Ellen Shepard Archives - The Resource Collaborative

All of this fuss about predictive insights into customer behavior, customer market share and customer focus is not new…It all started many years ago when technology folks introduced the concept of contact lists and files…way before most CRM systems, as a way for sales and marketing folks to keep their contacts and activities in some reasonable order. Then, Zeus of Marketing said “this is not enough”…we need to be able to track what we are doing with each prospective customer and continue to do so once they are our customer – enter, the CRM system!

Fast forward a few years and I can remember when large diverse service organizations, like commercial/retail banks realized there was yet more to be had…we have customers who participate in one area of our service offerings and we should be able to capitalize on this information across the enterprise to be able to qualify them for other “go to market” opportunities. This was no little wake-up call…this was a technology revolution in its infancy…enter large relational databases and data warehouses with the capability to gather and house all of this customer information. At this point, the tools needed to retrieve this information in useable format, were complex and could most productively be used by an IT staff in responding to requests from the various marketing/product teams.

We are in the midst of an exciting opportunity to, once again, transform the organization’s customer relationship capabilities. What makes this time so different is that if positioned collaboratively, the IT Team can finally take its place at the table, not as an enabler or support arm, but as an integral part of the business’s capability to identify, target and service customers, not only from within the organization, but now from anywhere, anytime!

To do this effectively, both IT and Marketing needs to understand the digital transformations that need to occur and agree to face them as one team. It is time for these groups to work together to produce measurable results – ah, and that should mean reaping the accolades, and walking across the coals of the fires together! This will require a clear understanding of emerging and disrupting technologies – by everyone… the huge difference today, from when we have done this in the past, is that now your business success is tied to how well you understand, deliver and manage emerging technologies.

How are you handling this transformation within your organization? How is the Technology-Marketing relationship evolving? What has worked best?

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Through the hallowed halls of many a corporate IT department there continues to be an ongoing conversation about data governance, or put more simply, what is critical data, who “owns” it and who has a stake in the information culled from this data. Often, when faced with decisions that seem to have a technology solution behind them, organizations submit to the seemingly easier road and throw the responsibility into the lap of the IT department…after all, this is technology generated “stuff”.

If our conversation were to turn toward bits of data, this would seem plausible as they would not be useful at that level. However, once we coin the “stuff” as “data”, the possibilities for the use of this “stuff” as information has it take on a whole other meaning, which suggests a different way of thinking about the business process of data creation, gathering, storing, reporting, etc.

In enter the folks who “need” this data in the form of information to solve a business imperative. They are the people who “care”. As with most acts of creation, keeping responsibility for reliability and accuracy closest to the source usually guarantees this possibility. Ah, but then what happens when this data moves into the form of information and is handed off to those who need it?

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Now, who is responsible for the care and feeding of this information? Theory and some experience along the way, say those who have a need for something will nurture it best.

I hope you have garnered the not so subtle difference between data and information…Let’s go back to where we started and set-up a couple of premises:

Data is created, gathered, stored, reported through technological processes, as defined by people who need information from this data.

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Information is data that is in useful form, as requested by those who need it, usually to solve a business imperative.

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Governance is the act of rule setting and monitoring. In the case of data or information governance, it is like the county seat for these valuable commodities. They cannot be separated since they reside symbiotically.

There was a time in our not so long ago technological world that the answer to the question, “DATA, DATA – WHO OWNS THE DATA & WHO CARES?” would be easy to answer. Technology had not become sophisticated enough to unleash the fruits of its labor into the business world without tight control. That day has passed…We now have savvy technology users throughout organizations who can quickly learn the processes necessary for them to avail themselves of what they need to perform their jobs – what the firm needs to increase revenue – and what predicative analysis can shine on the future planning for a firm.

Is it time for IT departments to step back from the Data Governance forefront, maintain the back-end processing, ensure tools are available to users and allow the organization to govern its data and information? How are you handling this in your organization? What is working and what is challenging?

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It’s Always Been All about the Customer!

Data Governance: DATA, DATA, Who Owns It, And Who Cares?