Data Democratization and ERP Transformation

The amount of data created every day is staggering. According to industry sources, more than 181 zettabytes of data will be created by 2025. However, despite the abundance of data, many higher education institutions struggle with extracting value from their data. Driving value requires a culture change and a solution to make data accessible. Democratizing data, or enabling access to data for everyone across the institution, creates barrier-free access so leaders can make data-driven, effective decisions.

Get Rid of Technical Gatekeepers

Data is often siloed, which makes it difficult to analyze, and prevents collaboration across institutions, creating inefficiencies and slowing down decision-making processes. Increasing organizational agility through applications that are designed to integrate with a single system for reporting allows for data to flow directly to decision-makers, eliminating the gate keepers and enabling data for all.

Those with data knowledge and skills, along with leaders, should collaborate to empower teams to be more comfortable with data. An important part of democratizing data is the implicit trust employees have in data. Building trust can be established through a standard data governance structure across the organization that provides a single source for all data, breaking down silos and building trust.

Give Faculty, Staff, and Students Access to Data

According to Gartner, data sharing can generate more robust data and analytics to solve complex business challenges and meet goals. Eliminating fragmented views of the business and providing a single version of the truth gives decision-makers confidence that they are working on activities that deliver value to the institution and are operating effectively and efficiently.

Democratizing Data Requires a Culture Shift

Enabling a data-for-all mindset requires a culture shift. Creating and supporting a culture of data is key to ensure data democratization across your organization. Harvard Business Review lists 10 ways to create a culture of data. From leadership alignment to proof-of-concept creation, it takes a village and commitment from all levels of the organization to make it work.

Joliet Junior College CIO Jim Serr recently shared how deploying Workday has allowed the institution to democratize data and deliver value across the campus. He noted that the ability to securely share data allows for strong cross-functional collaboration. Many business problems often require data from multiple sources across different departments, so having the foundation in place to work together efficiently and effectively to solve problems with data is a great way to move your institution forward.