Over the past year I have had the privilege of speaking at a number of conferences discussing the incoming Protection of Personal Information Act for South Africa.

What concerns me is that I was virtually the only Data Management professional in the room – almost all attendees and speakers come from the legal fraternity. This is an Act that will legislate how companies must handle Personal Information within a corporate environment – surely business needs to start considering what the impact will be on their IT infrastructure?

Despite perceptions, the Act does not just deal with data privacy. It also has very strict guidelines on data quality – in essence corporates will be liable for decisions that negatively impact on clients and that were made on the basis of poor quality data.

The PPI provides an excellent excuse to kick start your data Governance process. Who else in your organisation, from business or IT, is starting to think about PPI?

Set up a PPI planning process and bring the principles of Data Governance to play. Once you have shown value it will be easier to get buy in for your broader initiatives!