LC14: Essay

Subject: Why is data management an important challenge for todays companies?

Data Management has become a necessity for todays organisations. Whether we talking about,
companies, non-lucrative associations or governmental structures, Data management is definitely part
of the pivot of an organisations work.
We focus on the enterprise aspect of data management and well explain to what extent, Data
Management has become that important for companies nowadays.
Officially Data Management is defined as the development and the execution of architectures
policies practices and procedures that properly manage the full data lifecycle needs of an enterprise. It
means a lot of things: how the data transit is controlled in the inner structure of an enterprise, and
through its external communications. First of all well talk about the different changes which have led to
the economy of our era, this economy which the main reason of the rise of data management in
nowadays companies, and secondly well explain the different parts of the Data Management
Challenge.

First, lets take a step back to the era during which economy was only based of effective
production and sell price. For centuries, companies budget was just about expenses and benefits. A
Companys notoriety was just an effect of its efficiency in its domain. Plus there wasnt multi-domain
companies, neither than different types of the same product. Standardisation and mass production were
absolute. What happened is that people can always be satisfied by the same product. Humans
(metaphorically) need to be unique, need to change, need to evolve. With that new perspective of the
products, by consumers, companies had to change and produce non-standard products. In order to
produce different products that fit to different consumers, companies had to know which type of
product consumers would like and that was the very beginning of data management.

The efficiency aspect has also enabled data management to emerge to the extent that a larger
range of product means the implementation of new workshop, new factories. The more complex the
inner structure is, the more required control is. Some organisation in enterprises was necessary to work
efficiently. Changes in organisation generally consists in the establishment of an hierarchy, which means
that there were different levels in the companies and mostly the management was quite powerful and
were those who received every information coming from inside or outside the company. Data had to be
managed in specific way and the management ought to prevent data leaks that could be negative for
the company. For example, it was frequent of hiding some sensitive information to workers, even to
foremen in order to forestall the danger coming from other companies who intend to see through its
objectives, and counter them. This prevention consists in more than just hierarchy: patents, trade
secrets, confidential agreement are frequent.

The process of differentiation has evolved and has, somehow, pushed standard great companies
to assemble and become larger groups in order to make the benefits increase. This phenomenon has
been followed by the emergence of external communications between companies of the same group, or
even companies of different groups, and the growth of financial aspect in companies, paying more
attention to their image, the way they are perceived by consumers and other companies.

With those new purposes, data management has definitely become a necessity as companies
needed to acquire data on what people think, for instance the different values shared by consumers,
their preferences, the evolution of others companies to planned possible mergers and/or acquisitions,
to counter any attack from their rivals. And, companies also have to deal data, to expose some
information about them without putting themselves in danger towards other companies.
This process needs experience, expertise to acquire valid (truthful) information and secrecy so
as to reveal information which show the company like they want people to perceive them.
Nowadays Data management has reached a level never seen before, and the stakes of Data
Management have become more important.

To conclude, people have changed during the last centuries and companies have had to adapt to
the new perspective of the consumers. To this end, they have turned themselves in a new type of
company, changing the product-centred economy concept to a consumer-centred concept. Some
dialogue between companies and consumers has become necessary, and favour the emergence of data
management. The data management challenge has built itself years after years, with a great diversity of
same items (by companies), the entrance of new domains in the economy and the growing concurrence,
even between partners. Those different paradoxes, between standardisation and differentiation,
partnership and concurrence, have to be carried out without going too far, and this challenge give more
and more importance to Data Management.