North American companies are not yet ready for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), according to The State of Data Governance, a study done for erwin by UBM.
Of 118
professionals surveyed on the continent, only 6% say their firms are fully prepared. But that number may be slightly misleading.
Another 39% feel they are somewhat prepared, and 27% are
beginning to get ready. Only 11% say they are not at all geared up. And 17% report that GDPR does not affect them.
The results are “validating but also a bit shocking,”
states Mariann McDonagh, CMO for erwin.
On the positive side, 98% view data governance — defined as understanding data flow across the organization, and for setting policies that govern
data — as important, 52% critically so.
However, 46% lack a formal governance strategy, while 21% are just getting started on one. Thirty-nine percent are without a budget for data
governance, and 24% don’t know whether they have one.
That’s a big factor, given that cost is the biggest obstacle to data governance initiatives. IT pays for data governance at
40% of the companies, and audit and compliance departments at 20%. The business covers the bill at 8%.
On the downside, data governance “has not quite become integrated with enterprise
architecture (EA) strategies,” the study notes. While 46% have an EA function, only 10% have a data architecture team, and that is not usually connected with data governance.
Here are
the main challenges facing companies:
- Cost of data governance projects —58%
- Understanding the right approach for your organization — 42%
- Executive
support/sponsorship — 42%
- Organizational support — 39%
- Effective tools — 36%
- Articulating business justifications/business case — 27%
Here is what is driving data governance:
- Regulatory compliance — 60%
- Customer trust/satisfaction — 49%
- Better decision making — 45%
- Regulation management — 30%
- Analytics — 27%
- Big Data — 27%
- Data standards uniformity — 15%
- Self-service data — 9%
- Reduction of colliding policies and processes for data management — 7%
- Precision of language — 2%
UBM surveyed 118 North American business technology
professionals in 16 sectors, including financial services, government, healthcare, IT and telecommunications.