A Guide to Data Governance Strategy: Empowering Your Data

There was a recent report by Gartner which predicted that, in 2025, 80% of organisations attempting to scale their digital business will fail due to not adopting a modern approach to data governance. So, why is this an issue?

Simply put, if you’re a business trying to thrive in a world that’s driven by data, robust data governance is more than just an option to consider - it’s a necessity. Data is what makes a marketing campaign tick, and what fuels operational decisions, so the stakes could not be higher. However, with the right data governance strategy, the chaos can be turned into success.

In this guide, we’ll take a look at what exactly data governance is, why it’s so important, and how you can use it to build a strategy that enhances everything within your business.

What is Data Governance?

At its heart, data governance is a comprehensive, wide-ranging approach that uses policies, procedures, and standards to make sure that your data is accurate, secure, and accessible. You might think that this all boils down to controlling data, but it’s also about encouraging your business to use its data as a strategic asset.

In essence, data governance is the bedrock that keeps your data from sinking, allowing it to stand strong no matter how fast your business grows or how vast your data network becomes.

Data Governance and Compliance

It’s in the name: data governance is mandated and non-negotiable. There are a number of regulations across the world (GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, as well as a myriad that are sector-specific) which require businesses to manage their data responsibly and lawfully. By implementing a strong data governance strategy, you’re well on your way to meeting the required standards, which will enhance your business’s reputation and avoid fines.

Data Governance vs Data Management

Though subtle, there are differences between data governance and data management. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but data governance refers to what data you protect, who can use the data, and why it all matters. Data management looks at how the data’s stored, cleaned, and integrated.

An easy way to visualise the difference is to picture governance as the architect and management as the builder. Governance provides the blueprint, management puts it into action. If you want to learn more about how the two relate to one another, check out our blog on Data Governance and Data Quality.

Why Data Governance is Important for Business

Without governance, data, the lifeblood of modern business, can cease being an asset and start being a liability. Here’s why data governance is non-negotiable.

Regulatory Requirements

Customers expect that their data will be handled carefully and respectfully, and regulators enforce it. If you want a customer’s trust, adhering to the rules is a must. It’s not just about avoiding fines, it’s about earning customer confidence.

Better Decisioning

Governing data is not just the right thing to do, it’s a way to benefit every facet of your business. Reliable data allows you to make smarter decisions, simply put. With governed data, a retailer can pinpoint customer trends accurately, while a manufacturer is able to improve supply chains without guesswork. To utilise data without governance is to walk across a minefield with a blindfold on. You’ll find that inefficiencies begin to stack up, trust in your brand will erode, and competitors will pull ahead with sharper strategies.

Benefits of Data Governance

A well-executed data governance strategy will put you on the way to reaping a number of tangible rewards, such as:

• Operational Efficiency: You’ll be able to cut waste with standardised processes - hours that would otherwise be spent reconciling mismatched datasets can be used more productively
• Enhanced Trust: Confidence in your brand will be built with clean and secure data - this will not only be with customers, but also internally within your teams
• Scalable Growth: By using insights from governed data, you can start to work towards expansion

Guide to Building a Data Governance Strategy

It’s no mean feat putting together an effective, foolproof data governance strategy. With these five steps, each drawn from industry best practices and Sagacity’s own expertise, you can create a roadmap to success.

1. Assess Current Data Governance Maturity

It’s a fact of life that you generally can’t fix what you don’t understand, and that’s true for data governance. Naturally, therefore, the first step to creating a data governance strategy is to make sense of what you’ve already got. Begin with an audit. Ask yourself if your data policies are documented, for example, or if your teams are hoarding data. Tools like maturity models can score your current state and shine a light on inconsistent quality or unclear ownership, among other gaps. Our Data Quality Management blog offers practical tips for this stage.

2. Define Governance Policies & Standards

Next, it’s time to look at the rules. You need policies that cover data quality, security (e.g., encryption for sensitive records), and access (e.g., role-based permissions). You can use your policies to clarify which teams have access to what data. Standards make sure there’s consistency across the board, which might materialise in a single format for dates across all systems, for example. With clarity now, you can avoid chaos later.

3. Assign Roles & Responsibilities

Behind every good governance strategy is a team of capable people, with clearly defined roles:

• Data Admin: You need people overseeing the programme, to make sure it aligns with your business goals
• Data Steward: The data has to meet quality and compliance standards, and a data steward makes sure that it does
• Data Custodian: Manages technical systems (databases, backups, etc.)
• Data User: Will apply the data where necessary and within the policy limits

To get all this running smoothly, you’ll need to make sure everyone involved is competently trained and on the same page. Communication is key and can cut implementation time dramatically.

4. Implement Technology & Automation

Governance can be supercharged with technology, if used correctly. Software tools are invaluable when it comes to automatic policy enforcement, monitoring compliance, and flagging up issues that could quite easily get missed under a human eye.

Key Components of a Data Governance Strategy

If you want your data governance strategy to be a winning one, it’ll need these three pillars: people, processes, and technology. Each one is dependent on the other and is critical to you making the most out of your data.

People

As mentioned above, you’re going to need a strong team working behind the scenes to adapt to and maximise your data governance strategy. The data steward, data custodian, and data user must all collaborate across their roles. With effective and regular training, they’ll work together to devise, uphold, and utilise a plan.

Processes

You’ll want to implement a number of proven processes to get the ball rolling. These will include:

• Frameworks: Adopt reputable models for structure
• Workflows: Lay out the steps for data requests or breach responses - if a flagged error automatically triggers a 24-hour fix cycle, it won’t cause problems down the line
• Policies: Try to codify rules - for example, anonymising customer data once it’s been used

With strong processes at your command, you can start to turn intent into action. Our Customer Data Management Basics blog unpacks how workflows streamline data handling.

Technology

With powerful tools, you can start to amplify governance. Tracking assets is possible with data catalogues, rules can be enforced with automation, and insights can be uncovered with analytics.

Data Governance Best Practices

A data governance strategy is only as strong as its execution. To get the most out of it, you need practical, proven approaches that adapt to your business’s needs and help it advance.

Start Small: Pilot Governance in One Department Before Scaling

Even if you feel well-prepared, jumping into enterprise-wide governance can easily overwhelm your systems and people. Begin with a pilot in a single department in order to test drive your strategy before scaling it company-wide. You could have your marketing team focus on governing customer data for campaigns, ensuring names, preferences, and consent orders are accurate and compliant with GDPR.

Restricting the initial scope of your strategy allows you to refine your processes, test new tools, and build your company’s confidence, all without risking widespread disruption. Once the different kinks have been ironed out (such as inconsistent data entry or unclear ownership) you can begin to expand to operations, finance, or beyond.

Communicate: Ensure Buy-In from Leadership and Staff

You’ll need everyone on board if you want to get the most out of governance. Without the buy-in of your leadership and staff, even the best strategy will falter. Start at the top, and tie governance to tangible ROI, such as reducing compliance costs (e.g., avoiding a £500,000 fine) or speeding up reporting by 20%.

It’s important to train your teams in why it matters. If they know that clean data prevents lost sales from outdated leads, they’ll embrace it. With regular updates, such as monthly governance wins, you can keep momentum alive.

Stay Agile: Adapt to New Regulations or Business Needs

With the data landscape constantly shifting and evolving (new regulations, technologies, and business goals come into play on a regular basis), you need to ensure your governance is agile. This will let you pivot at a moment’s notice without breaking stride or having to rethink everything. When the UK’s Data Protection Act tightened in 2018, businesses with rigid frameworks scrambled, while the agile ones adjusting seamlessly.

Our platforms, processing over 140 million customer records every month, are built for this. Key steps to stay agile include:

• Schedule reviews, keeping an eye out quarterly or biannually for gaps, such as outdated access rules
• Monitor trends and adapt to new laws (e.g., GDPR updates) or tech (e.g., AI analytics)
• Integrate datasets from acquisitions seamlessly, avoiding silos

When you stay agile, you stay prepared, with the ability to avoid catastrophe in the event that significant changes in data governance take place. The goal is to stay ahead of changes rather than chasing them, keeping your governance relevant and effective.

Prioritise Quality: Make Data Your Strongest Asset

Without a consistent, high level of quality in your data governance, you won’t get far. It’s the same as driving a car without fuel. High-quality data that’s complete and consistent will be the bedrock of trust and decision-making. A retailer with dodgy inventory data might overstock, tying up £100,000 in dead goods, while a utility with clean meter readings avoids billing disputes. Try to focus on these essentials:

• Set Standards: Try to keep your error rates in customer records below 2%
• Enforce Rules: Use automated checks, deduplication, and validation at entry points
• Learn More: For actionable tips, check out our What is Data Quality? blog

Start Your Journey to Better Data Governance

There’s a whole world of untapped potential in your data. With governance, you can unlock it. You might be an entrepreneur scaling up or a marketing manager simply making a few small changes to a campaign, either way, a tailored strategy will transform your data into an invaluable asset.