Future-proof your business with smart data governance

Data, as the engine that drives organisational success and growth, is central to how we work. However, to get the best out of it, we need to not only maintain and service the engine but also build an understanding of how to fuel it. To achieve this we need to pay attention to data governance.

What is data governance?

Data governance is fundamentally the policies, procedures, processes and associated job roles that enable organisations to assess, protect and secure personal data sustainably, in line with applicable laws, regulations and standards. Some critical aspects involve:

• People and roles: Clear roles and responsibilities, such as Data Protection Officers, data owners and stewards are essential for accountability.
• Processes, policies and tools: These are the foundations that support the institutionalisation of policies, procedures, processes and guidelines that guide employees in handling data correctly.
• Goals and benefits: One of the primary goals of data protection governance is to protect individuals' privacy rights and build customer trust. It achieves this by ensuring compliance with legal and industry standards, avoiding legal penalties and fines.

Why is data governance important?

• Effective data governance ensures an organisations have established data privacy vision and mission that are align with organisational goals and objectives, fully understand how it collects, stores, and uses data, and adheres to applicable laws, regulations and standards. This is of particular importance in light of the FCA’s data framework requirements.
• A well-scoped exercise during data protection governance not only helps an organisation understand its primary obligations but also identifies shortcomings and triggers remediation actions that help to protect data from unauthorised access, loss, and misuse, and reducing data breach risks.
• It builds a privacy team which acts as a one stop and is responsible for privacy program delivery across the organisation. This helps to build a sustainable privacy culture that can be leveraged to institutionalise best practices paying attention their specific context and available resources
• It enhances privacy strategy that promotes seamless communication of privacy program goals and objectives and provides a level of clarity that enables specific goals to be achieved.

What are the benefits of data governance?

• Improved reputation: Data governance is a foundational component for a holistic approach that helps organisations demonstrate their commitment to data protection and build trust with stakeholders including customers and the wider public. Strong data governance reduces the likelihood and severity of data breaches. Improved decision making: Data governance provides a framework for ensuring data is accurate, consistent, and reliable, facilitating the better use of an organisation’s data assets, particularly in analytics, interoperability and data quality.
• Improved operational efficiency: By making data more usable and accessible through effective data governance, organisations have a better understanding of the scope of their operations. Being data-driven improves operational efficiency and reduces the risk of poor decision-making.s and inefficiencies. Well managed data governance establish robust controls to ensure the secure handling of customer's personal/sensitive data which help reduce the attack surface. by.

Practical tips for implementing data governance

• Discuss your intentions with the most Senior Executives, especially those responsible for risk and compliance. Ensure they are aware and willing to support activities to establish governance.
• Establish a vision and mission, and ensure they are aligned with your organisational objectives and goals, and then get key stakeholders, such as the head of functions, to review
• Get most Senior Executives' buy-in on vision and mission.
• Form a privacy team and a data protection committee to support privacy program delivery.
• Conduct a scoping exercise to understand and capture categories of PII processed, categories of individuals whose data are processed, and the purpose for processing across the entire organisation's operations /jurisdictions/countries and applicable laws.
• Conduct a gap analysis to identify, understand, and prioritise risks via a remediation exercise.