What Is On The Menu At a Data Destination?

by Anne Legg
THRIVE

You are familiar with a vacation destination - the place you are aspiring to go and take time off, but what is a DATA destination? It is very similar to where your data is aspiring to go.
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The ultimate destination for enterprise data is workplace adoption. It is a lovely location where your credit union has data flowing through your organization in real-time, generating insights that instantaneously turn into action. It is a place where the credit union has formal data management where data is governed across the company with effective policy and procedures. This place is also where the credit union has built a data capability and maturity.

If you are like me right now, you probably heard birds chirping, and the air is now smelling somehow sweeter. So how can a credit union get to this desired nirvana? We are here to help. Here are the five things that a credit union needs for data success.

1. A clear data strategy
A data strategy aligned to the organization's strategy
incorporates a pathway to data maturity (with particular emphasis on data governance), includes talent development to consume data, and provides clarity on workplace adoption of data.
2. The ability to translate data strategy into tangible use cases
Focusing on solving the member problem or reducing member friction is ideal because the entire credit union can understand them.
3. A clear, high-level road map
If you have #1 and 2 above, you should have this. Remember best practice for a data road map is to have it fit on one page and communicate the pathway that data will be leveraged to improve members' lives.
4. Have a formal data governance program
Many credit unions get overwhelmed with the creation of formal data governance program. Advice: don't boil the ocean; make a nice cup of tea. Start small!
5. Talent that can translate data into valuable action
This is the area where most credit unions fail. Creating a data-centric organization does not occur organically. A defined plan to infuse data into the credit union is a combination of critical and design thinking embedded in a pro-active environment.

So, what exactly is on the menu at a data destination?
Descriptive data served with a healthy order predictive analytics and paired expertly with prescriptive analytics, all delivered in real-time.​

If you would like to find out how ready your credit union is for data success, complete the Data Success Assessment. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and within the click of a few buttons, you will find out how prepared your organization is to succeed with data.

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