knowledge required to develop a robust, user-friendly data governance strategy that meets your company’s unique needs. We can work with you to help you achieve your goals by maximizing your ability to leverage data and the vital insights that can be derived from that data. 7T’s product, Sertics, provides you with the tools you need for data lake creation and effective and secure data governance. Sertics also integrates with leading predictive analytics and data visualization tools in order to fuel business insights and empower data-driven decision making.
Additionally, 7T specializes in a range of other services, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platforms, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, SaaS solutions and, of course, mobile app development services.
Based in Dallas, 7T also has regional offices located in Chicago and Houston. If you’re seeking an innovative development partner to help guide your data governance strategy, we invite you to contact the team at 7T today.