Unlocking the Power of Data Governance: From Afterthought to Competitive Advantage

During the CDO Midwest Summit 2022, hosted by CDO Magazine and ComSpark, the following speakers discuss data governance best practices in the session “Unlocking the Power of Data Governance – From Afterthought to Competitive Advantage”:

1. Dan Crowley, SVP Enterprise Data, Fifth Third Bank
2. Samuel Davis, Director, Software Engineering, People Practice Leader, Nationwide
3. Scott Peachey, Global Head of Enterprise Data Governance, Invesco Ltd.

Arun Moolchandani, Head of Growth, Narwal Inc., moderates the session.

Crowley highlights the importance of data governance in the financial services industry, where data is the main product. He considers data governance as one of three core pillars of the company's strategy and aims to embed it into its processes. Crowley adds that the data mesh exchange strategy seeks to connect consumers with producers by establishing a foundational data management layer. 

Davis outlines key strategies for organizations to remain competitively advantaged. He emphasizes the importance of data management, accessibility, awareness, empathy, and customer insight. Additionally, he preaches reaching the destination and ensuring everyone has the same foundation to build on to maintain consistency, allegiance, and understanding.

Peachey suggests that data literacy is an important issue, and people should understand how to manage and govern data. He stresses understanding the fundamentals, leaving data where it is, and pulling only necessary information.

Likewise, Davis believes prioritization and understanding the importance of foundation is intrinsic to focusing on delivery. He maintains that having great morale and recognition from subject matter experts equals ROI.

Crowley recommends automating data management and creating wizards to make it easier for data producers to create data products in the cloud. Additionally, he mentions that automatically creating access rights, data quality projects, and baseline profiling rules can reduce the burden for data producers.

Regarding the future, Davis looks at cost, ransomware, breach, and cloud security to ensure the organization thrives in the future. He takes feedback and guidance from consultants while utilizing his team to make the best decisions to remain efficient and sustainable. 

In Peachey’s opinion, going to the cloud offers a fresh opportunity, but he also recommends establishing data management and governance first to ensure security and competitive advantage. He advocates having baseline quality metadata with guardrails to ensure data is set up in the cloud correctly.