Driven by Data | The Newsletter, Edition 56

Another Tuesday, another Orbition newsletter! It's a busy time for us at Orbition HQ, with lots of great things planned for the coming months! But for now, let's get into this week ??

Driven by Data | The Podcast

In Episode 23, of Season 4, of Driven By Data: The Podcast , Kyle Winterbottom was joined by Caroline Zimmerman , Director of Data Product & Strategy at Profusion . They discuss the research study she helped to conduct into how private equity companies are leveraging Data & AI to fuel growth and enterprise value, which includes the catalyst for conducting the research study, why private equity has a very specific definition of value and how to measure it and why PE has a lot to teach the corporate Data & Analytics landscape, amongst many other interesting topics!

Listen here: https://orbitiongroup.com/driven-by-data-podcast/

The Driven by Data Mentorship

We're also still accepting applications for the Driven by Data Mentorship programme. We're looking for both mentors and mentees to join the programme. This mentorship initiative is designed to provide professionals with insights and connections to top data analytics leaders worldwide. It's geared towards senior managers and professionals on their career paths in the Data & Analytics industry. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your career to the next level! Submit your application now to be considered for our upcoming June cohort: https://lnkd.in/gRaxpc_3 .

Upcoming LinkedIn LIVE: Panel Discussion, Data Culture Transformation in 2024

Join us for an engaging LinkedIn Live event that features esteemed speakers from prominent organisations! Our panel includes Hannah Davies , who serves as the Head of Data Culture & Excellence at Admiral Group Plc ; Josh Cunningham , the Group Head of Data Culture at Lloyds Banking Group ; and Sandra Oudshoff , the Global Analytics Engagement Lead at 喜力 .

Kyle Winterbottom will host the event, and our dynamic panel will explore the role of data culture in organisational transformation and strategic decision-making. You can also take part in the Q&A session and directly engage with our panellists.

To secure your spot, register now: https://www.dhirubhai.net/events/7165305479538139136/comments/

20 Rising Stars Judging Day Tomorrow

As you may have heard, the deadline for the 20 Rising Stars in Data & Analytics campaign has passed, and Judging Day is scheduled for tomorrow! We are excited to announce that we have received an overwhelming response with a total of 68 entries. Our esteemed panel of judges will carefully review each submission and choose the finalists. The finalists will be revealed in the upcoming second edition of Driven by Data Magazine.

Our judges are Katy Gooblar , Tolu Adebekun , Kyle Winterbottom and Helen Blaikie . Data Literacy Academy proudly sponsors this campaign.

The Critical Importance of Data Governance within an Organisation

This week's insight blog is brought to you by Natalia Kurasinski

Over the last few years, we have seen many digital transformations happening throughout different organisations, with the use of cloud migrations, generative AI and other influential technologies taking over. With all this in mind and all of these serving different purposes towards data, everything needs to be governed to make sure that the data is clean and secured.

What is Data Governance though? Why do we need it and how do we go about this?

Data Governance is everything an organisation does to ensure data is secure, accurate, available, and usable. This involves establishing different processes, policies, and standards to make sure that data is in line with the objectives of a business and is in line with their regulatory requirements. This can be set across areas such as Data Privacy, Data Quality, Data Management, Data Stewardship and Compliance. Implementing all these areas will help to make data-driven decisions, reduce any risks, and earn trust from customers and clients that their data is in good hands.

It's important to dissect the key areas above, as depending on the scale of your organisation you will have multiple employees working on key areas however in start-ups/scale-ups, you could see several employees taking on various roles and working across the whole lifecycle of Data Governance.

Data Quality Management involves several different elements including Data Profiling, Data Validation, Data Cleaning and Reporting. Having this in place ensures that the data is accurate, complete, and relevant. Maintaining high-quality data ensures that an organisation can make well-informed data-driven decisions whilst gaining reliable insights. This also leads to reduced areas in all departments and creates further revenue opportunities. If this area of the Data Governance lifecycle is neglected this can lead to inaccurate decision-making, which then further down the line can result in wasted resources and missed business opportunities. Furthermore, this can put a business at a loss.

Data Stewardship is classed as the accountability and responsibility for data and its processes. A Data Steward can be responsible for the policies, and data usage and can also control the quality of the data. With these responsibilities in hand, this role will usually sit in between the business and technical stakeholders as decisions have to be made that can affect not only the strategy but other elements such as Data Modelling, Data Analysis and Data Warehousing. Data Stewards can be classed as experts when it comes to the quality and trust of data and can be seen by many organisations as a valuable asset when it comes to managing the data better, especially if one has a ton of it!

Data Privacy and Compliance is a crucial aspects to consider for any organisation. For companies that are handling a huge amount of personal and company data, this is something that needs to be handled carefully and correctly. Without having this in place, can lead to a lack of trust, and laws and regulations being broken which can then also segment yourself to being an unethical data practice. To keep equipped with all the relevant information and new legal requirements, it’s important to regularly check the policies that are in place, so everyone understands the correct data management practices, regular audits, and training with colleagues to make sure they are aware of how to be compliant in their role.

Lastly, we come to Data Management which is the practice of managing an organisation’s data so this can be analysed for well-informed decision-making across all departments. Key components can include Master Data or Meta Data Management and various technologies can be used such as Atacama, Collibra and Informatica.

From all these key areas, it can be seen that they are all connected, and all have similar benefits if carried out correctly, that can be beneficial for an organisation. Without all this place, it can lead to a lot of uncertainty within an organisation and a lot of risk.

As we saw over the last couple of years, there have been numerous discussions around Data Governance and Generative AI. With this being a fast-evolving technology that numerous organisations are now using, it’s important that all grounds are covered, and risks are mitigated, especially with how companies want to move quickly with GenAI. This new technology can enhance a business and create new opportunities and with this taken into consideration, it’s an organisation’s responsibility to be ethical with their approach, have mature data governance capabilities and comply with the regulations and policies that are in place.

In conclusion, not only will a healthy Data Governance lifecycle support an organisation, no matter the size, but it will also create a data-centric culture showcasing to the wider team how important data should be, creating a collaborative culture which can then lead to an improved employee engagement and brand reputation.

And lastly, this week's data joke:

Why did the data governance committee throw a party?

Because they finally achieved data harmony - it was a well-structured celebration!

See you next week! ??

Team Orbition

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