Data Governance Blog

Data – The Language of Business

It is often said that data is the language of business today, which if true also means we are in big trouble. The number of unique data models that have been developed and deployed each represent unique dialects with custom taxonomies and ontologies. It is the lack of standardization and proliferation of custom data models that is complicating our applications and integrated business systems. They are driving up the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to prohibitively high levels.

This is the typical scenario in many businesses. Often there is a legitimate need to connect one application to another, and subsequently a third. All three have differing data models, so it is not a simple plug-and-play operation. Some form of translation utility is needed so a mapping is created and implemented adding two new applications/processes to manage. What had been three applications to manage has grown to five. The next change to be implemented requires more effort to maintain.

Had the data model (business language) been standardized across the three applications, there would be only three applications to maintain. Any ETL would be a straight data move with no transformation. This reduces TCO. You employ 3 developers vice 5. Or you re-purpose the added two developers to other tasks and projects. The time to deploy new products and services is reduced. The ability to report and analyze is enhanced. Ultimately the business performs better.

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Thanks for stopping by. My writing is intended to take a lighter look at Data Governance, and toss in some pragmatic advice along the way.  If you are interested in more information on how to implement Data Governance in your organization, please contact me via LinkedIn or the email address below.

Regards,
Tom Jesionowski

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