Driving Information Belief, High quality, and Governance with Atlan
The Energetic Metadata Pioneers collection options Atlan clients who’ve accomplished an intensive analysis of the Energetic Metadata Administration market. Paying ahead what you’ve realized to the following information chief is the true spirit of the Atlan group! So that they’re right here to share their hard-earned perspective on an evolving market, what makes up their trendy information stack, modern use instances for metadata, and extra.
On this installment of the collection, we meet Kenza Zanzouri, Technical Governance Skilled at Contentsquare, a number one digital expertise analytics platform that gives wealthy context and insights into habits, emotions, and intent at every touchpoint in a buyer journey for over 1.3 million web sites and purposes. Kenza shares the historical past of Information Governance at Contentsquare, from its inception years in the past, to utilizing Atlan to help each BI deliverable, drive enterprise possession, and enhance compliance.
This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
Might you inform us a bit about your self, your background, and what drew you to Information & Analytics?
I began working in information about 5 years in the past. Initially, I used to be finding out Political Science, however I transitioned into Information Transformation throughout my Grasp’s which was a approach for me to use what I realized from internships in Authorized & Compliance. I took a number of lessons on Analytics and Enterprise Intelligence, and determined to just accept an internship in Enterprise Intelligence within the luxurious trend business.
If you’re engaged on Enterprise Intelligence, you get to the touch a little bit of the whole lot about information, together with metadata and documentation, understanding how information flows and the methods concerned, and structure. That’s after I realized that I didn’t actually like constructing deliverables for Enterprise Intelligence, however I did love all of the Information Governance round it. It was an incredible alternative for somebody younger and junior within the business to study, understanding individuals in each technical and enterprise groups.
Then, I used to be employed at Contentsquare to construct the Information Governance staff. Again then, Information Governance sat throughout the BI staff, and that was an effective way to incubate the operate, as a result of we had been already part of the staff that understood the enterprise. Our thought was that Information Governance would all the time be cross-functional, and that we might hyperlink collectively Information Engineers, BI Analysts, and the enterprise models. I realized so much.
Just lately, Information Governance has moved out of the BI staff and into the Info Methods Division (ISD), and that’s the place I stand in the present day. The job is wider in scope now, the place I don’t simply take a look at Information Governance. We’re rebuilding a number of our methods, so now we have to know structure, how information flows, who owns information, and information high quality.
I’ve spent nearly three years at Contentsquare as a Technical Governance Skilled. I nonetheless take care of Information Governance, and I nonetheless work very intently with the BI staff.
Might you describe Contentsquare?
Right now, Contentsquare is a unicorn with the setting of a startup, with our foremost workplace in Paris, and our second-largest in New York. We’re a SaaS firm, and our foremost product helps our clients perceive their guests’ habits on their web sites, and learn the way they’ll enhance their buyer expertise.
We’re organized into completely different branches, after all, like Advertising, Partnerships, R&D, Product Technique, and Folks. ISD, the place I sit, is below Finance.
Contentsquare has been round for almost 12 years, and over the previous months and years, we acquired two firms, Heap and Hotjar. We’re merging these two entities into Contentsquare, and have rebuilt and restructured a number of our groups to ensure that we’re promoting a greater product sooner or later. Outdoors of merging in Heap and Hotjar, we’re engaged on constructing a single CRM and a single ERP, so there’s a number of rebuilding that’s taking place.
All of this rebuilding is a giant cause Information Governance is so concerned, with everybody from the BI staff to our enterprise models, and all our individuals, whether or not they’re operational or excessive within the hierarchy, are concerned. It’s a good time for individuals to be right here, as a result of it’s very uncommon to witness a lot change in an organization, and it’s very uncommon to do it at this tempo.
Why seek for an Energetic Metadata Administration answer? What was lacking?
I feel any firm, whether or not it’s in tech or not, understands that information is necessary. It’s good to perceive how properly your online business is doing, and you might want to function properly, on the whole. However Contentsquare, like some other firm and even after I labored in Retail Vogue, has struggled with a scarcity of belief in information.
Why? As a result of, when an organization is rising, you begin to purchase increasingly instruments, groups get larger, then they cut up. Folks are inclined to function of their silos and begin to generate information, then we don’t know what’s getting used and what’s not getting used. Outdoors of that, you will have Enterprise Intelligence groups which can be intervening throughout departments to ensure that no matter KPIs and deliverables they’ve are reliable and of fine high quality.
Again then, we didn’t have an Info Methods Division, so that you had a number of methods and lots of people who weren’t all the time working collectively, and no single, centralized area for data. So, two or three years in the past after we had been contemplating Atlan, we had some large questions round how the staff might ship dashboards, extractions, or KPIs, after we weren’t actually positive about our formulation, the place information was coming from, or who owned it.
There have been some instances the place there wasn’t an knowledgeable to ask a couple of system, and the enterprise had purchased a product that didn’t get good adoption, however contained nice information. We needed to make use of that information, however weren’t positive what we had been utilizing or the place it got here from.
In order that’s the place Information Governance got here in, and that’s after I arrived with my supervisor to construct our staff.
However inside Information Governance, you want Energetic Metadata, you want a solution to drive possession, you might want to perceive your information, and also you want a system to centralize all that work. That’s after we had discussions round what software we needed to make use of, and Atlan was top-of-the-line in the marketplace.
We needed one thing that could possibly be utilized by anybody. It was crucial to us that we didn’t use one thing too technical, as a result of the extra technical the software is, the much less possible it’s that the enterprise will use it, and that’s not the path we needed to take. We didn’t wish to assume that solely Information Engineers and BI Analysts would use it.
We would have liked one thing that will be user-friendly, would get nice adoption, and had an incredible Buyer Success and Assist staff. So, we had a number of demos again then, and selected Atlan as one of the best one.
Might you describe Contentsquare’s journey with Atlan, up to now?
Again then, I feel we needed to implement Atlan too quick, which was good in some methods, however we weren’t able to get all 1,500 individuals at Contentsquare to undertake it. We would have liked to have one thing priceless in Atlan that folks could be excited by so we might keep away from pushback from our enterprise models.
So, our greatest staff for adoption was the BI staff, the place all of their deliverables are actually supported by Atlan. I consider that’s one of the best ways to get the enterprise to undertake. It may be laborious for the enterprise to undertake a brand new software, nevertheless it’s a lot simpler after they have already got a approach of working with technical individuals, who’re already utilizing Atlan.
I feel our Information Governance staff grew and developed, and Atlan grew and developed alongside us. There’s a number of change. Proper now, our precedence is rebuilding our structure and methods and issues are in a little bit of a pause, however Atlan remains to be used for lots of foundational work. If there are new KPIs or updates to our reporting, we use Atlan.
What recommendation would you share together with your friends contemplating Atlan for Information Governance?
Now that I’ve been within the firm for nearly three years, I do know our methods by coronary heart, our information domains by coronary heart, I do know all people, and I do know the place we stand. I now perceive the enterprise doesn’t all the time know their information, and I feel we might have moved a bit slower at first of our journey to actually perceive what information and methods had been getting used. It was all a bit extra difficult again then after we didn’t have an Info Methods Division.
There was a number of documentation and processes lacking again then, and we determined to skip some components of that to leap immediately into Information Governance, after we might have spent a bit extra time understanding what we had and didn’t have, what we must always map, et cetera, earlier than serving to the enterprise alongside of their governance journey. That features Atlan and likewise Monte Carlo, the place methods and information change and it may be powerful to make sure of what information high quality guidelines to make use of.
I feel the recommendation for myself, if I might return, could be to take extra time understanding the structure, the plan, and our information stack, and to spend extra time with the enterprise. Even when the product is nice, there are nonetheless individuals who can have a tough time stopping what they’re doing to rebuild and transfer ahead in a greater approach.
My second piece of recommendation, and I feel I’m a bit divided on this, nevertheless it’s to each “maintain the hand” of the enterprise models, and likewise attempt to make them extra accountable. As a result of we had been a brand new staff, Information Governance was new, and we needed to do nice issues, we did an excessive amount of for the enterprise and so they had been anticipating so much from me and the staff. So, they by no means felt accountable sufficient for his or her information.
To me, information is owned by the enterprise. The methods will be owned by a central staff, however information should be owned by the enterprise, as a result of on the finish of the day, they’re chargeable for who ought to have entry to it, the way it needs to be delivered, what it’s used for, and the best way it’s calculated. If you’re doing an excessive amount of “hand holding”, possession is difficult, and it’s going to be even slower to maneuver ahead.
Usually, I consider in taking it gradual. Information Governance means a lot and nothing on the similar time. There’s so much concerned, and also you’re higher off splitting the work and never attempting to do all of it on the similar time. You possibly can’t be working in your information, implementing a Information Catalog, engaged on Information High quality, and managing compliance all on the similar time. It’s not attainable.
Lastly, Compliance needs to be a giant precedence. I feel that is too simply put apart, when it needs to be one of many large arguments for why everybody needs to be utilizing a knowledge catalog. I feel a number of firms are inclined to put that apart, considering they’re tech-savvy and that information is a website of experience, however tomorrow, if you happen to’re audited, it’s going to be crucial.
That’s one of many causes I attempt to push Information Governance as a lot as attainable, not simply via the enterprise, however via something that’s associated to R&D and Product groups. Contentsquare did a number of work on this, and I’m very blissful we’ve been capable of make individuals chargeable for Compliance in every division. We had Information Compliance Ambassadors that labored immediately with me and the authorized staff to work on that particular department of governance.
On the time, instruments like Atlan had been nice to have, as a result of it made issues simpler to begin someplace, to see our information, and to flag it. It’s one of many issues I’ve actually favored about Atlan.
Picture by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
