Data

Eckerson Group Audio Blogs

COVID, inflation, broken supply chains, and not-so-distant war make this a turbulent time for the modern consumer. During times like these, families tend to their nests, which leads to lots of home-improvement projects…which means lots of painting.

Today we explore the case study of a Fortune 500 producer of the paints and stains that coat many households, consumer products, and even mechanical vehicles. While business expands, this company needs to carefully align the records that track hundreds of suppliers, thousands of storefronts, and millions of customers.

Business expansion and complex supply chains make it particularly important—and challenging—for enterprises such as this paint producer, which we’ll call Bright Colors, to accurately describe the entities that make up their business. They need to be governed, validated data to describe entities such as their products, locations, and customers. Master data management, also known as MDM, streamlines operations and assists data governance by reconciling disparate data records into golden records and ideally a single source of truth.

We’re excited to share our conversation with an industry expert that helps Bright Colors and other Fortune 2000 enterprises navigate turbulent times with effective strategies for MDM and data governance.

Dave Wilkinson is chief technology officer with D3Clarity, a global strategy and implementation services firm that seeks to ensure digital certainty, security, and trust. D3Clarity is a partner of Semarchy, whose Intelligent Data Hub software helps enterprises govern and manage master data, reference data, data quality, enrichment, and workflows. Semarchy sponsored this podcast.

Dave Wilkinson: Enterprise Data Governance and MDM Case Study

Designed and implemented well, automated workflows can make the modern business just a little less chaotic and complex. This blog explores the opportunity for automated workflows to help cross-functional teams collaborate and standardize organizational master data.
Published at:
https://www.eckerson.com/articles/master-data-management-and-operational-workflows-two-modern-use-cases

Master Data Management and Operational Workflows: Two Modern Use Cases

At IAPP Summit, privacy and data governance leaders expressed the importance of a collaborative operating model.
Published at: https://www.eckerson.com/articles/the-convergence-of-data-governance-and-privacy-takeaways-from-the-global-privacy-summit

The Convergence of Data Governance and Privacy: Takeaways from the Global Privacy Summit -Audio Blog

Chief Data Officers are expanding data sharing to drive productivity, innovation, and better decisions. Data marketplaces simplify access by connecting users to ready-to-use, high-value data through a centralized, self-service platform.
Published at:
https://www.eckerson.com/articles/how-data-product-marketplaces-enable-seamless-data-consumption-and-generate-value

How Data Product Marketplaces Enable Seamless Data Consumption and Generate Value - Audio Blog

Every organization that manufactures data for decision making is rethinking its data architecture. Compared to five years ago, there is a treasure trove of new technologies and techniques that promise to transform the way organizations compete and serve customers. This audio blog summarizes the major characteristics of a modern data architecture and serves a high-level guide for organizations that are in the midst of developing a new data strategy for the modern age.

Originally published at https://www.eckerson.com/articles/ten-characteristics-of-a-modern-data-architecture

Ten Characteristics Of A Modern Data Architecture by Wayne Eckerson - Audio Blog

Data engineering is one of the hottest and most difficult jobs to fill in the field of analytics. Breadth and depth of required skills limits the number of people qualified to work as data engineers. If you’re seeking to hire data engineers, consider the 24 skill areas identified here as guidance to shape job descriptions and to screen candidates. If you’re seeking to become a data engineer, take the skills assessment to highlight your strengths and identify your gaps.

Originally published at https://www.eckerson.com/articles/data-engineering-coming-of-age

Data Engineering Coming of Age by Dave Wells - Audio Blog

To survive and thrive in today’s information economy, organizations need to establish a compelling data strategy that advances the company’s key objectives and goals. This is not a job for the chief information officer or even chief data officer; it’s a task that the CEO must own and champion and assemble his best and brightest to execute. This audio blog examines the ten step methodology that Eckerson Group uses to help organizations create a data strategy.

Originally published at https://www.eckerson.com/articles/how-to-create-a-data-strategy-part-1-overview

Ten Steps To Create A Data Strategy by Wayne Eckerson - Audio Blog

In this episode, Wayne Eckerson and Jeff Magnusson discuss the data architecture Stitch Fix created to support its data science workloads, as well as the need to balance man and machine and art and science.

Magnusson is the vice president of data platform at Stitch Fix. He leads a team responsible for building the data platform that supports the company's team of 80+ data scientists, as well as other business users. That platform is designed to facilitate self-service among data scientists and promote velocity and innovation that differentiate Stitch Fix in the marketplace. Before Stitch Fix, Magnusson managed the data platform architecture team at Netflix where he helped design and open source many of the components of the Hadoop-based infrastructure and big data platform.

Jeff Magnusson: Architecting for Data Science And Blending Man And Machine

Ethics is challenging because right and good are not always clear. More data, more kinds of data, and advanced analysis of data often conflict with concerns of data privacy, security, anonymity, and ownership. Resolving these conflicts requires acknowledgment, discussion, and the hard work of defining ethics-based policies and creating a culture of ethical conduct.

Originally published at https://www.eckerson.com/articles/data-ethics-the-new-data-governance-challenge

Data Ethics - The New Data Governance Challenge by Dave Wells - Audio Blog

With today’s unprecedented velocity of change in data and technologies, the single version of the truth (SVOT) is sometimes looked upon as a nice to have. But SVOT is not optional. Despite the difficulties in constructing a single version of the truth, it is now needed more than ever to keep CEOs happy and to stay compliant with new regulations like the GDPR.

Originally published at https://www.eckerson.com/articles/single-version-of-the-truth-not-optional

Single Version of the Truth - Not Optional by Stephen J. Smith - Audio Blog

One of the hardest parts of running a data analytics program inside a large organization is governing data and reports. It’s simply too easy for the definition of core data elements and metrics to get out of sync and reports to contain conflicting information.

Angie Davis has straddled both the business and IT worlds for more than 20 years. She served as a business analyst in several organizations before switching to the information technology side of the business where she ran analytics teams, first at JD Irving for six years and more recently at Brookfield Renewable where she is an IT director. Angie has a degree in mathematics and electrical engineering from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Angie Davis: Overcoming Report and Data Governance Obstacles

Listen to data and analytics leaders share the secrets of their success. Wayne Eckerson, long-time global thought leader interviews guests who run data and analytics programs at Fortune 2000 organizations around the world. Tune in to stay abreast of the latest technologies, techniques, and trends in our fast-paced industry.

The Convergence of Data Governance and Privacy: Takeaways from the Global Privacy Summit -Audio Blog

Secrets of Data & Analytics Leaders