A Data Strategy Refresh for 2025

Dec 12th, 2024

As we approach the end of 2024, it’s an opportune time to reassess our data strategies and set the stage for a data-driven 2025. 

This involves aligning our data management objectives with broader business goals, revisiting parked goals, and considering emerging trends like data governance, data quality, artificial intelligence, data mesh, and data fabric.

Reviewing Your Data Strategy

To ensure that your data strategy remains aligned with your business objectives, consider the following:

  • Revisit Your Mission and Vision: Ensure your data strategy supports your organization’s overarching goals.
  • Evaluate Past Performance: Assess the success of previous data initiatives and identify areas for improvement.
  • Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Establish clear metrics to measure the impact of your data strategy.
  • Prioritize Data Projects: Based on business needs and resource availability, prioritize data projects for the coming year.
  • Review Data Governance Framework: Ensure your governance framework is robust and effectively addresses data security, privacy, and quality.
  • Assess Data Quality: Evaluate the quality of your data to identify areas for improvement, such as data accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
  • Consider Emerging Technologies: Explore how emerging technologies like AI, machine learning, and data fabric can enhance your data strategy.

Resurrecting Parked Goals

Often, data initiatives are parked due to resource constraints or shifting priorities. As you review your data strategy, consider whether these parked goals are still relevant:

  • Reassess Priorities: Determine if the original reasons for parking the goals still hold.
  • Evaluate Resource Availability: Assess if the required resources are now available.
  • Realign with Business Objectives: Ensure the goals still align with the organization’s strategic direction.

Embracing Emerging Trends

To stay competitive in the data-driven era, consider incorporating emerging trends (2025 Outlook: Data Integrity Trends and Insights report) into your data strategy:

  1. Data Governance: Data governance has emerged as a top priority for organizations in 2024, with a significant increase in adoption compared to the previous year. This growing emphasis on data governance is primarily driven by the need to build trust in data, which is essential for achieving various business goals such as improved decision-making, successful AI implementation, compliance with regulations, and enhanced data quality.
  2. Data Quality: A significant number of companies are struggling with data quality issues, impacting data trust and the reliability of decisions made based on that data. To maintain data integrity, organizations are prioritizing data quality initiatives to ensure accurate, complete, and consistent data.
  3. Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI is increasingly influencing data programs, with 60% of organizations recognizing its importance to automate tasks, uncover valuable insights, and improve decision-making.. However, a significant gap persists between aspirations and reality. Only 12% of organizations report that their data is ready for AI, highlighting the need to prioritize data quality and accessibility.
  4. Data Mesh: Consider data mesh for decentralized data ownership and governance, especially in large organizations.
  5. Data Fabric: Explore data fabric to create a unified data landscape and improve data accessibility.

When to Prioritize Which Strategy:

  • Data Governance: Prioritize data governance when you need to: 
    • Ensure data security and privacy
    • Comply with regulations
    • Improve data quality
    • Establish data standards and policies
  • Data Quality: Prioritize data quality when you need to: 
    • Enhance decision-making
    • Improve data-driven insights
    • Reduce the cost of poor data quality
    • Improve customer satisfaction

  • AI: Prioritize AI when you need to: 
    • Automate tasks
    • Uncover insights from large datasets
    • Personalize customer experiences
    • Optimize business processes

  • Data Mesh: Prioritize data mesh when you need to: 
    • Empower domain teams
    • Accelerate time-to-market
    • Improve data agility
    • Reduce data silos

  • Data Fabric: Prioritize data fabric when you need to: 
    • Create a unified data landscape
    • Improve data accessibility
    • Enhance data security
    • Streamline data integration

By carefully reviewing your data strategy, resurrecting parked goals, and embracing emerging trends, you can position your organization for success in 2025 and beyond.

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