The ASUG Data Governance (DG) Special Interest Group (SIG) held their annual Year-Round Community (YRC) Meeting October 22 - October 24 at Kimberly-Clark Corporation in Neenah, Wisconsin (US). The 2 ½ day meeting was well attended with over 180 registrants, including representation from over 70 SAP customers, SAP and its partners. This is a 40% increase from last year.
One of the focal points this year was to address more effectively the DG SIGs Hot Topics. On Tuesday afternoon, a full session was devoted to the following seven Hot Topics. Attendees had an opportunity to be an active part of forming a solid report out to the general session later in the afternoon. These Hot Topics will continue to be discussed and the SIG is actively engaging next steps on several of these through various channels -- including future webcasts and as session topics at ASUG/Sapphire 2008. So look for more to come.
Hot Topics discussion
| Hot Topic | Overview (O) of Breakout Discussion and (R) Report Out |
| Measuring the Success of a Data Governance Program | O: Outline, possible approaches, company examples and industry best practices; facilitated brainstorming discussion to build up from DQ measurements to data metrics to business metrics; result: DG balanced scorecard. |
| R: What and how to measure, starting with sample data quality measurements and rolling up to business metrics, and potentially, a DG balanced scorecard. |
| Top Three Challenges in Implementing Data Governance | O: Customer discussion and exercise on top Data Governance challenges. Define and derive methods to overcome these challenges. |
| R: Consensus on top three challenges and approach. |
| Global Data Synchronization (GDS) and Data Accuracy | O: An overview and update of current activities and initiatives within the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN) including Data Accuracy and an overview of the SAP MDM-GDS Solution and Roadmap. |
| R: Highlights of activities within the GDSN and the SAP MDM-GDS Solution. |
| Metadata: Understanding How to Maximize its Value | O: What is the "Focus of Metadata" and a discussion on how to maximize the business value of Metadata. |
| R: Definition of Metadata; What needs to be accomplished to get value; How to proceed or begin this process. |
| Data Quality: KPI’s, Top Issues and Benchmarking | O: Topic overview & approach agreement to DQ focus; Relating KPI’s to “xyz”; Approach to Metrics; Benchmarking exercise. |
| R: Highlights from Discussion and Next Steps. |
| Third Party Data Quality Solution: Choosing one that’s right for you | O: What factors influenced (or would influence) your selection of a 3rd party data quality tool? Do you have any good (or not-so-good) experiences to share? |
| R: Summary of what companies look for in a DQ tool, any conclusions reached by the participants. |
| Data Cleansing & Enrichment: Do-It-Yourself or Tools or Services | O: Assessing the quality of your data is the first step to then determining whether to Do-It-Yourself, Tools or Services. |
| R: Tasks & Strategy of Data Cleansing and Deliverables. |
Carolyn Pickton, SIG Chair / Lorraine Wedow, SIG Program Chair
[a version of this article appears in the November 2007 Americas SAP Users Group (ASUG) Business Integration Technology & Infrastructure (BITI) Community newsletter]
For more information about this community, visit the Data Governance SIG home page on asug.com.
