You don’t have to go it alone in building a data strategy. Looking wide helps you identify opportunities you may have missed, while prioritization ensures focus on the most critical areas related to data strategy. While you need to evaluate the entire organization, you must prioritize those areas that will have the most impact on the business strategy. Being narrow risks parallel data strategies that may compete, and you risk alienating folks who might have supported the vision.
Including these people in the data strategy program allows many opportunities for key decision-makers to guide the outcome and help develop a more targeted strategy to create buy-in as the strategy is developed.įrom a scope perspective, it is imperative to look at the entire organization’s needs, not just the parts you know. Your key influencers need to be people who can provide good input and guidance and are willing to advocate along the way.
Getting the right sponsor on board goes a long way to getting other key influencers on board with the data strategy. It will also help you gain support for communications, tracking work and managing risks as you develop the data strategy. A data strategy program will likely have oversight groups and working teams.Īnother benefit of the program structure is it helps you get dedicated focus from key experts across the organization that will be critical to a sound data strategy. Because of the breadth of the data strategy, a formal operating program is useful to marshal resources and manage a wide range of considerations. When you are launching your data strategy initiative, keep in mind how you will get support, investment, time, and resources. Find out what motivates them and how they work, then build your plan to approach them on sponsoring the data strategy – make it about what it will do for the organization, not about the strategy itself. stay engaged and provide you guidance on navigating the organization.īefore approaching your potential sponsor, talk to someone who was able to get them to sponsor a prior initiative.be a vocal evangelist of the data strategy, and.have influence within the organization,.You are going to want an executive that will The most important person in this network will be your executive sponsor. Once you are clear on how the data strategy will support the business strategy, it is time to start building allies that will help you craft and sell the strategy. Ultimately, the better job you do outlining a data strategy that supports the business strategy, the more likely it is that you will be successful. For example, does your organization want to focus on managing costs? If so, outline how the data strategy can provide greater cost visibility, create efficiencies across organizations, and reduce the overall spend on data storage and processing. Start by understanding the business strategy and assessing where a data strategy can support business objectives.
#Udig sposnorship how to#
The previous blog outlines why you need a data strategy, and the third blog will explain how to sell it to the most senior executives of your company. Along the way, I will include practical examples you can leverage in crafting and selling your data strategy. This is the second blog of a three-part series.
Leverage external resources in building your data strategy.Look at your entire organization but prioritize focus areas.