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Data Governance Losing Priority in Some European Countries

Having just got back from a presentation tour in mainland Europe, it seems that in the countries I have spoken that Data Governance came out with a thumbs down vote among CIOs present in my sessions. In particular in Belgium it would appear to be not on their radar. Having probed for feedback into what exactly is high priority among CIOs attending my sessions it is almost as if raw ’survival’ is taking hold. In other words, any IT project linked to business survival in this tough economic climate will get attention but not much else. Customer retention, self- service, cost reduction/containment and growth are high on the list. One CIO explained to me that his company’s priority over the next 12 months was to allow customers to customise the products and services they offer much more in the future. Therefore in addition to offering their own product lines on the web, they would be integrating their e-procurement with many back end e-suppliers so they can buy ‘on-demand’ to match what a customer wants. This means they want to allow customers to create their own custom ‘package’ before buying on-line and will stretch beyond their own products to stand out from the crowd. It seems to me that data governance and data quality to some extent are taking a back seat in favour of investment that will keep the revenue rolling in. I would be interested in your feedback. Is data governance a high priority in your organisation?

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