eBook: Building a Data-Centric Company ©2017 Hitachi Solutions. All Rights Reserved.

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 Introduction

In today’s tech-savvy world, data is being generated at an unprecedented rate

both outside of organizations and within. We are all involved in the creating/
storing and reading of data on a day-to-day basis. In business, we are con-
stantly engaged in the attempt to organize and harmonize the information
from a variety of independent sources, in order to get a clear view of the en-
tire organization. However, because most of these data sources are operated
in silos — each focused on specific business purposes — there is often little
concern with how the data is used after it leaves the owning business unit.
This can be a huge barrier to an organization looking to grow. The solution to
successfully combating this is to foster and nurture a data centric company.

A data-centric company is an organization in which its people, processes and

technologies are designed and implemented with the clear goal of generat-
ing and utilizing clean, relevant information — with the collaborative goal of
furthering the business success of the organization.

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 What’s Inside

01 / The Information Evolution Model 4

02 / The Five Evolutionary Stages of the Information Model 5

03 / Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the

Information Evolution Model 6

1 People 6

2 Processes 8

3 Infrastructure 9

4 Culture 12

04 / Becoming a Data-Centric Organization 13

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 Section One

The Information Evolution Model

As a company grows, so too does the challenge to manage the data that the
company relies on to make informed decisions. This ability to manage infor-
mation is often described as the data maturity model, or as it’s explained in
Information Revolution, the information evolution model.

Exhibit 2.1 Information Evolution Model

5 Innovate
Information Capabilities

4 Optimize

3 Integrate

2 Consolidate

1 Operate

Strategic Value of Information

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 Section Two

The Five Evolutionary Stages of the

Information Model

In order to achieve a data-centric culture at your company, it is critical to

evaluate where on the spectrum of this model your company falls, as this
will dictate what strategies you should employ. The five levels are
explained below.

Operational Level
The operational level is characterized by individual data “ownership” and
control, applied to tackle day-to-day functional issues. For instance, the
“Operational Model” is characterized by information being stored on
individual PCs as opposed to on networked servers. Information is duplicated,
not shared between groups, or inconsistently extracted. Companies at the
operational level often are hamstrung by the fact that key information is
controlled by so-called “data Mavericks” who are often touted as heroes in
the company as they are the only ones who “know the real truth” regarding a
company’s specific information questions.

Consolidation Level
The consolidation level is where individual-level perspective is replaced by
departmental- or functional-level standards, metrics and perspective.

Integration Level
The integration level expands consolidation into an enterprise-wide view.

Optimization Level
The optimization level closely aligns the organization with its markets and
gains market leadership by applying predictive insights about customers,
suppliers and business partners.

Innovation Level
The innovation level is where sustainable growth and the most revenue
potential is fueled by continuing creativity and renewal.

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 Section Three

Four Critical Dimensions for

Evolving Through the Information
Evolution Model

Transforming your business into a more mature data-centric organization requires

that you are prepared to invest in four key assets:

People

Process

Infrastructure

Culture

People
The key to creating and fostering a data-centric mentality throughout an organi-
zation starts with people. Everyone needs to understand the impact that incor-
rect information can have both on the organization as a whole and their specific
job security (strategies based on incorrect information can be very costly to the
company). Employees often focus on their day-to-day tasks without necessarily
understanding how that can directly contribute to the direction and success of the
organization. Implementing BI and explaining the way that the data flows through-
out the company can help to change this mindset.

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SECTION THREE Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the Information Evolution Model

At Hitachi Solutions, when implementing a business intelligence project, for exam-

ple, we start by identifying the following stakeholders:

Primary stakeholders will usually include executive level

involvement to initiate and monitor the success of the project

Secondary stakeholders are often analysts/managers that

currently create reports/dashboards

However, this is where most project engagements stop. Often overlooked are the
upstream employees who use the source systems and generate the data. If we
identify and involve those employees in the project as additional stakeholders,
they begin to understand both the importance of how their roles contribute to BI
and the impact that they have on the success of other departments.

By establishing this tangible relationship between the upstream data generators

and downstream consumers, we begin to establish an awareness of how work
in one department impacts the success of other departments and in turn the
organization. The ways we have successfully approached this issue has been
through communication with the front-line employees and their supervisors about
their roles and responsibilities from a data perspective. Some of the questions that
help to facilitate conversations include:

Who enters the data?

What does the system allow them to do? (i.e., Customer

ZIP code is not a mandatory field so we never fill it in)

What business decisions are made based on this source

system data?

How will this data be combined with other disparate

source systems?

Does the source system even allow them to capture all the
data they would like to?

“Begin to establish an awareness of how work in one

department impacts the success of other departments.”

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SECTION THREE Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the Information Evolution Model

By asking the above questions we can get a better sense for how these source
systems operate, which then allows us to redesign the way that data is generated
and captured within the system. This can be as simple as ensuring that all
customer data is filled out, not just name and address, giving a more complete
and usable view of a customer.

As part of engaging key employees to help improve

processes we need to identify “guardians” or
“champions” of each source system. These are often
mangers or someone in a supervisory capacity. These
“champions” are the gatekeepers of their individual
source systems, meaning they know the system
inside/out. They are the people entering data into
that system and they understand the downstream
effects of that data on the organization. And if they
do not understand this downstream effect, this type
of a program is an opportunity to educate and
change the mentality to one that is more
collaborative, a data-centric focus across the
organization.

When changes need to be made to the system, we now have an identified

group of individuals responsible for validating and approving changes, as well
as individuals who need to be consulted and made aware of pending impacts.
This prevents breaks in the data flow that can cause major headaches for the
consumers of the data. It also helps provide clear optics to trace data directly to
the original source.

Process
The knowledge processes in a company that assist in accomplishing a business
goal are usually formulated as policies, best practices or business standards on
how information is used and validated.

Evaluating and redesigning processes means assessing processes by the quality,

amount and completeness of the data they produce. This is best achieved by
asking the right questions.

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SECTION THREE Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the Information Evolution Model

What data does this process currently produce?

In an ideal situation what data would this process produce?

What processes do they follow to enter that data?

Who executes on this process?

If we change the process can the source system handle it or

do we need to look into additional tools to support that?

Through the answers to these questions and the questions we ask the key
employees and stakeholders (see discussion above), we can identify whether or
not the current processes meet both the day-to-day individual job responsibility
needs as well as the larger organizational strategic data requirements. If not, it
will be important to redesign the processes so they can fulfill both requirements.
In certain situations, this may not be achievable with the current systems. For
example, maybe the current system has no screen to enter customer address
information. However, with the right product and functionality such as “master
data management” in Microsoft Dynamics 365, there is always a way to capture
that “extra” data even if it’s not being generated in the source.

Infrastructure
Infrastructure is the hardware and software tools used to manage information.
Generally speaking, the decision to apply technology as a means to help us
manage our data is the right decision. Technology provides us with the ability
to centralize, back up and secure data with ease. However, technology shows
weakness when we are dealing with newer or more volatile data (e.g., data that
requires manual intervention in order to achieve the necessary level of accuracy).

Often it is the data that is maintained in spreadsheets or communicated through

emails, phone calls, pdfs or physical copies that is the most disputed. The reason
for this is the capability to make rapid, although often poorly communicated,
changes and improvements upon the data.

These are the areas where technology is the weakest. Because the process for
capturing or maintaining this data is such a difficult and often ad hoc one, the
inflexibility of data capture, storage or integrity management software presents
more of a barrier to creating trust in the data than it provides assistance.

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SECTION THREE Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the Information Evolution Model

“In the eyes of the person maintaining or creating this

data, this provides an unparalleled ability to increase the
veracity of the data.”

Take the all-too-common example of the analyst who spends a significant

amount of time amalgamating information into a highly valuable dataset for
his or her team. This exercise is often born of necessity or the laudable desire
to create better, more accurate data. Maybe the data is difficult to collect and
requires continuous effort to extract and amalgamate information from a variety
of sources, such as emails, phone calls and Excel documents. Maybe the data
requires a significant amount of verification, depending on active investigation
and corrections to achieve the accuracy desired. Or possibly the data captured in
the source systems are no longer correct and making adjustments in Excel is just
easier.

In the eyes of the person maintaining or creating this data, this provides an
unparalleled ability to increase the veracity of the data; however, for the data
consumers, who may be several times removed from the creation process, there is
little consistency or stability in the data they depend upon.

When these types of exercises to produce reliable data

succeed, the organization often becomes a victim of its
own achievement. As more people in the organization
consume the trusted data, maintenance becomes a
full-time endeavor. At this point, the curator of this data
begins to push back and say no to change requests and
stops serving the “customers” that have begun to rely
on this data, simply because of the insurmountable task
of keeping everyone happy.

This is where a technology solution can shine the brightest. At this point, the
curator of the data should be ready for help in automating or alleviating the
burden of sustaining the data source and serving it to the various interested
parties. Or they may have turned, out of self-preservation, to rejecting any
requests outright, creating the perception of selfish motives. Regardless, in order
to achieve progress, change must occur.

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SECTION THREE Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the Information Evolution Model

The paradox of using technology to help us maintain the integrity of our data is
that, although the pace of change is drastically slowed down (even sometimes to
the point of frustration), it forces a measured and thorough approach to change —
a phenomenon that can be tremendously beneficial in some circumstances.

“The drawback is that these changes take time and a

great deal of effort to get right, and it is all too easy to
look back with unjustified favorability upon old methods.”

With the introduction of technology to help with capture, cleansing and storage,
an evaluation of the significance of the data and the process for creating the data
is forced. The business and IT must come together and cooperatively determine
where process improvements must be made in the lifecycle of the data. Do
new requirements need to be placed on the initial capture of the data? For
example, does data that was traditionally communicated through emails or phone
calls need to be entered properly into an application? For data that requires a
robust validation process, do data integrity management solutions need to be
considered, or do the capabilities to perform updates to the source data need to
be built in?

The drawback is that these changes take time and a great deal of effort to get
right, and it is all too easy to look back with unjustified favorability upon old
methods. This is a where a consistent and sound process for determining when
technology needs to be brought in becomes invaluable. Some of the questions
that must be asked are:

How important is it to be accurate?

How many groups, teams or individuals rely on the data?

What is the effort to automate data capture and validation?

Depending on the answers to these questions, technology can replace the

process fully, creating maximum rigidity and stability in the process; or a blend of
technology and good process can be used to support the limitations of the other.

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SECTION THREE Four Critical Dimensions for Evolving Through the Information Evolution Model

“A new networked infrastructure should be

complemented with a reward/recognition program that
encourages sharing data between departments.”

Culture
Culture can be thought of as the moral, social and behavioral norms for an
organization that dictate how information is “thought of.”

Culture is one of the most important factors in effectively

utilizing data to move your business forward. For example,
simply investing in new networked infrastructure won’t
guarantee that a company’s data is suddenly shared across
the organization, not if the company’s culture continues to
accord hero status to those so-called “data mavericks.” If
the culture is geared toward rewarding individuals as
opposed to recognizing “team efforts” when it comes to
sharing data, a cultural shift will be needed. A new
networked infrastructure should be complemented with a
reward/recognition program that encourages sharing data
between departments, to illustrate the benefits of sharing
information with the entire company, and ultimately creating
an enterprise level information sharing strategy.

When it comes to the individuals within your organization who are primary
cultivators and sustainers of culture, it is important to be aware of the behaviors
you are incentivizing. As people gravitate toward the path of least resistance, you
will need to encourage collaboration over isolationism when it comes to data.

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 Section Four

Becoming a Data-Centric
Organization

To take an organization from one data-centric level to the next, enterprise-wide

perspective will be required when addressing each of the discussed factors:

People • Process • Infrastructure • Culture

Ultimately, building trust in the data depends on consistency. A strong data
culture knows this and looks to embrace technology where it can help reduce
manual work, but also supports the development and improvement of these
solutions, without the expectation that technology is or even needs to be a
perfect antidote to all data problems.

If your business is able to harness the power and benefits that data offers —
defining and following through on sound processes and building the technology
to support these — then you will be well on your way to fostering a data-centric
culture within your organization. Microsoft Dynamics 365 is one of the latest and
most innovative solutions that is helping to accelerate this data centric revolution
and help forward-thinking companies implement and maintain a data-driven
culture. By combining the power of CRM, ERP and BI, along with a multitude of
apps, all specific to your unique industry, Dynamics 365 enables you to maintain
and leverage data in one central repository — offering a 360-degree view into the
business and allowing you to capitalize on the vast amount of information hidden
within your currently siloed data sources.

Finally, regardless of the technologies implemented, if an organization lacks well-

thought-out processes and employees who are committed to following them,
even top organizations will struggle to foster a data centric mentality.

eBook: Building a Data-Centric Company ©2017 Hitachi Solutions. All Rights Reserved. / 13
 If you are interested in learning more about
how your business can implement a data
centric culture, contact us.
With deep industry experience and a close partnership with Microsoft, the team at
Hitachi Solutions understands how technology can help businesses just like yours
move forward by harnessing the power of data.

C O N TA C T U S

This post is published by Hannah Story on behalf of three members of the Hitachi Solutions team who
collaborated on this post: Brad Lagore, Patrick Putnam, and Rowan Sciban.

eBook: Building a Data-Centric Company ©2017 Hitachi Solutions. All Rights Reserved. / 14