The Power of Data as an Enabler: Use Cases, Strategies, and Governance Frameworks

This October 26th, Harpreet Khalsa , Chief Data Officer at Edith Cowan University , Co-Author of The Data Playbook and one of IAPA - Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia 's top 25 Analytics Leaders of 2022, will be on-stage at CDAO Perth .

Part of Corinium Global Intelligence 's Chief Data and Analytics Officer series, CDAO Perth will be welcoming Western Australia’s data community together to explore some of the biggest challenges – and opportunities – being presented by the advent of data, analytics, and AI.

I was excited to catch up with Harpreet before the event to explore his work in the data space and give you a sneak-peak at what you can expect on stage:

Alexandra: At Edith Cowan you have been doing a lot of work transitioning your data and modernising your systems – can you tell us a little more about what you have been working on and the challenges of transitioning from a legacy system?

Hapreet: We have just completed 15-month project which was about transitioning from our legacy EDW to much more modern, scalable, and cost-efficient platform. The biggest challenge, which I didn’t expect at the start of the project, was finding Data Engineers. COVID-19 brought sudden and unexpected uplift in demand for data engineers, and this presented us with resourcing challenges, which took some time to settle down. Other challenges included shifting our mindsets on how licensing in cloud is consumption based, our architecture, and design and development with cost as a focal point. Additionally, it was a challenge to manage the old data warehouse while developing the new one with same amount of resources. The team did the fantastic job in managing the priorities and overcoming the challenges of managing two environments and workloads in parallel for 15 months.

Alexandra: A project like this is not one undertaken without a business case in mind – what will your new systems allow you to do that you couldn’t before?

Harpreet: Ageing technology had its own inherent problems and was causing hinderance in servicing the business with the needs that required data to be sourced from plethora of systems residing in different clouds and providing datasets in different formats and standards.

Our business case focused on how cloud based, modern technologies will not only assist us with better connectivity to various cloud-based source systems, agility in our development processes, scalability to meet peaks and troughs in demand, but also bring transparency and reduction in cost.

It also included benefits around availability of human resources as modern data engineers are getting trained and skilled with cloud-based capabilities only, and working on legacy technologies will pose challenges on availability of appropriate skills in medium – long term.

Alexandra: ?The Data Playbook which you have been co-authoring deep-dives into all things data for the higher education industry. Can you tell us more about the drivers in the industry and the challenges and opportunities you see?

Harpreet: The Data Playbook is an initiative to share the insights and experience with my industry colleagues on how data can play a leading role to resolve challenges in all the dimensions of business in education industry. Higher education is influenced by numerous drivers and some of them include - domestic employment rates, population growth, change in demand for skilled workers, funding regulations, visa regimes, research performance, operational efficiencies, alternate pathways and products, political shifts in key markets from where student come to Australia, graduate outcomes, University ranking – to name a few.

Depending upon the environment that the education provider is operating within, any change in these drivers brings challenges of different scale to them.

Every change demands a balanced approach on how it will be addressed to advance its strategic priorities and goals.

Data becomes the key enabler to convert these challenges into opportunities. Universities that will be able to harness their data in the best manner to create a future pathway that is based upon quality insights will be able to create competitive advantage.

Alexandra: Now, at CDAO Perth, you will be joining the panel discussion on data governance. Can you talk about the role of the business in developing data strategies and the impacts of data governance frameworks on data projects?

Harpreet: Business plays a pivotal role in development and implementation of data strategies. Data is there to support the efficiency and effectiveness of business decision making.

Any data strategy that is developed in isolation from business will never be able to provide best outcomes for the organisation.

Data governance frameworks not only provide positive outcomes for data projects but any technology project.

Technology projects should also be considering data governance requirements and bake them into project implementation to make sure data created on these systems is of good quality from go-live date.

Alexandra: One last question, when we look beyond data towards AI, ethics and responsibility are key topics around which there is so much discussion. Can you talk a little about data ethics and the discussions in this space? How do these impact the development and deployment of new data architectures?

Harpreet: Ethics define the culture and DNA of any organisation. Ethics and responsibility should always have been the focal point of any business but its good to see that data and AI has highlighted the gap on this critical front. For us ethics is very important part of our discussions in data space. As a higher education provider, we are bound by number of legislations by federal / state governments and there are number of policies and procedures that we need to adhere to safeguard the unethical use of data.

Data architectures need to support data safety and prevent any unauthorized access to data.

Apart from architecture, there should be governance processes to ensure that stakeholders across the business are using data within ethical parameters as defined and agreed by the organisation.

Want to know more? Join us at the Pan Pacific on October 26th where you can hear about future-proofing business operations, digital transformation, data strategies, scaling solutions, building a data-driven culture, diversity and deep-dive into use cases from across WA – and of course, join Harpreet’s session on data governance.

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Panel Discussion | Key Considerations in Data Governance

• Business owned governance: getting the strategic involvement of business in strategy
• How effective can protections around data be?
• Open data vs privacy: bridging the gap between security and public engagement
• Championing governance: strategies and initiatives to harness data
• Ethics and governance: how does it inform policy?
• WA PRIS: what will be the impact on data governance, data sharing and new data opportunities?

Panellists:

Harpreet Khalsa , Chief Data Officer, Edith Cowan University

Harpreet Khalsa is a firm believer in Information is a real asset and if utilised prudently with well understood business objectives, it can make wonders happen. Working with business leaders in both consulting and industry has helped Harpreet acquire business acumen and that combined with his passion of converting data into actionable insights has helped him deliver on a variety of meaningful analytical and forecasting capabilities.

Krista Bell , Senior Manager: Data Governance & Strategy, Beyond Bank Australia

Krista Bell specialises in Data Strategy, Data Governance and how to create data-enabled capabilities within organisations. She has worked across several industry sectors including the Financial; Resource; Telco and Member sector within Australia, UK and Europe. She also has a keen interest in data ethics within AI/ML and ESG considerations.

Jeslyn Kuan , Senior Manager Data Analytics & Insights, P&N Bank

With a career in financial services?spanning over 15 years, Jess has a wealth of experience in the banking industry.

Responsible for P&N Group’s data management and analytics, Jess is focused on building a data-driven organisation through embedded data governance capabilities, growth of data literacy, and the introduction of modern data concepts and tools to support strategic decision-making. Her approach to analytics and governance is process-driven and business-focused, driving insights to improve customer outcomes whilst balancing growth and sustainability for the Group.