I recently published a white paper with Balaji Soundararajan and Joe Yacura, focused on the topic of data governance. The paper was published with the support of Bravo Solutions, and also included respondents from the SCRC.

The study deals with an issue that most organizations face today: the overwhelming amount of data being collected and stored both internally and externally. With the sheer volume of data projected to increase tenfold by 2020, the procurement and supply chain function is no exception to challenge of assessing better ways to leverage this dramatic increase in both structured and un-structured data.

These same organizations are seeking to adopt advanced analytical practices and utilizing innovative business intelligence approaches. The nature of these mechanisms is reliant upon continuous availability and utilization of data from multiple sources. Companies have invested significant infrastructure to support the availability of data in various structured (databases, data feeds etc.) and unstructured (social media, emails, text etc.) forms that provide volume, variety, velocity and veracity. The term “Big Data” is pretty commonplace to describe this activity using data. A basic assumption of all “Big Data” initiatives is that there are reliable sources of high quality, relevant, complete and accurate sources of data that support decision making. Given the volume of data and the expectations of quality, value and speed; procurement organizations need a strong “Data Governance” program in place.

“Data Governance” is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for the 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.
(“Data Governance” Institute). If this seems fairly straightforward and obvious, then think again. The results of our survey found that 68% of companies in America agree that their decisions were definitely impacted by a lack of solid data. Further, there is little clarity on what is meant by the term ““Data Governance””, and no widespread agreement about who is responsible for it. So far, there is no clear role on how procurement will handle current and future “Data Governance” needs. Only 15% of procurement leaders know or understand the specific presence of data governance functions within their companies.

Perhaps the most important function enabled by Data Governance programs is to ensure acceptable data quality levels for procurement function. Standardizing data quality across the entire procurement function will certify the veracity of analysis using any approach. Of the traditional six dimensions to data quality, Accuracy ranks the highest priority among the procurement professionals we surveyed, followed by validity and completeness. Our study also showed that governance programs helped increase overall data quality by 33% on average.

How should companies get started on a data governance program? Download our paper to read more…