Data Stewardship and IP

Many organisations look for ways to leverage their core competencies for in-market capability or commercial gain. 

One of these could arguably, but importantly, be awareness that we have an amazing opportunity to demonstrate good stewardship of our stored business data. This is done through extracting the insights and opportunities for improvement that it could bring.

We know that are two types of data:

• master data against arising from the rigour and structure of business system rules.
• transactional which may be open (activities in play) or that which is closed (completed transactions).

Stewardship of all data fails where master data is treated a “set and forget” asset.  Accordingly, it is probably the most common area of need but often forgotten but must be adjusted based on things like capability, capacity, time-based variables. 

We can show that such forgetfulness is the cause of many transactional errors or delays as a result of failure to maintain the master data which then creates rework to get the transaction to flow smoothly through.

In the supply chain, for example, this applies across all areas,  including purchasing (materials master), delivery arrangements (ship-to addresses), order configurations (MOQ/pack sizes) and accounts receivable (entity details).

Transactional data on the other hand,  assuming it is able to be extracted (and automated) and is valid and clean, is an absolute gift in terms finding opportunities for improvement. It also allows you to see patterns and provide insight into market and organisational behaviours and areas of risk.

And of course this can provide the much needed benefit of developing lead indicators that can predict likely business outcomes.

It all comes down to acknowledging what level of work we want to demonstrate – and how quality stewardship of our data is a magnificent leadership behaviour

Ken Davis
Stoke Consulting