Metadata Management and Data Governance: Uncovering the Hidden Strategy for Business Success

“Data Is The New Oil”

We live in an age where data is the fuel that drives business operations. Its growing importance is undeniable, and companies that recognize and embrace effective data management are destined to excel. In this article, we will explore the essence of metadata management and data governance, revealing how these practices emerge as catalysts for efficiency and competitiveness.

“The Data is the new Oil,” is an expression often repeated by the industry, which sees data as the new oil. However, when applying PESTEL analysis of the external environment to competitive strategies, it is essential to question this comparison. Is data really the new oil?

Before we delve deeper, it’s worth setting out the basics of what PESTEL is. In short, it’s a methodology that was developed to assess and understand the external factors that can influence a company’s progress. The term PESTEL represents six key factors: political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal, each of which encompasses elements that can have a significant impact on a company’s performance and strategic planning.

1. Political (P): Assesses the impact of political and governmental factors on the business environment. It includes regulations, fiscal policies, political stability and government influence.
2. Economic (E): Examines the economic conditions that can affect the organization. This covers indicators such as economic growth rates, exchange rates, inflation, monetary policies and income levels.
3. Social (S): Considers social, cultural and demographic factors that can influence market demand. This includes cultural trends, population demographics, social attitudes and lifestyle changes.
4. Technological (T): Analyzes the impact of innovation and technological advances on the sector. This includes research and development, automation, the adoption of new technologies and patents.
5. Environmental (E): Considers factors related to the environment and sustainability. Includes environmental practices, regulations related to the environment and the company’s image in terms of environmental responsibility.
6. Legal (L): Examines the legal and regulatory environment that affects the organization. This includes labor laws, industry regulations, consumer protection and intellectual property issues.

In this way, it is clear that as a competitive asset and strategic reformulation when we look at the external environment, just like oil, data needs to go through a complex process to become something valuable in this increasingly unstable and competitive environment. The comparison with oil refining highlights the need for metadata management and data governance. These practices are the complex processes that turn raw data into valuable assets, just as oil becomes gasoline and derivatives. However, unlike oil, data is not automatically recognized as the strategic resource it can be. Many business strategies neglect the importance of data and fail to implement the essential processes to extract its maximum value.

By exploring Porter’s 5 forces now looking at the company’s internal environment, we realize that companies that don’t recognize data as a strategic differentiator are missing out on a significant opportunity. Metadata management and data governance not only refine data, but also provide a clear vision of the internal environment, generating possible innovations and an axis for developing competitiveness and external challenges.

Demystifying Metadata and Data Governance

After explaining where we can apply them and how to value them, let’s go into a bit more detail about the concepts in practice. Metadata and data governance may seem like complex concepts, but in essence they are the backbone of effective information management. First of all, we need to define what metadata is. As the name implies, it is basically data about data — or rather, structured data about data. An example can be seen in the figure below:

However, if we want a more robust concept, we can say that they are a succinct and systematic set of information that refers to what can be used to efficiently and accurately retrieve a larger set of information (Morville, 1999), or even data associated with objects that relieve their potential users of the need for complete prior knowledge of their existence and characteristics (DESIRE, 1997). I like the latter a lot because I can understand it very well with the example of the kitten above 😀

The integration of metadata and data governance is an essential component for achieving high-quality data and promoting operational effectiveness in organizations. The study “Data, information and analytics as services” (Delen, Demirkan, 2013) offers an in-depth look at this synergistic approach, highlighting how it positively influences data quality, consistency and traceability. Here are the specific details of this integration:

1. Definition of Metadata and Governance:

• Metadata: The study considers metadata as contextual information associated with data, providing insights into its origin, format, meaning and use.
• Data Governance: Data governance is understood as a set of practices and policies that guarantee the quality, integrity and compliance of data throughout the organization.

2. Synergy between Metadata and Governance:

• The proposed approach highlights that the integration of metadata and governance is not a simple coexistence, but a synergy that generates mutual benefits.
• Metadata acts as a catalyst that takes governance to a more refined level. They not only describe the data, but also provide information on how the data should be treated, what its purpose is and how it fits into organizational policies.

3. Improved Data Quality:

• The presence of metadata significantly improves data quality, as it provides additional information that facilitates the interpretation and correct use of data.
• Governance, when driven by effective metadata, establishes standards and guidelines to ensure that data is consistent, accurate and meets regulatory and business requirements.

4. Consistency and traceability:

• The integration of metadata and governance promotes consistency throughout the data lifecycle, from creation to archiving.
• Traceability is strengthened, allowing organizations to monitor and audit changes to data, understand who accessed or modified specific information and when these actions took place.

5. More refined level of governance:

• The presence of metadata not only improves governance, but also takes it to a more refined level. This means that governance decisions and policies can be more precise and guided by the details provided by metadata.

As such, your company’s metadata can help you be much more efficient in making discoveries to leverage your competitive strategy. When you have cataloged that your data reveals detailed information about the presence of various cats roaming the streets of Gatolandia, for example, this not only provides a deeper understanding of the surrounding environment, but also sets your company apart from others that may not have this insight. This valuable knowledge not only enhances informed decision-making, but also opens doors to strategic opportunities, such as creating marketing campaigns aimed at pet lovers or social responsibility initiatives aimed at animal welfare in the community. This wealth of information, derived from effective metadata management, not only boosts operational efficiency, but also fuels innovation and strengthens your company’s competitive position in the market. Count on DP6 to help you leverage your data maturity and business context to create a real competitive edge for your company.

Tools that can help your company in an automated way with both data management and metadata management:

Atlas Apache

On AWS and GCP, there are no services directly equivalent to Apache Atlas, as these platforms offer specific managed services for their own offers and services. However, there are built-in options in other services such as the AWS Glue Data Catalog or even the GCP Data Catalog

Data Catalog

AWS Data Catalog

In conclusion, metadata are not just labels; they are constructors of meaning. Data governance is not just compliance; it is the guardian of quality, and yes data may be the new oil, but its true transformation into valuable assets requires intelligent management, represented by metadata management and data governance. Don’t neglect the potential of data in your business strategy; instead, adopt these practices to unlock the true power of data in the digital age.

Reading recommendations:

Porter, Michael. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors;

Gamble, John, E. and Arthur A. Thompson Jr. Fundamentals of Strategic Management. 2 Edition. Bookman. 2013;

Rosenfeld, Louis, and Peter Morville. Information architecture for the world wide web. “ O’Reilly Media, Inc.”, 2002.

Delen, Dursun, and Haluk Demirkan. “Data, information and analytics as services.” Decision Support Systems 55.1 (2013): 359–363.

Data Catalog overview | Data Catalog Documentation | Google Cloud

Data Catalog and crawlers in AWS Glue

Profile of the Author: Juan Menezes | Graduating in Information Systems from the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco. A lover of cats ~minus the oranges~ and Turing machines limited to 0’s and 1’s as well as being just a very Latin American boy

Profile of the Author: Angélica Fatarelli | With a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and an MBA in Data Science, he has worked in software development and has currently been venturing into the world of Data Engineering for over 6 years, bringing technological solutions to the Digital Marketing market through DP6.