One of the beauties, and curses of data, is that it is “what economists call a non-rivalrous, non-depleting and regenerative asset” or so Douglas B. Laney says on CIO Network.
Of course, he is not wrong, the way we house and maintain data today means that we can replicate copies of the data an infinite number of times and repurpose the same data artefacts for any number of uses.
This same characteristic of non-depleting and regenerative nature also represents one of the greatest commercial risks to businesses too!
A data leak is not only reputation-crushing for businesses, it is an embarrassment around data controls and privacy and may actually be accompanied by a host of penalties, fines and punitive litigation from the aggrieved parties, namely those whose data was leaked.
Many organizations rightly focus on risk management when it comes to customer data in particular. There is a flip side though. If you don’t have the data or don’t manage the data that you have what are the risks to your long-term business growth and sustenance of not capitalizing on the data that you have? No one disputes the importance of managing data well and no one denies that caution and care accompanied by risk assessment are important but failure to consider data as an asset is perhaps a greater cost to the business in the long run.
Data & Analytics Strategy Innovation Fellow at West Monroe, Laney says that “Forward-thinking executives have begun measuring the value of their organization’s data assets to forge a data-driven culture that generates increased business benefits from data.”
As an example, Laney cites that the Covid-19 pandemic struck United Airlines and American Airlines secured multi-billion-dollar loans with the aid of data. What did they do? They ‘simply’ used their MileagePlus and AAdvantage customer loyalty programs as collateral. Appraisals of the loyalty scheme data suggested that it may even have been worth two to three times the market value of the companies themselves.
These kinds of “infonomics”, where economic significance is ascribed to information, provide a framework for businesses to value data as assets. These can also be opportunities to sensitize business stakeholders and inspire executives to reevaluate the significance of the data at hand.
The data itself needs to come out of the shadows of the business and be placed appropriately where it can be leveraged to the greatest economic advantage of the business.
The business needs to know what the data is that it has, know where it comes from and where it goes. Most importantly it needs to understand who uses it, when and where and of what degree of suitability it is, for the tasks to which it is to be assigned. Part of this effort needs to be asserted in educating the wider business community on the data that the business holds near and dear accompanied by a rationale for preciousness.
Ultimately an education program that makes employees aware of the issues around appropriate data handling, suitability for purpose and data efficacy would form part of a data literacy program. The most important characteristic is that everyone understands that they are joint owners of the data and have varying degrees of responsibility to the business in the management thereof.
The most important lesson that the business community should come away with, is the understanding that IT cannot be the owners or responsible managers of the businesses data and customer data in particular
Learn how Pretectum’s CMDM can help your business not only manage your customer data but also in empowering and educate business teams in the use and control of the best possible customer data.