Data for All: The Rise and Impact of Data Democratization

Today, businesses understand that data is the key to success. This is giving rise to new forms of augmented working in terms of data – that is poised to usher in new possibilities and reshape how organizations operate.

Here comes ‘Data Democratization,’ a massive buzzword at the moment. This trend is reshaping the business landscape in multiple ways. For those of you who would like to take a step back and understand, in simple terms, how data democratization is adding real value, have a read below.

What is data democratization?

Data democratization is a powerful approach that empowers individuals within an organization to access and leverage data without any gatekeepers causing bottlenecks. It goes beyond granting access; it necessitates presenting data in a user-friendly manner so that individuals can use it for efficient decision-making and identifying opportunities within an organization. The ultimate goal is to enable anyone to utilize data at any time without barriers to access or comprehension.

The benefits of making data available to all

Before understanding the benefits of data democracy, let’s look at the following statistics pertaining to data.

1. Data retrieval process
   Employees spend nearly 20% of their workweek looking for information or tracking down colleagues who can help with specific tasks.
2. Decision-making blockages
   41% of decision-makers face obstacles in accessing necessary information when needed.
3. Data quality concerns
   Bad data quality costs organizations an average of $12.9 million per year.
4. Departmental isolation
   Data is often trapped in departmental silos, preventing cross-functional collaboration and comprehensive decision-making.

Data democratization tackles these issues by making data available and understandable to all teams within an organization. In essence, data democratization is barrier-free; it gives enterprise-wide access to all types of data, including structured and unstructured, semi-structured, and dark data.

Data democratization offers numerous benefits. By giving all employees access to relevant data sets, companies can foster collaboration and innovation between employees and unlock the full potential of their workforce, enabling them to make better data-driven decisions. This creates a culture of transparency within the organization, where information is shared freely, and everyone has a stake in the company’s success. This can further lead to improved product development, better customer experience, and increased customer satisfaction.  It also boosts employee engagement and morale, leading to a happier and more motivated workforce.

Likewise, data democratization eliminates the need for tedious and time-consuming data searches. This creates a culture of agility and responsiveness that enables companies to react quickly to shifts in the market or customer needs and make decisions that are based on accurate and up-to-date information.  Moreover, it can also help companies stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, which can set them apart from their competitors.

Challenges in implementing data democratization in organizations

While the benefits of data democratization are clear, there comes a wide range of challenges that organizations need to address.

Security concern

As data becomes accessible to a wider audience within an organization, ensuring its security becomes even more crucial. The increased touchpoints can heighten risks such as unauthorized access, breaches, or even unintentional misuse.

Potential misinterpretation of data

When data is made accessible to all, individuals from diverse backgrounds and skill levels are likely to interact with data. This diversity can sometimes lead to data misinterpretation, potentially causing incorrect decision-making.

Maintenance of data quality

The essence of data democratization lies in data quality. As more individuals access and use data, maintaining its accuracy, relevance and quality can be challenging.

Data literacy

Data literacy is critical for a successful data democratization initiative. Without a basic level of data literacy, individuals may struggle to understand the meaning and context of data, or may misinterpret it, leading to incorrect or suboptimal decisions.

Steps CTOs can take to address the data democratization challenges

Data governance and security protocols

Tech leaders can establish comprehensive data governance policies to help maintain data quality and address security concerns. This involves setting clear guidelines for data access, usage, and sharing.

Continuous monitoring is another crucial aspect to mitigate data quality and security concerns. Regular assessments of data, coupled with effective data governance practices, can help organizations maintain data integrity and ensure that data is being used responsibly.

Data literacy training

Leaders must invest in a data literacy training program for all employees, including those without a technical background. This can help ensure that every department has the skills and knowledge to enhance its decision-making process. Moreover, by fostering open communication channels, individuals can seek guidance from data experts for better interpretation.

Organizing data to streamline the process

Organizing data based on its relevance and importance can streamline the access. Additionally, tools that convert complex data sets into visual graphs or charts can make comprehension easier. For example, a line graph showing website traffic trends over a month can be quicker to interpret than a spreadsheet.

Invest in the right data management tools

Achieving data quality is a multi-step process that involves various data quality checks along your pipeline. Investing in some tools in the modern data stack can help boost the organization’s data quality. Some popular tools IT professionals can look out for are dbt (data build tool),  ‍Dagster, Amundsen, DataHub, Amplitude, Datafold etc.

These data management tools vary widely in capabilities. Hence, leaders should look for products that can provide a quick ‘at-a-glance’ view of data quality based on the rules they have established in the business. In simple words, they need to choose the one that best fits their business requirements.

Leverage emerging technologies like AI/ML for data democratization

Emerging technologies, such as AI/ML-based data management tools, can further

optimize data management process, and improve data quality, security, and testing capabilities. By automating data processing and analysis, these new-age tools can reduce the workload of IT teams, allowing them to focus on more strategic tasks.

Real-world examples of companies following the data democratization process

Many organizations have successfully embraced data democratization, leading to measurable improvements in operations and decision-making. Some of them are listed below:

• Airbnb 

Airbnb is often recognized for its innovative use of data democratization.  As Airbnb’s workforce rapidly expanded globally and its data landscape became increasingly difficult to traverse, productivity was hindered. Eventually, the company developed an internal, user-friendly master data management system known as the Dataportal – a one-stop-shop for employees to access and analyze data. With the guidelines and protocols in place, this tool not only provides access to data but also includes metadata, context, and tools for data visualization.  With this initiative, Airbnb has fostered a culture of curiosity and experimentation, leading to continuous improvement in its offerings and customer experiences.

• Spotify

Spotify’s data landscape is unique due to the sheer volume and variety of data it collects. From user preferences and streaming patterns to artist statistics and music metadata, Spotify’s data repositories hold valuable insights that are waiting to be discovered.

Lexikon is Spotify’s in-house solution for facilitating data discovery. It allows data teams to find, share, and use data and knowledge easily, allowing them to unlock business insights more quickly and effectively. The implementation of Lexikon has had a profound impact on Spotify’s business operations, paving the way for data-driven decision-making and enhancing the overall user experience.

These case studies highlight the tangible benefits of making data more accessible across all levels of an organization.

With the competitive marketplace and an uncertain economy, now is the perfect time for enterprises to start democratizing data. Leaders who have already weaved data into every aspect of their enterprise are already witnessing better results than those who are still to do so.

In brief

The journey towards data democratization is both challenging and rewarding. However, by embracing this approach, leaders can unlock the full potential of their data, in order to achieve success and stay ahead of the game.