Page 107 -

86 CHAPTER 8 Vision

d Data governance uses the horizontal perspective of the organization and focuses on the major “pain
points” for our business areas. (financial services)
d Data governance is the orchestration of people, process, and technology to enable the leveraging of
data as an enterprise asset. It affects all organizational areas by lines of business, functional areas,
and geographies. (software company)
d Data governance is a system of decision rights and accountabilities for information-related
processes, executed according to agreed-upon models which describe who can take what actions
with what information, when, under what circumstances, and using what methods. (consultant)
d To be clear, data governance is the exercise of executive authority over business data. (chemical
1
company)
d Data governance represents the program used by ACME to manage the organizational bodies,
policies, principles, and quality that will ensure access to accurate and risk-free data and
information. Data governance will establish standards, accountabilities, and responsibilities, and
ensure that data and information usage achieves maximum value to ACME while managing the
cost and quality of information handling. Data governance will enforce the consistent,
integrated, and disciplined use of information at ACME. (energy company)
d Data governance is the organization and implementation of policies, procedures, structure, roles,
and responsibilities that outline and enforce rules of engagement, decision rights, and
accountabilities for the effective management of information. (generic definition used by author)
Examples of an elevator speech are just as varied:
d Data governance will support our information asset management, ensuring we maintain our market
share and achieve cost targets.
d We are going to support cost management and market growth, in part due to the more disciplined
management of information assets.
Lastly, examples of mission and vision statements are also varied. A few are listed here:
Mission StatementdRetailer

To implement a shared, integrated enterprise data environment that always reflects current and
future business requirements, and to promote its exploitation as a valuable resource.
Vision StatementdRetailer
An organization positioned to act faster, more effectively and efficiently in a dynamic business
environment due to a cost-effective data resource managed as an enterprise asset.
Mission StatementdEnergy Company
Ensure that information management provides the resources, processes, and enabling technologies
necessary to manage information as an asset throughout its life cycle.
Vision StatementdEnergy Company
. will manage its information in a disciplined and coordinated manner to optimize the value of
our investment in information assets, support effective and efficient operations, mitigate legal and
regulatory risk, and improve the delivery of services to our customers and stakeholders.
Vision StatementdInsurance
. will use information management and governance to enable employees, customers, and business
partners to have easy access to the information they need any time, any place, and in any format, to

1
Data Strategy Journal, October 2007.