Data governance is unlikely to be the most thrilling topic on your company’s agenda, but if you’re navigating the world of AI, it’s one you can’t afford to overlook.
Fortunately, Microsoft has now made it dramatically easier for businesses running Microsoft 365 to bring order to their data chaos with the September release of Microsoft Purview Data Governance.
If data is the lifeblood of an organisation, then Purview is the circulatory system. It keeps information flowing smoothly and securely to all the right places, ready to fuel every decision and innovation.
Why is data governance suddenly in the spotlight?
Data governance has traditionally been a hard sell – it’s essential but not exactly glamorous enough to convince leadership to throw significant budget its way. It doesn’t help that it’s tough to define a concrete ROI for it (as a project that supports other initiatives) or measure its success at the end of the day.
With the rise of AI, however, the stakes are rapidly changing, driving a renewed focus on data governance. Here’s why:
- Data Complexity: As organisations harness the power of AI, the volume, variety and velocity of data is increasing exponentially. Maintaining the integrity of these vast datasets is a herculean task with significant governance challenges.
- Data Privacy and Security: With stricter privacy laws and rising consumer expectations, data protection isn’t just a “nice-to-have.” It’s essential for any AI-driven enterprise, as any mishap could cost both reputation and resources.
- Ethical Use of Data: When it comes to AI, fairness and transparency aren’t just buzzwords. Organisations need to ensure that their data practices don’t inadvertently introduce bias or harm certain groups.
- Data Quality and Accuracy: AI depends on high-quality data to deliver relevant results. Good data governance means ensuring accuracy so that your AI tools make better decisions.
- Regulatory Compliance: In today’s complex landscape of global regulations, a unified approach to data governance that enables stringent policies and controls is critical to avoid legal repercussions and loss of trust.
Meet Microsoft Purview Data Governance
Released in September, Microsoft Purview Data Governance was designed specifically for the complex data environments that organisations face today. Built on an AI-powered foundation, Purview streamlines data management, classification, and discovery across your entire data estate – whether it’s on-premises, in the cloud, or within hybrid setups. It’s geared towards creating a single source of truth that everyone in your organisation can trust.
Key Features of Purview
- AI-Powered Automation: Purview leverages AI to automatically discover, classify, and label data, helping to reduce the manual workload on data teams. This is invaluable for scaling governance across large and complex data landscapes, ensuring data is both accessible and secure.
- Business-Friendly Interface: Recognising that data governance isn’t just for IT, Purview’s user experience is designed for ease of use by non-technical business users like risk, governance or compliance teams. It provides intuitive dashboards and reporting capabilities, so stakeholders from finance to compliance can access and understand data insights without needing a technical background.
- Unified Platform: Purview acts as a centralised hub for data governance, combining data cataloguing, lineage tracing, classification, and compliance monitoring. This unified approach ensures consistency in data management and helps organisations stay aligned on policies and best practices.
- End-to-End Data Visibility: With Purview, users can track data lineage across the entire lifecycle, allowing organisations to understand how data flows and transforms across systems. This transparency not only aids in compliance but also helps identify areas for optimisation and improvement in data quality.
In short, Purview Data Governance isn’t just about ticking the compliance box – it’s a proactive tool that uses AI to help organisations harness their data responsibly, making it available, accurate, and protected for any initiative that relies on data.
Why prioritise AI?
AI is a lot more than just the latest fad. It’s the undeniable way of the future, offering significant benefits to those ready and able to embrace it. Those benefits include:
- Enhanced Decision-Making: AI’s ability to rapidly analyse massive datasets enables businesses to make smarter, faster decisions.
- Efficiency and Productivity: Automating repetitive tasks frees your team to focus on more complex, creative, high-impact work, boosting overall productivity.
- Personalised Customer Experiences: AI can customise products and services to meet individual customer preferences, building satisfaction and loyalty.
- Innovation Opportunities: AI insights can pave the way for fresh products, services, and even entirely new business models, unlocking additional revenue.
- Operational Cost Reduction: AI can optimise processes and apply predictive maintenance to reduce unnecessary operational expenses.
Ready to Copilot up? We can help!
Is your organisation ready to harness the power of Microsoft Copilot? With Purview as your supporting framework, we can help you assess and prepare for a successful Copilot deployment. Our team will work with you to develop a strategic, risk-based roadmap, leveraging Purview’s governance capabilities to ensure data quality, security, and compliance.
You’ll gain access to our compliance experts and seasoned Microsoft professionals who can translate your data policies into actionable configurations, ensuring all the right stakeholders are aligned.
Together, we’ll make Copilot a seamless, secure asset for your team – connect with us today to get started!
