3 Tips to Ensuring Data Governance Compliance and Success

Compliancy with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) must be completed by applicable businesses before May 25, 2018.  Many organizations are wondering how exactly to get started with next steps on achieving complete compliance.

The first and most critical measure a business should take around data regulation is ensuring a rock solid data governance program is put into place. According to the Data Governance Institute, effective data governance can boost the income generation potential of a brand’s data, increase consistency and effectiveness of internal decision making, decrease the risk of regulatory fines, and of course, improve overall data security. It is an opportunity for your company to safeguard consumer confidence, which will allow for greater overall business success. 

So what’s the easiest way to get started? Tealium’s Data Experts have created this simple, three-part plan to create and execute an efficient data governance program.

1. Build A Strong Council of Data Stewards

Strategically identify an individual within the organization who will be the Chief Steward — someone who has easy access to upper management and is well respected throughout all facets of the business. The newly appointed Chief Steward will need to be driven and confident in their ability to put together a strong Data Governance Council, which includes representatives from each department. The Council should meet regularly on all things data — data architecture management, database operations management, data warehousing, business intelligence management and so much more.

Tealium User Data Governance Tip:
Create a new process for onboarding and offboarding new vendors and tags,regular auditing and documenting all current tags, quarterly auditing of all underperforming tags and ROI implications of those underperforming tags.

2. Define a Set of Policies & Procedures

Data plays a crucial role in the success of every business. It drives both relationships and ROI. The Data Governance Council will want to establish a clear set of policies and procedures within every department where data is actively present. What is each department capturing? What does every role within that department do with it? Where is the information stored, and updated, and deleted? Create and share an agreed upon process that takes a unified approach to data management and put a clear set of procedures into place that is easy to understand and implement for every area of the business. The Data Governance Council will want to have regular communication with all of the key players who are helping to adopt the new data governance plan to ensure both compliance and the understanding of why such data governance is important. Getting buy-in from the top down within an organization will ensure long-term data governance success. Keep the team engaged by sharing regular updates around all policies and procedures with the entire organization.

Tealium User Data Governance Tip:
Use the tags and load rules within Tealium’s tag management to identify the firing order of tags.  Document this and share with applicable stakeholders.

3. Create and Execute A Strategic Plan

Once the Data Governance Council creates a standard set of policies and procedures, it is time to form a comprehensive plan that includes all departments who touch data. Tealium recommends creating a short-term plan to identify and resolve any current data issues and discrepancies, as well as a more long-term plan that is repeatable — ultimately becoming like a well-oiled machine. The data a business holds is pure gold is sometimes an untapped resource. By putting a strategic, yet simple data governance plan and methodology into place, a company is not only compliant but may also uncover new opportunities from their data.

Tealium User Data Governance Tip:
The Data Governance Council will want to discuss ongoing tag management strategy and cleanup in their regularly scheduled meetings. What isn’t working? Why not? How do we resolve and ensure accuracy in the future?  Doing quarterly debriefs on the current tag management plan in place will allow companies to optimize and improve tag results.

Quick Tips for Data Governance Success:

• Keep up the momentum of your data governance program by celebrating quick wins and communicating them to the team (i.e., fixing a pain-point, cleaning up inaccurate data, brainstorming a solution to a data challenge — think low hanging fruit).
• As Benjamin Franklin once said “If you fail to plan then you are planning to fail”.  Create a plan and stick to it.
• Download Tealium’s Whitepaper on Data Governance: Embracing Securing & Privacy.
• Have a data driven mindset about your data.  What state is it in now?  Where do you eventually want it to be?  Track, report, measure, repeat.
• Continue moving forward with your new data governance plan.  This isn’t a set it and forget it project.  Data governance programs are ongoing and evergreen.  

Feel like you’re ready to get started with data governance?  Be sure to print up and use Tealium’s 5 Step Data Governance Checklist to jumpstart your data governance strategy while preparing for successful integration across your organization.  Prefer a more detailed approach and want to totally immerse yourself in data governance? Want to know more about GDPR? We’ve got you covered – watch Tealium’s newest video on GDPR and how it impacts your business.

Build a strong council of data stewards, define a clear and actionable set of policies and procedures and create a strategic plan so your business will be on its way to execute a compliant data governance today.