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34 CHAPTER 4 The data governance business case

managed data and content are “intangible.” So, once again, the business case is deemphasized, or
we manufacture faux benefits based on technology efficiencies. However, we will soon see that the
“hard” benefits can be derived.

OBJECTIVES OF THE BUSINESS CASE FOR DG

Obviously, the business case for DG needs to show value. This is accomplished in two ways. First, the
value is shown in the form of a tangible direct benefit, where you can tie DG to benefits coming from
one of three directions:
• Improvement in efficiency (e.g., integration, faster information delivery)
• Increase in direct business contributors, like revenue, customers, or market share (e.g., post merger
economies of scale, efficient supply chains, effective promotions)
• Reduction in risk, either through fewer fines, lower reserves, loss of market share or reduced cost of
risk management, such as insurance premiums (e.g., compliance to the Sarbanes–Oxley Act,
improved information privacy, improved data quality)

In many organizations, the easiest direct benefit is derived from reduction in risk. Three or four
decades’ worth of explosive growth of stored data and documents has created enormous amounts of
risk. A few examples of this are:

• Privacy violation
• Data security
• Civil liability brought on by poor management of safety or warranty information
• Incorrect decisions brought about by inaccurate or inconsistent data across numerous copies (e.g.,
establishing reserves too low, or losing track of where you acquire items)
• Regulatory liability by failing to track key documents or respond to a request for documents
• Excessive costs keeping ROT (redundant, obsolete, and trivial) data, including documents, backups,
SharePoint, and e-mail

The second form of tangible value is indirect, in much the same way as a marketing program (i.e., the
marketing program will support other initiatives that would otherwise fail or falter without the
program). In the case of marketing, value is determined by predicting and confirming increased market
share or more prospects. Marketing strives to improve visibility of a product that, for example,
supports more sales. In a similar manner, the value of information projects stems from where the
information is used. Therefore, the DG business case needs to support the activity that ensures good
data and information is available to accomplish business goalsdwithout incurring undue risk or cost.
You need to look for opportunities where data governance supports business programs that want to
increase revenue, lower costs, and reduce risk. Once you have identified opportunities to aid in
achieving business targets, then it is time to specifically quantify business benefits and align them, in
detail, with the data and content data governance will be overseeing.
Another objective of the DG business case is to build a response to historical shortcomings of IT
projects. These are:

• The perception that data and information initiatives always fail
• The perception that spending on “pure” information management projects is wasteful