A great discussion over the scope of the Chief Data Officer role, including the views of CDO’s from different sectors which included Jan Henderyckx as one of the panellists.
May 21st, 09:00-16:30 – Full Day Workshop
Getting to the Next Maturity Level with Information Governance: Delivering Accuracy and Trust
We have evolved from the age of automation to the information age. Proper information management and insights have become a linchpin that act as a catalyst for the execution of your business strategies. Information can be supporting or defining your business model. Having the data in your organisation is not enough as the true value comes from your ability to turn the data into operational information and insights that allow you to create business value and make strategic and tactical decisions. Aligning your information requirements with strategic business objectives is critical.
Tuesday 19 May, 11:30–12:15 DG KEYNOTE
Taking Information Governance to the Next Level: Creating an Information Centric Organisation
Our society is rapidly evolving towards being information driven. Pretty much every industry and line of business is confronted with increasing amounts of data and a push towards better decision taking. The domain of data governance has transformed into a much broader field of expertise that is about much more than being an honest broker focussing on better definitions and clarify ownership. The rapid adoption of analytics, increasing sets of data sources, HOV (harder to obtain value) data and compliance needs has resulted in mushrooming of often unrelated initiatives. The next generation of Information Governance needs to embrace these developments and use the domain experience to allow the convergence of the disparate initiatives and to use the energy and enable information centric organisations.
Data Governance Conference Europe 2015
Practical Approaches and Success Stories
Co-located with the
Master Data Management Summit Europe 2015
The “Must Attend” Event for Data Governance and MDM Professionals
Why attend this event:
Meet the Inpuls team at the event.
You could have been on retreat on a mountain, cut-off from all communication for the last four years, but that would be about the only excuse I can think of for you not knowing the new mantra: “data is the next hot thing”.
Most likely, your management wants to get into the BIG data space wants to hire a bunch of data scientist. Failing to do so would create such a BIG (capitalisation intended) competitive disadvantage we would all be out of a job pretty soon.
So what are you waiting for to wheel an elephant into the IT-room?
Is that really the first thing to do in order to achieve quickly a competitive advantage?
Any rom-com screenwriter may tell you that the pretty girl has always been under your nose, but you simply didn’t notice her until the end of the movie.In reality there is a huge untapped potential in many companies to get better insights and improve operational efficiency without bringing in exotic datasets or going into the uncharted waters of data lakes.
Being data driven is in the first place a mindset, and not a box of tools.
Obviously the new capabilities will allow you to push the envelope, but you would be surprised how much you can get out of your current envelope without having to push it too hard.
A simple approach would be to look at it from two angles:
what processes are not capturing transactional data, and
what transactional data is not being linked to a process?
In many cases there is far more available than what is being analysed. The bottles of water that are already available on your companies table, but remaining unopened, could prove to be more valuable in the short term, than having to run to a lake to stop your data thrust.
You only need to ask: “what data will bring me closer to reaching my targets?
Having an eCommerce site, but not acting upon dropped baskets? Making a next best offer has a high probability to turn into a sale. For sure, a quick route to an increased net profit.
There are plenty of similar examples that will help you reach your objectives and they might be closer than you would think.
So who has been under your nose, but has remained unnoticed till now?
Want to get started and get tangible benefits tomorrow? Engage us for a quick scan
June 2nd 2015
Hotel Lapershoek, Hilversum, Nederland
Workshop: “Optimaliseer uw Informatiestrategie en Informatie Governance”
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Information and Insight at your fingertips, “Minority Report or a blessing”
By Jan Henderyckx, Inpuls cvba
Summary of the session
It’s all about insight and sharing. Can we empower our internal and external service consumers through the delivery of information driven insight? The recent announcement on the possible power blackouts is a very striking example that teaches us that delivering more granular services and trying to serve to community is more complicated than it looks at first sight. “We give you more details on the streets that are impacted by zone” but… this configuration is subject to change as the power stations can be reconfigured. The net result is more detailed but possibly more confusing information. During this presentation Jan will pitch an approach that links the static and dynamic aspect of insight to the service configuration. Is your insight intrinsic value stable or does it deteriorate over time?
More info can be found on the itSMF website
Evolving from automation to information centricity
The industrial revolution started of by automating the tasks of the workers in order to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. The same principle was applied when the first IT systems where introduced. Their main purpose was to automate a specific business process or activity and to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this process or activity. The personal computer assisted calculations and document editing tasks and the ERP systems assisted specific resource planning activities.
Information exchange was often cumbersome and limited to an absolute minimum as the software solutions prime focus was the core task and not the integration or interfaces. A good example of this approach towards integration is the evolution of EDI protocols. Very few companies considered using integrated supply change EDI-item-grammar as their internal storage semantics. For most retailers the EDI is streamlined but then internally mapped to a multitude of different structures that support sales, logistics, marketing etc. This is clearly a missed opportunity for rationalising the complex landscape of the disparate applications.
Not only the information flow is hindered by this approach, as very often the ability to combine a set of activities into a consistent end-2-end workflow was not an objective of the technology solution. Another reason why chain processes such as Purchase to Pay or Order to Cash proves to be difficult.
The strong focus on the automation resulted in application silos that covered the needs of the business process but didnt consider the consistency of information across the different silos. The latter was often not an issue as the companies have often functional silos that fail to recognise the underlying information objects.
As the ERP vendors have levelled the playing field in many industries. The efficiency of the automation is no longer sufficient to obtain a competitive advantage. The software becomes a commodity and people move to a reuse, buy and only then build model. Having efficient automated processes is therefor no longer a key differentiator in most industries.
The focus shifts towards effective and efficient chain processes such as O2C (order to cash), P2P (Purchase to Pay) and more importantly in the context of information management the fact that we can maximise the insight that can be obtained out of the data at hand.
This information centric approach has to battle the years of process focus that led to a data landscape that is primarily application driven. The result is islands of data that dont align with the information boundaries. Duplication and inconsistencies are often the result. The answer to this challenge is the isolation of the information centric business functions and to expose these independent of any specific business process. The latter is exactly what the current wave of Master Data Management software solutions tries to achieve. They either solve the inconsistency issue through cleansing and transformation or they deliver the full set of create, update and delete services.
Even in an information centric model one can expect that a large portion of the business interaction will still be performed from a business process specific point of view: the purchasing department interacts with suppliers and the sales department deals with customers. Often a limited set of functions will understand that the underlying object being a legal entity or natural person is the object that is actually maintained. The true challenge is to identify the added value or risk involved when the link between the customer and supplier viewpoint is ignored by the organisation.
The building blocks for an information centric organisation
An information centric organisation can only be achieved if the data, regardless of its appearance, is managed as an asset.
You cant simply buy technology to instate information as an asset as it will require that all stakeholders act according to the relevant information policies. You cant achieve accuracy and trust if all steps in the information flow dont provide the required consistency.
COMPLEX PROBLEMS DONT NEED COMPLEX SOLUTIONS
Your business strategies suffer from poorly organised information
Proper information management and insights have become a linchpin that acts as a catalyst for the execution of your business strategies. Linking the information assets and the business strategy is the basis of your information strategy. If you cant define the correlation between improved information management and better insight there wont ever be a neither business case nor support for your initiative in the organisation. The value of information is very business domain specific as it always originates from the capability to use the information in support of a business function. There are many examples of business functions that benefit from increased information accuracy and trust. The role of the information strategy is to describe the cases where improvements will be beneficial and use this as the primary driver for the investment roadmap. Your Chief Data Officer can fulfil this function. An emerging role in many organisations as information was not necessarily recognised in the past. If its unclear how information could generate value you are likely missing the required innovation to make this happen. Rightfully the CDO often also has the mission to focus on innovative ways to monetize data or the increase the benefits obtained from the current data.
Your people underestimate the true value of information
The person creating the data is seldom the one that gets the most value out of it. A lack of common meaning results in broken End-2-End information chains, loss of value and business risk. Business process flows seldom correlate with information life-cycle flows. Not describing the information landscape results in a lack of understanding and lack of consistency in the accuracy requirements. The net result is total lack of trust and several remediation points and a poor operational efficiency.
The information architect would have to make sure we understand the ins and outs of the information flows and the relationship with the data stores. This landscape provides fundamental input to the information strategy as the architectural weaknesses become apparent.
Getting people to act according to the global information accuracy and trust objectives is very difficult is they are failing to see the whole picture. Often people dont handle the information appropriately as there is no apparent need in the context of their own business process.
You lack insight in your current information health
Think before you act. The current maturity needs to be taken into account when implementing change. Your approach should be issue centric and is not just copying the book. There is no point in changing for the sake of changing. The baseline of data incidents, quality and general policy compliance is a fundamental starting point for every information strategy. Organisations have the tendency to compensate for their inefficiencies. A formal baseline that is linked to the business benefits is a superb instrument to make the business case visible. When linked to the proper business drivers it also allows monitoring the effectiveness of your information strategy.
Your information is manageable but not sustainable
Every datapoint that is kept is obviously liability. Deciding to maintain information should not be a decision that is taken lightly. Depending on the update frequency it might prove to be expensive of virtually impossible to keep your data consistent with reality. There has to be clear business value when maintaining data. Having the right process, tools and policies to deliver the right quality level is essential for information life-cycle management. Often information management initiatives fail, as the scoping is not done properly. Focus is put on irrelevant datapoints resulting in huge budgets and very late delivery of the benefits. The information strategy needs to focus on the information that can be maintained at a proper accuracy and trust level with a cost that is lower than the benefits. Proper scoping and understanding of the benefits and the information quality decay frequency is the key to a successful information strategy execution.
You only have a hammer
Technology evolves at an amazing speed. Get the time to market and get ROI by using the right tools for the job. What capabilities are you missing? Investing in the right information management capabilities is required to keep the information correct at an acceptable cost and also to drive the necessary innovation that will create the data insight and business value. You information strategy needs therefore a technology capability roadmap angle to achieve the effectiveness that yields business benefits.
The logic should however not be reversed. Assuming that technology is the way out of every information management problem often proves to be the wrong angle.
Jan will present the full information strategy methodology with practical examples and guidelines in the two day seminar Defining and Executing Your Information Strategy that is schedule on 25-26 September 2014 and 3-4 March 2015 in London.
Many studies have indicated that we have evolved from the age of automation to the information age. Proper information management and insights have become a linchpin that act as a catalyst for the execution of your business strategies. Information can be supporting or defining your business model. Having the data in your organisation is not enough as the true value comes from your ability to turn the data into operational information and insights that allow you to create business value and make strategic and tactical decisions. Aligning your information requirements with strategic business objectives is critical.
The information strategy sets the direction but the route is long and winding. Information governance assures the shared meaning, attitudes and capabilities are consistent with the information and insight risk and value.
Increasing operational complexity and data volumes in todays organisations often result in unacceptable data quality, escalating costs and redundant development efforts. Information governance is a set of processes for the overall management of the availability, usability, integrity and security of the information assets in an enterprise. Thereby ensuring that information and insights can be trusted and that people can be made accountable for any adverse event that happens because of quality or interpretation problems.
Do you recognise that information is a business asset but do you struggle to setup the proper roles, processes and architectural principles to manage the information asset?
This two day seminar and workshop teaches you how you can turn your organisation around and make it information centric delivering on the promise of accurate and trusted business information.
Jan Henderyckx
etc.venues Paddington
57 North Wharf Rd
Paddington Basin, London, W2 1LA
Sales: 020 7989 0590
Switchboard: 020 7989 0590
Email: paddington@etcvenues.co.uk
http://www.etcvenues.co.uk/venues/paddington
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With the cost of computing and managing data going down every year, your organisation is able to capture and store increasing amounts of data. At the start of computing we were optimising applications and data storage to gain bytes. Nowadays, we have the ability to store TBs. Given the shift in cost per TB the type of data that is kept moves from the formally recognised business events, such as invoices and orders, to informal events such as GPS locations, website click behaviour, etc. The vast amount of informal events have the potential of generating insight and delivering business value if the proper algorithms are applied to them. With the positions of cell phones we can improve the flow of traffic or with the use of a website we can improve the efficiency of our product MDM efforts by focussing on the fields that seem to have the biggest impact on the buying ratio. Not every company has tapped into this rich source of informal events. Failing to exploit this ever increasing source of insight is the true information value gap.