In terms of a 2016 audit report, documented at forbes.com, the Pentagon failed to provide adequate support for $6.5 Trillion in journal voucher entries. Similar findings, over the years, add up to a staggering $21 trillion plus of journal entries that cannot be supported by any paper trai in the 20 years since 1998 alone. …
In a recent post on Linkedin, my colleague at Standard Bank South Africa, Kaiser Manasoe, asked the following: An interesting question to answer. Whilst we may view data as an organizational asset, the reality is that some data is actually a liability especially where the quality is poor or the data collected isn’t fit for…
I saw a tweet recently reading “The new James Bond will spend 50% of his time in queues at EU passport control.” As a hard Brexit looks increasingly possible, British citizens may well find that their relationship with Europe is about to get substantially less convenient. How will this affect British and EU data exchanges?…
If you’re trying to streamline or automate processes in your company, new software can seem like the answer to all your troubles. But selecting software that works for your entire team (or an entire organization) and your budget can be daunting. In addition to finding software that can essentially be “all things to all people,”…
1. Business Agility and Disruption Most analysts agree that we have moved from the Industrial and into the Information Age. During the Information Age, the phenomenon is that the digital industry creates a knowledge-based society surrounded by a high-tech global economy that spans over its influence on how the manufacturing throughout and the service sector…
A common challenge when setting up data governance and data stewardship capabilities in any organisation is the perception, real or imagined, that this is adding additional work to already stretched staff. This perception can mean that key stakeholders resist engaging in governance and stewardship roles. Instead, stewardship roles may be delegated or assigned to the…
Over the past few years, the ethics of data use, particularly when related to big data analytics, has been a recurring theme. Most recently, I had a look at the cost of the Facebook data scandal. In this post, I moved away from a purely ethics driven argument to also look at the commercial impact…
Nobody should be a Data Steward! Kind of an ironic statement from a data management site with a particular focus on data governance. Almost every body working with data performs data stewardship tasks – mostly without even realising it.; A salesperson captures new leads, creates quotes, updates contact information and so on. If he does…
Data governance can be a game changer for modern business. Yet, getting to the point of value is easier said than done. A new report, Transforming data Into action: The business outlook for data governance, developed by the Economist Business Unit, explores the challenges and opportunities for data governance across a range of industries and geographies. The…
“If you talk Data to business, it goes to their head. If you talk to business about empowering and enabling them to make informed business decisions based on accurate and trustworthy data that will give them the competitive advantage, it goes to their heart.” Neil Gage, Data Governance at Standard Bank This quote was inspired…
A typical response to questions around PoPIA compliance is “we don’t need to worry about PoPIA (the South African Protection of Personal Information Act) until it’s fully implemented”. I’ve heard similar comments at several conferences. It seems that South African companies are waiting until the last minute and assuming that they will have enough time…
When most people think of legacy software, we think of software that is outdated and due for replacement. Yet, an alternative definition of legacy, particularly when it comes to mainframe application, is, simply, software that works. This is a definition that our partner, Syncsort, is proud of. The legacy DMX Sort product has been helping…
