Master Data Management to assess data culture in partnership with Logicle Analytics

Master Data Management, the African specialist in data integrity, and Logicle Analytics, specialists in data culture and creators of the LDIS+ Analytics Framework have entered into an agreement to offer the data culture assessment and recommendation engine into the African market.

“As Chairman of Logicle Analytics and our sister company, the JNO Accelerator, we are excited about commercially partnering with Master Data Management across Africa”, said John Osland, Chairman of Logicle Analytics.

The LDIS+ has been developed out of the doctoral research of Logicle Analytics founder and CEO, Dr Jonathan Fowler, who recognised that data culture is poorly understood in most large organisations.

At the root of the problem is the belief that culture is a singular concept, not plural. This “tick box” approach can lead to implementation hurdles on any cross-functional program.

“In practise, my research shows that most organisations have multiple competing cultures, depending on the goals and vision of key stakeholders and departments,” said Fowler. “Glossing over these sub-cultures means that we miss an opportunity to engage all the key stakeholders or business areas in any data management implementation – leaving some stakeholders disengaged, underserved, and disappointed.”

The LDIS+ provides a cost-effective opportunity to understand and engage each key stakeholder and area based on their unique Analytics Personality Type, or APTitude™. Any organisation will display attributes of four distinct culture types: Collaborative, Creative, Competitive, and Controlling.

While a dominant culture will typically become apparent, the subcultures of different areas must be taken into account to ensure buy-in across the enterprise. Without this buy-in, misalignment may occur in one or more ways – leading to delays, resistance and, even, project failure.

The LDIS+ assessment is highly automated meaning that the assessment can quickly identify the culture of tens of thousands of employees to provide both individual and aggregated views of how data is seen, used, and interpreted across an enterprise. The assessment includes a set of recommendations on how to bring these different cultures together, for maximum engagement.

Understanding the business change requirements

The LDIS+ complements Masterdata’s existing Data Practises gap assessment, which also focuses on soft skills, by providing a deep dive into organisational subcultures.

“It has been our experience that soft skills are far more critical to data management success than technology,” said Gary Allemann, MD at Master Data Management. “The LDIS+ allows organisations to position data management capabilities differently depending on the vision and preferred approach of each business unit or division – increasing stakeholder engagement and reducing project risks.”

Strategic data projects are typically multiyear investments of time and commitment, and can run in to tens or even hundreds of millions of Rands. Making the upfront investment in understanding and engaging your data subcultures can be the difference between ROI or a costly failure.

To learn more, call +27114854856