Data Management Services and headaches

Just imagine the following situation. You are suffering from a terrible headache today. I guess everybody has experienced this at least a couple of times. What do you do? How do you get rid of the headache? Visit a doctor or take some medicines/some pills against the pain? Or do you need some time to relax and get some “fresh air for the brains” to make you feel better? You can go for a walk outside, a little nap, a run in the forest … Or do you rely on the less common cures like a fronthead massage, a yoga session or anything to de-stress? I guess everybody has its own preferences and approaches (or combination of remedies) to get rid of these kind of annoying physical problems. If this is a one-time event, I guess not a big thing, and any solution which solves the problem is actually fine. But what if you have the same kind of headache again next week? Or at least a couple of time each month? Or what do you do if the problem does not go away and your headache remains? Do you get more pills or do more walks? Or do you tend to look for the root cause of the issue? Maybe the headache is caused by your glasses? Looking at the computerscreen with inadequate glasses requires too much efforts from your eyes and brain and hence results in pain in the head? Or is it the physical work environment (like the airco, the light, …)? Or maybe your work-stress and work-life balance is the underlying cause of repetitive headaches? I could even imagine other reasons, but the picture is clear, I guess: the headache is the result from something else. Finding a remedy for the pain is OK, but finding a solution for the root-cause will be more effective in the long run. I use this metaphore of the headache to address the topic of Data Management in general. Too many companies are not getting the value out of their Enterprise Applications or have Enterprise Business Systems which do not enable running the business in the best possible way. The systems are not fully supporting the business operations and processes, or do not enable to transform, evolve or grow the business. The solution to cure, which are commonly suggested go into the directions like … lets implement a business Intelligence system (a datawarehouse, a reportingsystem, a high performance analytical system …) or …. Let’s add new solutions (eg. finance fast close, a CRM system with mobility, …). The “headache” is there: the solution is a pill, … but the headache does not disappear or comes back again. The fundament on which Business run is data. One can have the best processes, state-of-the-art systems, innovative and creative, agile and flexible solutions … but if the data is crap, the value of the systems (operational and supporting) will be far less than expected (or feasible). Data Management Services is addressing the topic of “data as an asset”. Is data an asset for your organization, or is it rather a liability? Does your Data Management enable you to be a “best run” company or is it rather a constraint for capturing the full potential out of your current and future business systems? Is your Data Management set up in a way that your data is a true asset, like your other assets (eg. fixed, variable, or people as your most important asset …) and do you have the necessary data governance in place to manage data assets? For other assets we have often processes, structures, policies, ownership, life-cycle supporting flows … in place which are not always there for data. If you just think about the evolution of data in terms of volume (fast growing enterprise information), velocity (life-cycles), complexity (structured as well as unstructured data) and value (dependency of business operations on data and information for operations and decision) on top of technological evolutions like mobility (data in central/de-central systems combined with data on mobile devices), or cloud (hybrid environments with on-premise combined with cloud systems and data sources) it is a no-brainer to see that Data Management is key to enable “best run” business. One can re-design or optimize business processes (but if the data is not good, than you get “garbage in, garbage out), or have very performing Enterprise Information systems but if the data quality and reliability is not good, the value of the “ insight” is equally not good. The root-cause of unsatisfaction with business support systems might be found in the underlying data and data management. If data is a liability and a constraint for business operations (root-cause of the headache), think about Data Management as a solution. Data Management Services is looking at data governance in a holistic way: enterprise-wide (with a common set of standards and policies across SAP and non-SAP systems), across the entire lifecycle (from the data creation/migration over the maintenance/testing until retirement/end-of-life/decommissioning from a business-drive approach (continuous or linked to disruptive business events like M&A) and beyond the pure data angle (also process, systems, technology). Whether the business scenario a company faces is related to corporate strategy execution (structural transformations due to external events like M&A or divestitures or internal events like re-organizations) to compliancy and governance (during the complete life cycle) or to Business Process improvement or redesign (data harmonization, data conversion, data integration and master data quality management) or purely to TCO (eg. system consolidation, test data management), data management is the addressing the root-cause in a systematic way. Avoid taking pills if the root-cause is not tackled at the same time.

De mee-neem-chinees neemt de frituren over ...

In de standaard vandaag ... "aantal frietchinesen groeit in vlaanderen".
Blijkbaar zijn er meer en meer chinesen die frituren gaan runnen in Belgie. Naast de chocolade-shops ronde de Brusselse Grote Markt zien we nu terug een typisch Belgisch deel van onze eetcultuur "overgenomen" worden door ondernemende Chinesen. Goed gezien van de Chinesen. De Belg zal toch steeds zijn "pak friet met mayo" blijven eten, of er nu een Vlaming of Chinees de fieten bakt, ... als ze maar goed zijn.

Chinesen zijn ondernemend en draaien hun hand niet om om in een de vettige dampen en geuren van een frituur te gaan werken. Onze Belgen blijkbaar wel. Zijn we op het punt gekomen dat Belgen voor dit soort jobs ook hun neus ophalen? We haden al het bandwerk in de auto-assemblage bedrijven, de schoonmaakploegen, de taxi-chauffeurs, de bouwbedrijven ... nu de horeca. What's next: autogarages? omdat dat werk ook niet aangenaam is voor Belgen? We zijn blijkbaar kieskeurig geworden over de jobs die we als Belgen nog "aangenaam" vinden.

We kunnen beter stoppen die Chinesen te verwijten dat ze "copieren". Dank zij de Chinesen die onze Belgische frituren copieren kunnen we doorgaan met "nen groten met nen frikadel" te eten ... De "mee-neem-Chinees" neemt ook onze frituren mee.

Twee maten en twee gewichten omdat het systeem niet werkt

Als “het systeem” niet naar behoren werkt krijg je soms eigenaardige situaties.
Zo lees je in dezelfde week in de krant dat iemand is veroordeeld tot 6 maanden met uitstel voor het stelen van vervallen muffins uit een container in Rupelmonde terwijl in Brussel in een rondzendbrief van het parket aan de politiezones wordt gevraagd om daders van autodiefstallen, wapenbezit en gebruik van vals geld niet meer onmiddellijk op te pakken (en ze vrij te laten voor later verhoor en… hopelijk een veroordeling).
Elk van de situaties afzonderlijk, geïsoleerd zijn te begrijpen als je op zoek gaat naar de achtergrond, … maar als je ze naast elkaar legt schort er iets. Dit is moeilijk uit te leggen aan veel mensen en geeft (begrijpelijk) aanleiding tot negativisme en klagen. Ik hoop dat het ook motivatie geeft om te werken aan “het systeem” en beroep doet op verantwoordelijkheidszin om dingen te verbeteren in 2012.
In de maatschappij, de professionele en de privé sfeer, want met frustraties alleen gaan we er niet komen …
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