Gaining Adoption and Building Momentum for Enterprise Data Governance at Shaw Industries

It’s not easy to get a data governance program off the ground. So much is needed — time, cooperation throughout the organization, and the right kind of leadership — just to establish the right balance in policies, processes and procedures. Operationalizing a governance program with technology can be a similarly tough mountain to climb. But with the right team in place — one that is collaborating across the organization and sharing planned goals and vision — it can be easier to gain adoption for your overall data governance program and build widespread support for your data governance solutions. Sprinkle in some marketing, branding and promotion of your program and building momentum across the organization becomes an exciting journey. Curious about what that looks like? Just ask Sherry Hidalgo, the Senior Enterprise Data Manager at Shaw Industries.

Shaw is a leading manufacturer of flooring products and so much more. They put customers at the center of their universe and have a collaborative, fun culture. During February’s Data Empowerment Experts Series webinar, Sherry shared how they were able to get their enterprise-wide data governance program up and running in under ninety days. She illustrated what it took in terms of leadership, cooperation, and highlighting data quality levels within their customer data to establish support. Sherry also shared how they branded their enterprise data governance program and gave away jackets, mugs, and the usual promotion material to bring some excitement to the work they were asking their team to complete.

As we do with every episode, I sat down with Sherry for a brief question and answer chat.

Question: What’s your background and how did you get into the world of governance?

Answer: With over 20 years of leadership experience implementing large scale system projects for leading healthcare organizations, federally qualified health centers, correctional facilities, manufacturing, colleges and universities. As you can imagine, governance and data quality were key in all projects.

Question: Who are the best advocates for trusted data at your organization?

Answer: Everyone using the data is or can be an advocate, so it begins with the leader's support. As we are working on a domain-by-domain implementation, we are focusing on identifying the domain experts as well as the stewards.

Question: How does your organization support data sharing?

Answer: That is a work in process. We currently have documentation published in a company wiki and our data team is working to provide federated datasets for anyone to use.

Question: What parts of your business benefit most from having trusted data?

Answer: The entire enterprise. Having trusted data allows us to make better decisions and prevents us from reinventing the wheel. We look forward to providing trusted data at every level of our organization.

Question: How have you helped to build a data culture?

Answer: Embracing our data-focused CIO, we continue to spread the word and engage all parts of the organization to ensure a consistent message.

I hope that you’ll watch Sherry’s episode of the Data Empowerment Experts series. The quick adoption of their data governance program that they experienced at Shaw is both exciting and inspiring. As always, please check back at www.informatica.com/dataexperts each month for a new story — you never know where you’ll find the motivation to embark on your own journey.