For many companies, where data sits within the organization comes down to who you’re talking to. Both Business and IT can argue their claim, and both can be convincing. A similar scenario exists in the debate between whether a company’s reports and dashboards should be centralized with one group or disbursed in away that any department can access and pull data when they need it. These are important questions to discuss, so we’re going to throwout our hot sports opinion on them in this month’s Gestalt Gathering. We would love to hear what you think!
Common Questions. Surprising Answers?
Should your data warehouse sit in Business or IT?
I was asked this question a good bit before Gestalt, only then it was also about a company’s LOS as well as data. Now, I often get this question when we demoGestalt and bring on new customers. The easiest answer for me would be to say it depends. And it usually does depend. However, I’m going to attempt to provide a straight answer.
First, it’s important to understand why the question is being asked. Typically, it’s because people have either experienced a failed project or they sit in one of the two areas in question – Business or IT.
Projects fail for many reasons. We did a recent webinar with Alloy Labs on why data projects fail. A fairly common reason is the tech team lacks an understanding of theBusiness. Does that mean I’m going to say put it with the Business? Not so fast.Let’s take a look at the argument made by both sides.
Imagine you’re a tech person. A data engineer to be exact. You pride yourself on building elegant data solutions. You’d tell any potential employer, “It doesn’t matter what I’m building it for. I know how to build it.”
On the other side is a businessperson. Let’s say you’re a credit risk leader. You pride yourself on analyzing data, finding data, and knowing the questions to ask. You tell your potential employer, “It doesn’t matter what I’m analyzing, I can solve any problem.”
Regardless of who you believe, the reality can be much different. Here’s why:
- Scrappy tech teams can build quickly as directed, but end up painting the company into a corner where a redo is inevitable and not far off. Although people were able to quickly use the data, it didn’t scale, there were surprise costs, and it wasn’t able to be transferred to another resource when the original team left.
- Tech teams that aren’t scrappy enough can overbuild. They focus on their design, instead of how people will use it. The business person needs to run data fast, but they don’t care if a field is repeated five times. The tech person never wants to repeat a field. I recently saw a company bring in a tech and data leader with a great résumé. Two years later, the business had an elegant solution that was only 60% complete with data that couldn’t be used.
- A business person may understand the data and analysis and reports theywant, but typically
won’t have the tech build experience. My first tech hireas a Business person was quite a story, but not a good one. Ask me about itthe next time we talk. It involved bookies, hiding behind file cabinets, andcookies from the hire’s mother!
As I alluded to above, I fit more in the Business area. Early in my career, I worked for a company where the entire data project sat in Business. The build went very well given the resources we had. However, when the initial team moved on, there was no one to take it and no natural fit. It made sense, at that point, to move it to IT.
While there are circumstances where a company’s data warehouse should sit in Business, when all is said and done, I believe it should sit in IT (or an out sourced SaaS IT company like Gestalt 😉 WITH the Business actively providing needs, testing, and other critical input for the best outcomes.
Collaboration is key. While data may “sit” in one area– both areas are jointly responsible for the success.
“It made sense, at that point, to move it to IT.”
Now, let’s look at the other question we get a lot.
Should your reports and dashboards be centralized or disbursed?
I recently spent time on the road, meeting with several FIs, where this question came up more than once. I heard things like: “Right now, everyone pulls their own data. Every department. It’s all spread out. We come to meetings with different numbers.” I also heard, “Right now, everyone has to go to a centralized group for their reporting and analytic needs. We want to be able to look at our own data.”
It’s another tricky question, but this time, the answer actually is it depends. It depends on where you are as a company. Whether your reports and dashboards are centralized or disbursed, one thing is certain. Your company must have a clear understanding of data and definitions to ensure data integrity and results.
Here are a few guidelines to help you decide if centralized, disbursed – or a combination of both – is right for your company.
Choose centralized if:
- Your data is still a little messy and hard to understand
- You’re still learning your data and needs
- You’re a move fast, fail fast, think later organization
- You’re trying to eliminate duplicative reports and create a single source of truth
Choose disbursed if:
- Your organization is very mature in its data journey
- You have resources and bandwidth for extensive training and user support
- You have a very clean and stable data foundation
Choose a combination of both if:
- You meet all the Disbursed checkpoints above
- You’d like to leverage hard-to-find dashboard design skills centrally
- You want the ease of having routine report production managed centrally
- You want to encourage self-serve creation of ad hocs and perform visual analytics
- You want central support for daily production of formerly self-serve creations to avoid duplication
I hope these insights are helpful and shed some light on these two common data debates. If you have other questions about what’s best when it comes to data, shoot ’em our way.