Data, used and managed correctly, has been proven to be a key business asset; data-driven businesses are often cited as consistently outperforming those that are not.
Many organisations do not have a corporate strategy to leverage the value of their data. As a result, inefficient and silo’d data stores often proliferate, delivering little but costing a lot. These structured data stores take many forms, including ‘Line of Business’ (LOB) applications, databases, data warehouses, spreadsheets, reporting and analytics tools.
At the extreme of this scenario, the cost of managing data can be greater than the value derived from it and, instead of being a asset, the data is a liability.
Organisations typically have distributed and unmanaged data stores to some extent, unwittingly incurring significant cost in the management of inefficient systems and the limited business value they provide.
This audit and appraisal focuses on structured data held electronically. It is designed to lift the lid on the potential issues outlined above, to provide an insight into how data is currently being managed and how it could be managed better for the benefit of the organisation.
It provides an analysis and appraisal of:
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Corporate goals for data |
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Current Systems' fitness for purpose |
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Analysis of data location |
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Connectivity between information systems |
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Efficiency by which data is being managed |
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Value being derived vs effort to maintain and manage |
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Ability to support potential future data requirements |
It helps an organisation to undertake an initial appraisal of its approach to structured data information systems and where appropriate, identifies potential alternative solutions and risk mitigation strategies.
Key elements of this service are to identify and assess:
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Key data assets that exist, their locations and how they link together |
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Areas where the business perceives it is deriving value and where it perceives it is experiencing poor value |
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Where data management processes are highly inefficient value that could be leveraged |
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Inefficiencies in the management of data assets |
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Accessibility of key data assets to relevant stakeholders |
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Current strategy for information systems |
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Technologies currently in use and their ability to adequately and efficiently support the planned strategy |
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Options and recommendations for improvement |
