Authors
Ronak Shah
We recently conducted a survey to understand how organizations manage data today and how they envision this evolving in a post-COVID world.
We learned that while many organizations will continue to manage their data through a risk management lens, many also expect data to be treated increasingly as a strategic driver of innovation, growth and competitive differentiation. This trend appears across multiple sectors and has become more urgent as companies pivot to digital strategies for stay-at-home customers1.
Over the course of the pandemic crisis, we have worked with clients on the difficult task of adapting their operations iteratively, re-inventing their plans and processes in lock-step with governments’ responses to the pandemic. This has included quickly migrating their workforce to “work from home”, transitioning back into a partial or tightly-managed “return to work” mode, or preparing for some hybrid interim approach in response to regional outbreaks or a “second wave”.
Working through this organizational upheaval, especially while trying to manage privacy and cybersecurity obligations, represents a unique opportunity in data governance: to transform the use and management of data assets from a mainly risk-based approach to a more balanced framework that also focuses on data as an opportunity.
The following summarizes the key findings from our data management survey results and includes some recommendations for organizations looking to seize upon these nascent opportunities.
COVID-19 has brought about a public awareness of data management that likely is here to stay. News stories, social media blasts and press conferences about “the new normal”, “flattening the curve” measures and contact tracing have become as commonplace as the weather. Through new technologies, existing and novel data, organizations that can smartly process in near real-time their response to pandemic-induced changes in customer behaviour and market forces will not only be more successful in weathering this crisis, but will also be in a better position to tackle future uncertainties.
The crisis has also forced organizations to undergo changes that previously would have been considered near impossible. In migrating their organizations to work-from-home and back again to the office, stakeholders that previously did not work together have coalesced around issues of data management that used to be overseen by a smaller group of specialists. They now have an opportunity to learn from this experience. To capture more value out of organizational data, organizations should:
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1 On June 2nd, 2020 we hosted a webinar exploring privacy and data governance implications of returning to work during the COVID‑19 pandemic. Many of our guests responded to our follow-up survey in which we asked about their perspectives on data management. We are grateful for this valuable insight into how their organizations manage data today and how they envision this evolving in a post-COVID world. Sectors included: technology, financial services, private equity, life sciences, infrastructure, media and communications, and retail.
2 Although there is no general data ownership regime in Canada, several existing legal frameworks impact data ownership and control: 1) copyright and intellectual property law; 2) the law of confidential information and trade secrets; and 3) data protection and privacy. In addition to these, depending on the AI application other regulatory regimes may also affect the control of or rights to data; for example, competition and consumer protection laws as well as any sectoral specific legislation (healthcare, banking etc.).