An indispensable guide that shows companies how to treat data as a strategic asset Organizations set their business strategy and direction based on information that is available to executives. The Data Asset provides guidance for not only building the business case for data quality and data governance, but also for developing methodologies and processes that will enable your organization to better treat its data as a strategic asset. Part of Wiley's SAS Business Series, this book looks at Business Case Building; Maturity Model and Organization Capabilities; 7-Step Programmatic Approach for Success; and Technologies Required for Effective Data Quality and Data Governance and, within these areas, covers Risk mitigation - Cost control - Revenue optimization - Undisciplined and reactive organizations - Proactive organizations - Analysis, improvement, and control technology Whether you're a business manager or an IT professional, The Data Asset reveals the methodology and technology needed to approach successful data quality and data governance initiatives on an enterprise scale. Many organizations find that they cannot rely on the information that serves as the very foundation of their business. Unreliable data-whether about your customers, your products, or your suppliers-hinders understanding and affects your bottom line. It seems simple: better data leads to better decisions, which ultimately leads to better business. So why don't executives take data quality and data governance more seriously? The Data Asset: How Smart Companies Govern Their Data for Business Success explores the new shift in the way that successful businesses are thinking about and treating data, moving from simply producing data to a focus on consuming data. Providing you with guidance for building the business case for data quality and data governance, this book also helps you develop the methodologies and processes that will enable your organization to better treat your data as a strategic asset. Author and data quality expert Tony Fisher outlines the rules of data governance and looks at how your business can improve data quality, as well as plan and implement an effective data governance program, with discussion of: Risk mitigation - Cost control - Revenue optimization - Data quality and data governance - Undisciplined organizations - Reactive and proactive organizations - Technologies required for effective data quality and data governance Part of the Wiley and SAS Business Series , The Data Asset: How Smart Companies Govern Their Data for Business Success reveals how to get your data to work for you without breaking the bank or scrapping your current solutions. Making the case for ridding your organization of undependable data and the opportunities that exist when you treat data as a strategic advantage, this book proves-regardless of the industry that your company is in or the business issues that you face-that managing your data is vital to achieving your goals and keeping your business successful. "If we accept that the key assets of today's organizations lie in data, information, and human intellectual capital, then we must also recognize that harnessing these assets requires a relentless focus on data quality and data governance. I simply don't see another reasonable alternative for a business looking to exploit this latent value. Tony Fisher's book manages to put forward this case in a compelling way without the usual vendor recourse to technology for the sake of technology." ― Ian Charlesworth , Practice Leader, Ovum Software "Especially for businesses with massively complex day-to-day marketing risk, and channel decisioning, until data quality is understood as having the potential to be the deciding factor in whether a business succeeds or fails against its competition, it will always be seen as a support function. The Data Asset positions data quality as being that deciding factor. The Data Asset has taken data quality beyond an IT function to the C-level, which, unless this is done, never seems to get accomplished." ― Peter Harvey , CEO, Intellidyn "The phrase 'data as a corporate asset' has been adopted by business and IT professionals alike. Finally, there's a book that deconstructs the phrase and gets to the meat of what matters: information as a business enabler. Tony's book not only justifies a newfound investment in data, it explains why the time for formal and sustained information management has come. And not a moment too soon." ― Jill Dyché and Evan Levy , cofounders of Baseline Consulting and authors of Customer Data Integration "In this book, Tony Fisher has provided an articulate presentation of the wide range of business impacts attributable to the absence of organizational data quality management, and then provides a practical guide for baselining and improving enterprise data governance. Tony's years of experience in helping organizations have infused this text with many valuable recommendat