SAP Data Governance

Data Governance: An Overview and Key Considerations

What Is Data Governance?

SAP data can deliver innovation, drive user experience, and provide competitive advantage. The process of marrying SAP data with non-SAP data from different systems — from Internet of Things devices to the back office to an organization’s web systems — is defining data culture around the world.

Simply combining data, however, is not enough. Proper management is essential to realizing its value.

Data governance is considered a core component of an effective data management strategy. Data governance can ensure that data is consistent, accurate, and protected.

The Data Governance Institute (DGI) defines data governance as “a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods.” (Read the DGI’s 10 rules of engagement.)

Data Governance: An Overview and Key Considerations

What Is Data Governance?

SAP data can deliver innovation, drive user experience, and provide competitive advantage. The process of marrying SAP data with non-SAP data from different systems — from Internet of Things devices to the back office to an organization’s web systems — is defining data culture around the world.

Simply combining data, however, is not enough. Proper management is essential to realizing its value.

Data governance is considered a core component of an effective data management strategy. Data governance can ensure that data is consistent, accurate, and protected.

The Data Governance Institute (DGI) defines data governance as “a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions with what information, and when, under what circumstances, using what methods.” (Read the DGI’s 10 rules of engagement.)

Key Considerations for SAPinsiders

The following steps can help you implement effective data governance:

• Create a strong business case for data governance. According to SAP partner Winshuttle, you need to be able to clearly communicate the value of your data to gain support from leadership. Winshuttle’s Winshuttle Foundation and Winshuttle Studio offer data management capabilities. According to the vendor, your data should be maintained through a data governance program that can ensure data quality and proper management, while complying with regulations to keep the data safe and effective.
• Increase revenue potential with a strong data governance foundation. Consider the approach of Breakthru Beverage Group. On a mission to become a fully integrated, data-driven business, the company first built a foundation with its data governance program. The initiative to cleanse and conform its material, vendor, and customer data was supported by SAP partner Protiviti, and resulted in a scorecard on data cleanliness as well as a downstream benefit: revenue generation, by enabling the business to more quickly activate products and more accurately report on them. Read the full data story.
• Set the stage for standardization and automation capabilities. In 2016, we wrote about Keurig Green Mountain’s approach to data governance. In response to meteoric growth and a growing love of the single-cup brew, the company undertook an ambitious data governance project. It transitioned from a data maintenance to a data governance organization. At the time, Keurig’s Director of Master Data Management Business Process Eileen Hanafin said its data governance initiative set the company up for future standardization and automation capabilities with a focus on continuous improvement.