New Book - The Data Governance Imperative

My new book entitled The Data Governance Imperative is making its way to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other outlets this week. I’m very proud of this and happy to see it finally hit the streets. It was a lot of work and dedication to get it done.

I decided to write this book because I saw a common recurring question that arose during discussions about data governance. How do I get my boss to believe that data governance is important? How do I work with my colleagues to build better information and a better company? How do I break through the barriers preventing data governance maturity like getting money, resources and expertise to accomplish the task? When it comes to justifying the costs of data governance to their organization, building organizational processes, learning how to staff initiatives, understanding the role and importance of technologies, and dealing with corporate politics, there is little information available.

In my years working at Trillium Software, I have been exposed to many great projects in Fortune 1000 companies worldwide. Over the years, I’ve made note of the success factors that contribute to strong data governance. I’ve seen successful strategies for data governance and the common threads to success within and across the industry.

I’ve written the Data Governance Imperative to help readers pioneer data governance initiatives, breaking through political barriers by shining a light on the benefits of corporate information quality. This book is designed to give data governance team members insight into the art of starting data governance. It could be helpful to:

• Data governance teams – those looking for direction/validation in starting a corporate data governance initiative.
• Business stakeholders – those working in marketing, sales, finance and other business roles who need to understand the goals and functions of a data governance team.
• C-level executives – those looking to learn about the benefits of data governance without having to read excessive technical jargon, or even those who need to be convinced that data governance is the right thing to do.
• IT executives – those who believe in the power of information quality but have faced challenges in convincing others in their corporation of its value.

This book does not focus on the technical aspects of data governance, although technologies are discussed. There are some great books on the technology of data governance in the market today. Some are listed on the left side of this blog in the carousel.

Next Week’s Can’t-Miss Webinars

Presenters can either make or break a webinar. Simply put, good webinars are given by people who are passionate and knowledgeable about their topic. In order to give give up an hour of a busy day, I have to believe that it will impart some knowledge beyond product demos and brochure-ware. In looking ahead to next week, I see a couple of high points:

Data Governance: Strategies for Building Business Value
Date: Tuesday, April 14, 2009 at 11 a.m. Eastern
Trillium Software will host a Web seminar that includes featured guest speaker Rob Karel of Forrester Research presenting a discussion titled: Data Governance: Strategies for Building Business Value. If you’ve never seen Rob Karel speak, I can tell you from experience that it’s a real treat. I played emcee to a 2008 webinar with Rob on data governance. It was very well attended and very positively reviewed. At that time, the webinar concluded with a lot of great questions on selling the business case for data governance. In this session, Rob plans to tackle that topic a bit more - outlining the best practices and skills needed to obtain executive buy-in for data governance projects.

How to Boost Service, Cut Costs and Deliver Great Customer Experiences - Even in an Economic Downturn
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 11 a.m. Eastern
Teradata and the SmartData Collective will co-sponsor a webinar on dealing with a down economy. We’ve seen a couple of companies cover this topic, but the panel looks very strong. Judging from the panel and the description, this webinar looks to have a CRM-focus - how technology can help you a) provide an experience that customers will love, and; b) cut costs and help you differentiate your communications strategies from your competition. Curtis Rapp from Air2Web will be in on the discussion, so I’m guessing there will be some talk about Teradata Relationship Manager Mobile and using text messaging in your Teradata apps.

The panel of experts will include:

• Dave Schrader, Teradata - published author and long time Teradata employee
• Lisa Loftis, CRM and BI Expert - author on CRM topics
• Curtis Rapp, Air2Web – the partner responsible for some of Teradata’s mobile solution (CRM on your cell phone)
• Rebecca Bucnis, Teradata - another long-time and experienced Teradata employee

For attending, you’ll also get a white paper by Lisa Loftis called Ringing in the Customers: Harnessing the power of Mobile Marketing.