Reflections on the ASUG Data Governance Conference

I recently attended the ASUG Data Governance conference hosted by Coca-Cola in Atlanta. You can see all the presentations here. 2016 Data Governance Conference Presentations

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There were some fantastic stories such as Blue Buffalo, winner of this year’s Information Governance award, saving $185k per year. To learn more about their program read the blog here.

And Coke One North America (CONA), taking just 9 months to implement SAP Master Data Governance to manage master data for;

• Customer
• Vendor
• Material
• Profit Center
• Cost Center
• General Ledger

I also enjoyed CONA’s Utility Value of Data Governance.

However, my favorite part of the conference was the opportunity to network with the ASUG members. In conversations with attendees about their company’s goals and business priorities, the responses consistently fell into one of the following categories.

• Business innovation
• Improved decision making
• Increased efficiency and agility
• Better risk management and compliance

While these aren’t necessarily surprising, what I did find it interesting is how much attendees were talking about data as the foundation for digital transformation/business. There was a lot of discussion about the role of and need for information management and governance in the context of;

• Internet of things
• Big data and analytics initiatives
• Business networks
• Mobile and cloud

Shortly before the conference, I listened to two interviews Irfan Khan, CTO at SAP did with CXOTalk on the importance of data to digital business.
Building the Business Case for Data
Data and Digital Transformation

And shortly after the conference I listened to IDC talk about “Information Transformation at the Heart of Digital Transformation“.

Given all this it seems to me that the recognition of the importance of data and the management of data is growing. What do you think? Do you have a story about data as the foundation for digital transformation/business to share? I would love to hear it.