Data Management: ‘If you think good data is expensive, try bad data.'[Adapted from Brian Foote & Joseph Yoder.]
In 2012 we published our Enterprise Data Management special in Compact for the first time.[https://www.compact.nl/publicatie/2012-2/] We concluded our editorial saying: ‘We hope that reading this Compact may provide you with a moment of enlightenment and that you will allocate data the place on the agenda that it deserves.’ And so it did! In 2014 another EDM issue of Compact about the value of data was released.[https://www.compact.nl/publicatie/2014-2/]
During the last four years within KPMG we have seen ‘data’ becoming a major topic in the boardroom. Driven by compliance, growth or efficiency, data became an ever present element in discussions at the highest level. However it is fair to say that those in command may not always have been aware of the fact that data was and is a precondition for many, if not all, compliance, growth or efficiency initiatives. Nevertheless through those initiatives they became the sponsors for setting up and improving data management.
Examples of data projects at the back end of business programs and projects are being discussed in this edition of Compact. Akça and Biewenga describe the challenges organizations face when they have to deal with large scale data migrations. Data governance is an ever present topic in every data related project. Jeurissen and Martijn discuss data governance in the predictive analytics environment of the Amsterdam Innovation Arena. Laws and regulations have become a driving force for many data initiatives in the last few years. Solvency and Basell have explicit requirements for data quality. The BCBS 239 regulations provide even more explicit guidance for data management. Rothwell et al. provide an end to end view on data quality. Data quality has specifically become a topic in the Food Retail industry. The quality of food related data has been a challenge for the industry for many years. Stakeholders participating in GS1 have developed new initiatives to increase the quality of food data. This is further dealt with by Van der Ham, Van Rijswijk and Swartjes. Organizational models for managing data in organizations are a constant element in discussions with our clients. Van der Staaij and Tegelaar provide us with their views based on practical experience in their contribution to this Compact. Many of our clients are looking for new business models to capitalize on all the data that they have available. Potentially enriching internal data sets with external data. This is the topic of Verhoeven’s contribution. Lastly Martijn and Tegelaar provides us with their view on document management, archiving and retention.
We are convinced that only those organizations that are able to manage and control their data will survive. While others who do not see the need and necessity to do so will fade away. The latter will not be able to comply to laws and regulations and will be faced with litigation and fines. They will not be able to provide their customers with a seamless digital journey, which will drive their customers to their competitors. And they will be faced with inefficiencies in collecting, storing, exchanging and archiving data. Leading companies have already discovered that bad data is more expensive than good data.
Ronald Jonker
Partner Enterprise Data Management and Guest Editor