Good leaders are evangelists for making data-based decisions. They don’t need highly technical degrees: They need an appreciation of data’s ability to drive modernization efforts and successful outcomes for the organization and the people they serve.
They “are not averse to trying new approaches that solve some big [societal] problems with data and [are] not waiting for a crisis to make this progress,” said Michael Anderson, Chief Strategist with Informatica Public Sector, an Enterprise Cloud Data Management leader.
He believes it’s inevitable that another national crisis, or perhaps a catastrophic local event, will require government leaders to make decisions affecting millions of people. Leveraging “the best data management technology available will make or break the outcome,” he said.
Trust in Data
Data literacy is the ability to read, write and communicate data in the context you find it. It means understanding data sources and analytical methods and techniques, and being able to offer, and explain the value of, use cases. Data literacy is the foundation on which leaders make effective choices.
That’s why Anderson cautions against making decisions based on personal experience alone.
There’s the “quandary of, do I make a decision based on what I see — data and evidence — or on what I think I know?” he said. “And the danger is [that] if you’re making decisions just on what you think you know, without looking at the evidence, you’re going to impact people in a way you probably don’t want to.”
A 360-Degree View
Having a comprehensive, accurate view of your data is critical for meeting mission objectives. It breaks down data silos across multiple programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, so that agencies “can monitor who needs what when, and where they are, so better resourcing decisions are made,” Anderson explained.
A 360-degree view also helps to ensure a good prescriptive or predictive result from AI algorithms — after all, garbage in means garbage out — and helps reduce fraud, waste and abuse.
But useful data often lies dormant, waiting for an agency to bring it to life. Informatica’s Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) helps governments at all levels see and use data both on premises and in cloud environments, whether the information is public or highly sensitive, so that data becomes a strategic asset.
Order From Chaos
Anderson said the IDMC platform “is establishing some order to the chaos that can be the tremendous amounts of data” agencies have. Among other capabilities, IDMC helps an organization securely discover, integrate, manage, migrate, tag and catalog information, based on strong governance and privacy standards.
“Customers are pleasantly surprised when they use Informatica solutions, especially when they find insights into data that they didn’t have before, and that might make them look at things differently and find results in a better way,” Anderson said.
And that, he said, helps agencies “leverage data across the board to make a positive impact on people’s lives.”
This article appears in our guide “Conversations With CXOs: Lessons Learned in Management, Workforce and Technology.” For more insights from the C-suite, download it here:
