How Data Stewards Impact Business Intelligence

Stressing about achieving enterprise success? With all the data collected and emerging analysis technology, today's organizations can feel the pressure to invest in business intelligence (BI) tools for data-backed decisions that can improve their bottom line. With such a rush to adoption, however, many may overlook a key element to obtaining solid insights: Data preparation.  

Your decisions are only as good as the information stored. Out-of-date, duplicated, compromised, and incomplete data records will ultimately guide you in the wrong direction — away from hitting your business goals. But fear not, a hero awaits! 

A data steward is THE person you've been waiting for to shape the success of your BI initiatives. 

Here's everything you need to know about the data steward role and the strategic impact it can have on your business.

Data Stewards: A Hybrid Role that Brings Together Data Governance and Technology Skills

If you hire a data steward, you get well-rounded expertise in all things data management. At a high level, this person is responsible for maintaining the accuracy, completeness, and security of data assets — letting your BI team find anomalies, patterns, and opportunities using the best possible information. 

Their day-to-day includes: 

• Coordinating with IT and data teams to define and implement governance policies (rules for who can collect, store, and use the data, plus how it must be done) 

• Working with cybersecurity teams to deploy controls that support the CIA triad of data (confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility) 

• Managing data architecture and models (hierarchical relationships between data based on type or how it's used)

• Providing procedural documentation and training to data users 

• Managing user access and permissions to tools or databases storing records
  
  
• Adopting, administering, and integrating BI tools into the tech stack based on business goals and data architecture

• Monitoring data quality and compliance with governance policies to resolve any issues  

What makes a data steward different from, say, an IT manager is their ability to bridge the language gap between technology and the business. They're all-in-one experts who understand data management, IT systems, and business users' needs, such as sales managers wanting quick insights on their inbound leads or insurance analysts looking for claims trends.  

Enabling Better Decisions with Data Stewards

With a dependable data steward on staff, your business can access better data that enhances decision-making and drives enterprise success. How? 

• They maintain data integrity → Records are more accurate, up-to-date, and complete. 

• They provide reliable data governance → Records are stored, managed, and accessed consistently for less data duplication, better security, and more coherent information quickly ready for analysis.

• They remove data siloed → Data sets are democratized data for anyone to access and provide a more collaborative environment between teams for problem-solving. (Raw data converted to business lingo)

In the end, the data steward boosts BI initiatives simply because the information is more available, reliable, and accurate. 

Data Stewards and BI Teams: A Combination to Help Shape Enterprise Success

Solid intel drives business performance. Whether you're trying to improve your manufacturing process, make investment decisions, predict future sales, or get a better view of your customers, the teamwork between a data steward and their BI teams is invaluable. 

Neither can function without the other as one prepares the data while the other activates it. For fast answers that produce the best insights, BI teams should keep an open communication line with their steward to ensure they have constant access to the information they need and that it's formatted to meet their analysis requirements.  

When done right, your data steward can align business goals with your data strategy and produce positive outcomes throughout the enterprise.