A golden opportunity for data governance in Kenya

More than a challenge the road to compliance with the Data Protection Act (DPA) must be considered as an opportunity for businesses to build a strong data foundation and to fully explore the potential and value of their data.

The awareness of data as the most critical asset for an organization keeps growing but the results will not follow and despite large investments to manage this crescent entry of data, most organizations are still unable to retrieve the meaningful insights that will enable them to take advantage of the potential created by all this data.

From day one, data is being created, compiled, collected, stored, and distributed. Data is present in all the organization’s processes, from risk or regulatory compliance to routine operations.

Data is the most powerful asset an organization has.

Organizations are investing heavily in leveraging new technologies, artificial intelligence, machine learning the internet of things, augmented and predictive analytics, and data is at the core of each of these initiatives.

Kenyan organizations must view DPA as an opportunity to better align their organisations. Data protection regulation will continue evolving, and a clear view of how data moves across the business will be critical to continuing compliant.

While it may be enough for organizations to simply comply with DPA, having a long-term view can help them work more efficiently and differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market.

Specially in industries dependent on attracting and keeping customers, that handle and work with customer data, it essential to have clear objectives when approaching this challenge.

Data protection might be considered a compliance issue, but the risks are higher than compliance.

There’s a growing trend for customers to prefer companies that have an ethical approach to data. The view of the Data Protection Act being just a compliance issue, might hold organizations from following a market tendency that is gaining strength.

Organizations that can show they are ethical and responsible about their customers data, will be gaining a competitive edge against their competition and getting their customers support in the process. Compliance with the Data Protection Bill is just the beginning of this process.

The existence of a clear data strategy, with focus on trust, based on ethical and transparent data practices, making sure that customers know how, when and for how long their data will be used is an opportunity to make customers buy in to an organization, its culture, and principles instead of just products.

On the verge of a new set of compliance requirements, and although every industry may have a different business vision, you need to look at that vision and understand if the focus for this transformation, should only be the compliance to the Data Protection Act, or if a more broaden opportunity should be considered.

Having a data governance framework in place, assures that timely, consistent, and trusted data is provided business to support critical decisions, improving trust, transparency, and reliability when meeting customer and stakeholder expectations.

With all the technological advances and with larger volumes of data available organizations can increase their competitivity and earning potential, but also to highlight existing operational inefficiencies and fail to rise in an increasingly competitive business environment.

This is where the capacity to know what data the organization has, where and how it is held, and the ability to protect the integrity of that data, is a critical advantage.

Organizations need to have a clear stand on safeguarding its most important asset – data. And as for any other asset this means to define the processes and procedures by which their data will be managed.

You need to look at this, not only to solve compliance, but also as a true business differentiator, enabling a customer-centric vision supporting the organization to deliver truly personalized and valued customer experiences.