When the Data Strategies Align….

There is a growing need for consuming data almost at the same time as the data gets generated – but how do you get your procurement data strategy straight, and align it with the corporate strategy?

There are many factors that require careful consideration to bring about effective cognitive solutions.

It’s akin to conducting a group of musicians – it might be possible (easy even!) to attain a pleasant sound from a solo instrument…

But, if expertly managed,  you could accomplish a symphony from the entire orchestra!

This week, our podcast series will guide you through the five steps required to conduct a dazzling cognitive symphony.

On Day 5 of Conducting A Cognitive Symphony Peter discusses the importance of having a single data strategy across procurement, how to align this with the corporate strategy and the value in creating a Chief Data Officer role.

A single data strategy

“It’s very important in today’s world [to have a single data strategy]” begins Peter “because there is a growing need for consuming data almost at the same time as the data gets generated.”

“New potential data sources arise every day. This requires a strategy in place that can be applied quickly and efficiently which covers the entire life cycle of the data from acquiring the data, through curation to consumption.

“And without having the right data strategy or a comprehensive data strategy in place that covers the anterior life cycle of the data, businesses may face some issues very quickly.

“They will not have an understanding of what data they acquire, what that data is and what business that data provides to them.

What about the importance of having a single point-of-contact, a Chief Data Officer, for smaller organisations? Is it still important that, even the role isn’t an individual job in itself, that there’s  a single person who has accountability, and responsibility for data?

“Ideally, yes” says Peter.  “A dedicated person, not necessarily a full-time person.

“And the data officer can be supported by data stewards, data management, data engineers. It’s really up to the organisation – how they want to set about a process for those right now.”

Procurement data vs Corporate data

Does procurement’s data strategy typically feed into a corporate data strategy of which procurement just becomes a subset?

“Corporate data strategy, if it exists,  is likely addressing a good portion of what a procurement specific data strategy would address,” explains Peter.

“If that’s the case then the implementation and the execution of the data strategy in Procurement will require less efforts and also gives the opportunity to put more focus on the procurement specific elements of a data strategy like implementing the right business process for capturing data in better quality from suppliers.

“There are lots of things that are significant between procurement data strategy and corporate data strategy. Likely if a corporate data strategy exists then it covers a significant portion of what the procurement data strategy would need to cover because in the end it’s just data. But with some specifics for procurement.

“Procurement does not need to invent new things that’s likely covered by the corporate data strategy.”

“What procurement teams can do better, is start focussing on specific things- the most crucial things. For example, buyers don’t always consider the importance of off-loading data from suppliers.

“Procurement can do a lot. But it just has to get the right data.”