As part of its regular Signals forum for Senior Executives, Davies recently conducted a roundtable event on Data Governance. Our purpose was to revisit the subject since our last Signals event on this topic in Q4 2019; one of the themes we focussed on was – Is “traditional” Data Governance failing? The event generated strong interest and was attended by practitioners from many leading asset and wealth management firms.
“Over 75% of respondents confirmed that their Data Governance capability had either not delivered or had not been established; only 6% felt that it had delivered on its objectives, while the remaining 18% advised that their Data Governance capability was a partial success.”
Data Governance initiatives traditionally arose off the back of either audit or regulatory findings or to comply with privacy and consumer laws with a singular view of how to implement and execute data governance. The approach was often centralised, with a data first approach based on a defensive strategy to mitigate risk, sometimes at the expense of the true needs of those who work with data. Policies and standards were typically developed in silos and then enforced throughout the organisation.
The exponential growth in data volumes over recent years has challenged this approach and shown that the one-size-fits-all approach does not always work. It does not fully cater for the accelerated pace of business and innovation needed to compete or effectively address the complexity and requirement for agility (particularly with the advent of Enhanced Data Analytics or even the use of Generative AI and Machine Learning). The burden of obligations often resides with data users who do not always know how to meet new and unexpected responsibilities. Organisations frequently lack a clear and comprehensive framework for governing their data assets, with project teams often forced to ignore governance or leverage manual activities to conform with expectations.
As a result, improving data quality remains challenging, and although investment in data and analytics remains a priority for most organisations, progress towards becoming a data-driven firm remains slow.
The fundamentals, however, remain the same – data needs to be consistent and of high quality, readily available, accessible when needed, and usable with minimal intervention whilst remaining secure and compliant with regulations.
“The “traditional” approach to governance is incapable of meeting these requirements and needs to evolve to factor a people first approach and be more adaptive and responsive to the needs of the business.”
In my next articles I will explore what it takes to deliver Data Governance excellence and whether new technology and vendor solutions can help propel data solutions.
How can Davies Consulting help?
Davies is a global advisory and delivery firm with deep expertise within the investment management industry and has extensive experience in supporting all aspects of your journey to become a data driven organisation. Please get in touch if you would like to have a conversation to find out how Davies can help you.
