According to Business Broadway, data professionals experience on average three major challenges a year. These challenges include dirty data, lack of management support and direction and lack of internal talent/knowledge [1].
Here at Exonar we’ve recently been interviewing data privacy, security and governance professionals to get their views and opinions on the key challenges they face. But do our professionals agree with the research from Business Broadway? Let’s find out what they said.
Challenge 1: Working in siloed divisions.
Many of the professionals we spoke to work in siloed divisions within their organisations. This on its own creates many challenges as each division is like its own smaller individual company, often with their own stakeholders, budget, tech and ways of doing things, often leading to very manual or inefficient processes. Working in siloed divisions is also a nightmare for auditors as there is no alignment and not one consistent overview of the full organisation. As much as you can try to align yourselves with other divisions, but we appreciate this isn’t always possible.
Challenge 2: Lack of data quality and dirty data.
Business Broadway states that 35.9% of data professionals have experienced the challenge of dirty data in the past year [1]. This means that data provided to auditors will still ‘do the job’, but it is much more time consuming to unpick and has to be caveated for data areas that cant be used. This often leads to the data not meeting the needs that auditors have and isn’t always sufficient to answer their questions. Create a standardized template that can be deployed organisation wide and encourage everyone to use it and to carry on using it.
Challenge 3: Different tech and processes.
Many of our professionals on a daily basis are dealing with multiple technologies and processes all achieving the same aim. This makes it incredibly hard for auditors to do their jobs as there is no standardized inputs, many legacy systems and different technologies all doing a similar and if not the same thing causing huge inefficiencies. Liaise with different areas, teams or departments and reduce the risk hidden in your data for your overall organisation.
Challenge 4: Lack of expertise and central knowledge.
It is important to establish and take into account relevant knowledge, skills and abilities within the organisation. Avoid the temptation to try to “encourage” (i.e. force) people into roles for which they are not qualified simply to have the role filled. Alternatives are to split roles (so that two or more people are responsible for the parts they feel comfortable working on) or looking for someone from outside with the appropriate skills to take on the role.
So, how do you increase those hallelujah moments?
Every organisation will have pains and gains, some will have more than others. But how can you solve your challenges? Well, let us tell you how we can help.
Our platform Exonar Reveal, in a short window of time, will ingest, analyse and index all your structured and unstructured data. And provide in one single view, simple results that show you exactly what data you had stored in any given location so you can address the risk hidden within it. Exonar Reveal can relieve your challenges and add value within your organisation by allowing individuals to be responsible for their own data, providing comprehensive tracking and reporting on progress made, providing outputs that will increase buy-in from your stakeholders on risk mitigation and unifying the view of the customer.
Try Exonar Reveal on your own data. Prove your business challenge Find your route forward. Register for a Test Drive here.
Sources
[1] Top 10 Challenges to Practicing Data Science at Work | (businessoverbroadway.com)