Data isn't a systems concern any more. Data is everybody's business. Going forward, I believe organizations' investments in data will be mostly in two areas: securing data, and exploiting data. Data standards are at the heart of both areas.
To insure all your data is secure, you need to know you're addressing all the relevant data types before you start applying a security regime. You can have the safest, most bullet-proof security systems on the planet – but if some of your crucial business information has been left outside of the umbrella, you're in trouble.
You think you're covered but you're not. Many organizations are uncertain about how much important corporate data is exposed to threats by virtue of its not being known about by data management. Using data standards – and continuously assessing their use – enables you to bring all your data under one management canopy. You can then be certain that your security regime is covering all your data.
In order to exploit data successfully, you need to be sure you're comparing like with like. Data standards are there to insure your information is meaningful, so you can take decisions based on analysis with confidence.
The original motivation for standards – the exchange of information between systems and business partners – hasn't gone away. It's still a big driver for adoption and an obvious entry point into measuring the business benefits of standards.
This motivation is absent in the cases of data security and data exploitation. Organizations may only appreciate the benefit of standards for security when they suffer a breach. They may only recognize how standards can help them make informed decisions after they make a damaging decision based on faulty data.
It's on leaders to look ahead to these outcomes and make sure they don't happen. Twenty-twenty hindsight isn't much use if you're using it from the vantage point of the scrap heap. To keep your data secure, and to leverage its incredible value, you need standards.
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