Data Strategy Handbook as Guide Towards Data-Driven Organization

Abstract

The need for an organizational data culture is evident in the digital era. More organizations are making data-driven decisions, viewing data as a crucial business asset. This thesis aimed to help a case company enhance its data maturity by defining a data strategy, examining data architecture, and exploring tools. The company's leadership showed interest in becoming data-driven, propelling this thesis. The theoretical basis was built on literature and webinars on data strategy, focusing on Data Governance, Data Management, and Data Analysis. Given that the case company is a rapidly expanding start-up with a lean business team managing operations, the organization's maturity in data and data use capabilities were assessed. This in-volved an assessment done together with business and support function team leaders, as well as examining the current data architecture and data analytics tools in use. Necessary actions were initiated based on these findings. The significance of data roles was acknowledged, leading focus to enhancements in data quality and governance in various business platforms. A new strategy of treating data as a product was introduced. A data catalog was selected as the documentation tool for this task. The development of a data strategy faced challenges like managing multiple projects in a small organization. The focus was primarily on projects upgrading the business platforms. However, these upgrades also improved data analysis capabilities as new features became available in the original systems. For example, the Odoo ERP platform was upgraded, introducing new data ana-lytics and forecasting features. The data quality significantly improved with the help of the established data and integration team. The next step would be to adopt a Data Mesh approach, involving business teams as accountable data owners and providers, and fostering a mindset of treating data as a product. In the future, appointing a Chief Data Officer or Data Analytics Officer could be necessary to encourage a data-driven culture.