Accelerating speed of insights through modern data governance: Part 2

In part one of this blog, I suggested that retailers and consumer-packaged goods companies drive performance through a speed-of-insight approach to data governance. In part two, we look at the value that delivers.

Mature data governance for retailers should enable insights at real-time with the principles of a “DataOps” approach to continuously provide data-driven solutions to the business. It should lead to a proactive, collaborative, and self-service citizen-data-scientist culture by truly democratizing data and analytics. A matured data infrastructure with robust governance enables the following capabilities:

• A well-established data foundation with an automated, factory-style data pipeline to ingest, transform and prepare data with minimum human intervention
• A robust master data management (MDM) system around customers and products to establish a single version of truth
• Spot trends and outliers as the data moves in the pipeline to trigger necessary events and alerts to which the business can respond
• Secure data by design, both in transit and at rest
• A searchable data catalog for anyone in the organization to browse and understand data and embed data-driven insights in their everyday analytics
• Democratization of data by implementing self-service technology tools that empower users to access and analyze data independently, without the need to go through IT teams
• Hold a complete record of actions on the data through a full audit trail
• Publish KPIs around data quality, e.g. data accuracy, completeness, freshness, etc.
• Accelerate the time-to-value cycle for new analytics and solutions by sourcing, securing, and cataloging the external sources of industry training data
• Help business users improve the effectiveness of value creation by letting them add new external data to the existing analytics in an easy and secure manner
• Automated process to manage the end-to-end data lifecycle, including purging data that is no longer required
• Enable businesses to proactively address regulatory and compliance requirements with a high degree of confidence.

Many aspects of data management evolved in recent years, such as big data, data lakes, cloud-based storage and compute, self-service analytics, data streaming, AI/ML, etc. They brought in complexities to the data landscape but opened up opportunities for data democratization and self-service analytics. The traditional process-oriented compliance-driven data management and governance practices will no longer serve the purpose in the era of agility and flexibility. Retailers and consumer-product companies need to modernize their data governance practices by taking up a people-centric approach from a process-centric one, to enable seamless collaboration of data across key stakeholder with agility.

It’s a fascinating journey to thrive on data, analytics, and AI. The mantra for success is all about harnessing the abundance of trusted and connected data and turning it into smart data. Information governance plays a crucial role in setting up the data-driven culture with the necessary processes and tools. A robust data infrastructure with active and agile governance ensures data democratization, faster speed to insights, better quality of insights, and a higher degree of confidence and trust in the data. Winning retailers unlock exponential growth through their data investments by significantly improving customer experience, enhancing sales and marketing, and superior merchandising.

How do you take your data journey to the next level? Why do you need a modern and flexible governance strategy in place to support your journey? What are your blockers?

Capgemini can help in turning your big data into big opportunities by guiding you to establish a data-trust foundation with modern and agile data-governance practices using our quick-start active data governance framework.

Dinand Tinholt is Vice President with Capgemini’s Insights & Data Global Business Line responsible for the North American Consumer Products, Retail and Distribution Market. Dinand helps clients use data and analytics to improve their performance and innovate their products and services. Contact him to discuss your requirements at dinand.tinholt@capgemini.com.

Dinand Tinholt

Expert in Analytics, Data, Data-driven transformation

Data-driven transformations can deliver great value to an organization and elevate the enterprise in competitive markets where every bit of advantage counts.
I am a Vice President at Capgemini’s Insights & Data global business line, responsible for the consumer products, retail, and distribution (CPRD) market in North America. Previously, I was a lead for our AI strategy and operating models and a part of our global insights-driven enterprise leadership team.
My daily work includes helping clients use data and analytics to improve their business performance and drive innovation in their products and services. I am passionate about helping organizations unlock the potential of their data to truly become data-driven enterprises.
Some of my recent work includes:
Delivering data transformations and multiple data infrastructure and cloud migrations for major consumer-goods companies in North America
Designing and implementing a data innovation Center of Excellence
Leading promotional effectiveness and pricing analytics projects for retailers.
I have experience working for global clients in a range of sectors beyond CPRD, including energy, automotive, aerospace, government, and manufacturing. I have been an advisor to multiple organizations and have helped them focus on digital strategy and improve their ability to leverage data and accelerate innovation.
I have great interest in photography, and I love hiking. I am also fluent in Dutch, and can hold conversations in German, French, and Indonesian.