How to Sell the Business on Metadata Management
Blog: The Tibco Blog
Reading Time: 3 minutes
An animation industry pioneer and the creator of the world’s most valuable entertainment company Walt Disney once said, “It’s kind of fun to do the impossible.”
So, let’s have some fun as we discuss what many might consider an impossible act—getting your business on board to invest in metadata management. This blog provides a step-by-step guide.
Step 1: Recognize that Metadata Management Success Requires Business Involvement
Without business involvement metadata management initiatives struggle. Said another way, you need business teams to provide subject matter experts, priority clarification, resources, and funding in order to see metadata management success. So, get out there and make some friends.
Step 2: Avoid IT Speak
Tempting as it may be, do not start by “educating” your business colleagues about the concept of metadata itself. The tired and trite “metadata is data about data” will surely turn them off. And don’t compound this mistake explaining the metadata’s importance within the proper setup and execution of data management systems.
To get the business on board, it is best to talk about the outcomes and benefits of metadata management. Outcomes and benefits are the language of business, not the specialized IT terminology so often used when discussing metadata, so stick to what the business knows.
Step 3: Communicate Metadata Management’s Business Benefits
Metadata management helps both your business and IT teams strengthen their understanding of your data assets, how your data assets are used, and their business value so your organization can drive greater value from these assets.
Challenge yourself to clearly communicate the business impact of this data-related insight. Help your business teams visualize the resulting outcomes of a successful metadata management solution, such as:
- Greater productivity by everyone who uses data across sales and marketing, R&D, supply chain, finance, HR, and more. With everyone on the same page, it is much easier to align business and data management related processes and definitions and thus reduce the reconciliation and remediation costs.
- Better regulatory compliance and avoidance of fines, fees, and penalties by enabling better adherence to compliance and corporate governance frameworks. Metadata management clearly identifies data that is covered by regulatory and legal obligations so you can act quickly and appropriately. Such obligations include the GDPR, BCBS 239, and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
- Higher return on data assets via reuse of data and ease of sharing. Metadata management improves the productivity of business analysts, data engineers, and data scientists by providing them with the curated and governed metadata associated with their projects.
- Improved risk management and better assessment by decision makers of the impact of change within an enterprise, thanks to the communication of a clear lineage for data and its use.
Step 4: Build your CFO Ready Financial Business Case
Next, you need to transform these business benefits into a compelling financial case that can garner the resources you will need to ensure a successful metadata management initiative.
The case should directly cover the following subject areas within a concise, tangible format.
- Executive Summary including vision, strategy, and stakeholders
- Expected Business Benefits as outlined in the section above
- Financial Value of Expected Business Benefits
- Total Cost of Ownership including acquisition, implementation, and operational costs
- Expected Return on Investment
Step 5: Select your Metadata Management Partner
Once your business leadership is on board and funding is in place, it is time to select your metadata management solution and services provider.
TIBCO’s approach to metadata management makes it a smart choice as your solution provider. With TIBCO CloudTM Metadata, you can holistically manage all your metadata including business metadata (glossaries, definitions, policies, rules), physical metadata (data dictionaries, data lineages), and the data catalogs (datasets, entitlements) in one place. TIBCO’s integrated approach to all your data, all your systems, and all your teams makes it a lot easier to provide the critical data context your business and IT teams require.
To assist with project management, design, and implementation, TIBCO also partners with services firms that specialize in metadata management solutions.
The Bottom LineIf data is a critical asset in your organization, metadata management is a great way to maximize business return on your data assets. Getting your metadata management initiative funded becomes quite possible with the right business case. Let this blog be your guide. To your success! For more help on building a business case for metadata management, please contact us. You can also visit our page on Metadata Management for more ways to sell the business.
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