(US and Canada) Joshua Martin, Chief Data Officer, Indiana Management Performance Hub, speaks with Adita Karkera, Chief Data Officer, Deloitte Government and Public Services, in a video interview about data governance, the statutory structure, data proficiency, and the approach to increasing data literacy within the organization.

Martin says that the statutory structure eliminated a lot of legal overhead and helped create the data-sharing agreement framework for agencies and other entities. He adds that the standardized data-sharing agreement helped build the foundation for the legal framework. It was already there when COVID hit, making it easy to rapidly address the massive need to exchange data.

Elaborating further, Martin says that the statutory language allows Indiana Management Performance Hub to work as an agent of the agencies and handle the exchange of information. This also led to cataloging the information being moved, helping to increase knowledge of what data is moving, where, for how long, and for what purpose.

Next, Martin highlights that the pandemic pushed the topic of data proficiency to the forefront as data literacy was low globally. That led to a data proficiency program for all state employees. The program allowed them to hone their skills in reading, writing, and arguing with data.

He mentions that the prominence of data governance across sectors led to setting up the Data Governance Council, which included peers from various agencies who offered the Hub guidance in its work.

According to Martin, it is impossible to scale the organization to meet demand without governance. He points out that better management helps more efficiently explore emerging technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data visualization. It will also make it easier to respond to emergencies like COVID more effectively and collaborate better across the enterprise.

Martin highlights two key people-based outcomes of the COVID response: improved skills and access to learning resources across the board.

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