erwin Expert Blog

Organizations have been served yet another reminder of the value of data governance for data security. Hotel and hospitality powerhouse Marriott recently revealed a massive data breach that led to the theft of personal data for an astonishing 500 million customers of its Starwood hotels. This is the second largest data breach in recent history, surpassed only […]

Using data governance in the pharmaceutical industry is a critical piece of the data management puzzle. Pharmaceutical and life sciences companies face many of the same digital transformation pressures as other industries, such as financial services and healthcare that we have explored previously. In response, they are turning to technologies like advanced analytics platforms and […]

A unified approach to data modeling and data mapping could be the breakthrough that many data-driven organizations need. In most of the conversations I have with clients, they express the need for a viable solution to model their data, as well as the ability to capture and document the metadata within their environments. Data modeling […]

Healthcare data governance has far more applications than just meeting compliance standards. Healthcare costs are always a topic of discussion, as is the state of health insurance and policies like the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Costs and policy are among a number of significant trends called out in the executive summary of the Stanford Medicine […]

For organizations operating in financial services data governance is becoming increasingly more important. When financial services industry board members and executives gathered for EY’s Financial Services Leadership Summit in early 2018, data was a major topic of conversation. Attendees referred to data as “the new oil” and “the new currency,” and with good reason. Financial […]

Getting the most out of your data requires getting a handle on data lineage. That’s knowing what data you have, where it is, and where it came from – plus understanding its quality and value to the organization. But you can’t understand your data in a business context much less track data lineage, its physical […]

Aligning business and IT is a serious goal for modern organizations. The rapid pace of technological innovation requires the introduction of new tools and processes to cope. The importance of business and IT alignment is widely understood and  reflected in the concept’s prevalence in IT-maturity and best-practice conversations. What’s less understood is the substance:  what […]

A business glossary is crucial to any data governance strategy, yet it is often overlooked. Consider this – no one likes unpleasant surprises, especially in business. So when it comes to objectively understanding what’s happening from the top of the sales funnel to the bottom line of finance, everyone wants – and needs – to […]

Data preparation is notorious for being the most time-consuming area of data management. It’s also expensive. “Surveys show the vast majority of time is spent on this repetitive task, with some estimates showing it takes up as much as 80% of a data professional’s time,” according to Information Week. And a Trifacta study notes that […]

Data governance (DG) is becoming more commonplace because of data-driven business, yet defining DG and putting into sound practice is still difficult for many organizations. The absence of a standard approach to defining DG could be down to its history of missed expectations, false starts and negative perceptions about it being expensive, intrusive, impeding innovation and […]