Data Governance
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Published on the 1st September 2021
Data governance is a subject that affects all companies today. The challenges are multiple, it is necessary to know how to centralize data, manage access rights, keep a history of changes, manage governance and be able to present this data to employees to help them in their work.
There are a multitude of solutions, Data warehouse, Data hub, Data Lake, PIM (product information management) on the market. These solutions are often complex to use, often requiring extensive training or the implementation of large infrastructures, which are not always relevant to start this type of project. If you start with a blank sheet of paper, it is sometimes easier to develop a solution that will be quickly in the hands of users and that will evolve precisely according to their needs. In addition to the functions of this type of platform, our client needed to format its complex data for all of the company's employees, i.e. over 7,000 people. They also needed to be able to generate reports and manage the centralization and integration of data coming from different systems in order to eventually become the one and only source of truth.
One of the main challenges of such a product is the collection of information, in fact, over the years the needs multiply and so do the solutions, many of which are not based on the same technologies or logic (presence or not of unique product identifiers, separation into divisions, etc.). We had to create a solution capable of synchronizing hundreds of thousands of pieces of data from different sources (SAP, Oracle databases, API, API Soap, scrapping, external website, etc.) and extracting the right information each time. The updating of this data is also a central point, each type of data has a precise life span and is consequently updated when necessary. This collection is only the first step, it is also necessary to be able to restore them in a simple, clear, effective and graphic way. For this we provided our expertise in UX & UI to guide business experts in their choice of display.
Right from the start of the project, we involved the business experts in the various workshops in order to reduce change management issues as much as possible. In addition, these workshops facilitate team cohesion and allow us to share the same product vision, despite the differences and user profiles. The involvement of users from the beginning allowed us to understand precisely what their needs were, and it was then easier to define priorities, either on the functional or on the technical and structural evolution of the platform.
When the project was launched more than 5 years ago, the scope was limited to only two divisions of our client. Since then, it has evolved, 2 new divisions have been integrated, numerous functionalities have been added and the project is in continuous evolution. In 2021, a new version of the interface will be implemented. Today it allows sales teams and business experts to find products and all their information simply and directly via their web browser, smartphone and tablet.
After more than five years of evolution, the solution in place has become the central point for retrieving information. It also feeds a dozen other internal systems, some of which are critical to the company's operations.
