Agile non-invasive Data Governance

Correct data governance won’t just cost company cash – it can ‘insure’ it thrives

How many times have you heard someone say good data governance is simply either too complicated, or too expensive?

Well, what if you can build a business case and process that puts data at the heart of your company’s operations – and clearly shows how good data governance can be the generator of new business and greater profitability, as well as meeting all compliance and audit requirements?

Dominic Cahill explained to the Data Vault User Group’s April Meetup, how Tokyo Marine HCC – one of the world’s leading specialist insurers – transformed its data management policies so it can deliver data governance effectively and in an agile way, over the last 15 months.

Tokyo Marine started with the objective of rethinking data governance as data management – providing a formalised framework into how decisions are made about data and how people and processes are expected to behave in relation to data.

By formalising controls and guiding behaviour around the definition, production, improvement and usage of data, it is now able to manage risk in complex and valuable specialist insurance markets, and the quality and usability of its data, and data-related assets.

Cahill stressed that the project was solely focused on how people within the business relate and behave with data, and how staff could make better decisions.

As a result, people are accountable for data and that in turn increases the value of data and data continues to grow in value, at the same time as helping Tokyo Marine HCC meet its data security and compliance requirements, thanks to improved data standards and quality.

At the heart its guiding principles are that data is recognised as a valued and strategic enterprise asset – it is not “my data” but “our data.”

Data governance means accountability is defined so that is “everyone’s accountability,” with the access to and management of data and metadata following internal and external rules and regulations – avoiding risk and compliance issues as a result.

That requires data quality to be consistently defined and managed across the data life cycle. That can be neatly summed up as being “Right the First Time, Every Time.”

With well-defined data quality standards, they focus on measuring business process and decision-making improvements from “complete, relevant and unique” data.

Tokyo Marine’s data management projects run much more smoothly as a result of implementing such practices and policies.

The project identified data stewards and created user group communities to define and communicate the strategy and ensure excellence in its execution.

With a number of centres chosen within the international business, a pilot project was created with a proof of concept, using Microsoft Azure DevOps, before being rolled out to different divisions.

The workflow now automates many previously manual processes as well as identifying data queries early and preventing downstream problems.

Working in two-week sprints, utilising daily scrum meetings with weekly reviews and planning meetings, the data governance team can identify priorities and deliver solutions.

The feedback from across Tokyo Marine’s new data community has validated the exercise, according to Dominic.

Watch his presentation ‘Agile, Non-Invasive Data Governance’ and learn more about how Tokyo Marine HCC is using its data management to drive its business forward.