Driving belief, high quality and knowledge governance with Atlan
The Energetic Metadata Pioneers collection options Atlan purchasers who’ve accomplished a complete evaluation of the Energetic Metadata Administration market. Passing on what you have discovered to the following knowledge chief is the true spirit of the Atlan group! That is why they’re right here to share their hard-earned insights into an evolving market, what makes up your trendy knowledge stack, revolutionary use instances for metadata, and extra.
On this installment of the collection, we meet Kenza Zanzouri, technical governance knowledgeable at Contentsquare, a number one digital expertise analytics platform that gives wealthy context and insights into conduct, sentiment, and intent at each touchpoint within the journey. customer support for greater than 1.3 million web sites and functions. Kenza shares the story of knowledge governance at Contentsquare, from its inception years in the past, to utilizing Atlan to assist each BI deliverable, drive enterprise possession, and enhance compliance.
This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
May you inform us a bit of about your self, your background and what attracted you to Information & Analytics?
I began working with knowledge about 5 years in the past. I used to be initially finding out Political Science, however transitioned to Information Transformation throughout my Grasp’s, which was a strategy to apply what I discovered in Authorized and Compliance internships. I took numerous enterprise intelligence and analytics lessons and determined to simply accept a enterprise intelligence internship within the luxurious style trade.
If you work in Enterprise Intelligence, you get to the touch a bit of little bit of every part associated to knowledge, together with metadata and documentation, understanding how knowledge flows and the programs concerned, and structure. That is once I realized that I did not actually like creating deliverables for Enterprise Intelligence, however I did love all the info governance that surrounds it. It was an ideal alternative for somebody younger and junior within the trade to be taught, understanding folks in each the technical and industrial groups.
Then, I used to be employed at Contentsquare to type the Information Governance group. Again then, knowledge governance was a part of the BI group and that was an effective way to incubate the operate, as a result of we had been already a part of the group that understood the enterprise. Our thought was that knowledge governance would all the time be cross-functional and that we might unite knowledge engineers, BI analysts and enterprise models. I discovered quite a bit.
Lately, Information Governance moved from the BI group to the Info Methods Division (ISD), and that’s the place I’m right this moment. The work now has a broader scope and I now not deal solely with knowledge governance. We’re rebuilding a lot of our programs, so now we have to know the structure, how the info flows, who owns the info and its high quality.
I spent virtually three years at Contentsquare as a technical governance knowledgeable. I nonetheless do knowledge governance and proceed to work very carefully with the BI group.
May you describe Contentsquare?
At the moment, Contentsquare is a unicorn with a startup surroundings, with our principal workplace in Paris and the second largest in New York. We’re a SaaS firm and our core product helps our purchasers perceive the conduct of their guests on their web sites and learn the way they’ll enhance their buyer expertise.
In fact, we’re organized into completely different branches, resembling advertising and marketing, partnerships, analysis and improvement, product technique and other people. ISD, the place I sit, is underneath Finance.
Contentsquare has been round for nearly 12 years, and in the previous couple of months and years we acquired two firms, Heap and Hotjar. We’re merging these two entities into Contentsquare and have rebuilt and restructured a lot of our groups to make sure we promote a greater product sooner or later. Along with merging Heap and Hotjar, we’re engaged on making a single CRM and a single ERP, so there’s numerous rebuilding happening.
All of this rebuilding is without doubt one of the principal the explanation why knowledge governance is so concerned, with everybody from the BI group to our enterprise models, and all of our folks, whether or not operational or senior, being concerned. . It is a good time for folks to be right here, as a result of it is very uncommon to see a lot change in an organization, and it is very uncommon to do it at this tempo.
Why search for an Energetic Metadata Administration resolution? What was lacking?
I believe any firm, whether or not tech or not, understands that knowledge is essential. You have to perceive how nicely what you are promoting is doing and customarily function nicely. However Contentsquare, like each different firm, even when working in Retail Style, has struggled with a scarcity of belief in knowledge.
As a result of? As a result of, when an organization grows, you begin buying increasingly instruments, the groups develop after which they divide. Individuals are inclined to function of their silos and begin producing knowledge, so we do not know what’s used and what’s not. Other than that, there are Enterprise Intelligence groups that intervene in all departments to make sure that the KPIs and the outcomes they’ve are dependable and of excellent high quality.
Again then, we did not have an Info Methods Division, so there have been many programs and many individuals who did not all the time work collectively, and no single, centralized area for data. So two or three years in the past, once we had been contemplating Atlan, we had some huge questions on how the group might ship dashboards, extracts or KPIs, once we weren’t actually positive of our formulation, the place the info was coming from or who. I owned it.
There have been some instances the place there was no knowledgeable to ask a couple of system and the corporate had bought a product that didn’t see good adoption, however contained glorious knowledge. We wished to make use of that knowledge, however we weren’t positive what we had been utilizing or the place it got here from.
That is the place Information Governance got here into play, and that is once I got here in with my supervisor to type our group.
However inside knowledge governance, you want energetic metadata, you want a strategy to drive possession, you should perceive your knowledge, and also you want a system to centralize all that work. That is once we debated which instrument we wished to make use of and Atlan was the most effective in the marketplace.
We wished one thing that might be utilized by anybody. It was essential to us to not use one thing too technical, as a result of the extra technical the instrument, the much less probably the corporate is to make use of it, and that is not the route we wished to go. We did not wish to assume that solely knowledge engineers and BI analysts would use it.
We would have liked one thing that was simple to make use of, had excessive adoption, and had an ideal buyer success and assist group. So we had numerous demos again then and we selected Atlan as the perfect one.
May you describe Contentsquare’s journey with Atlan to this point?
Again then, I believe we wished to implement Atlan too rapidly, which was good in some methods, however we weren’t ready to get all 1,500 folks at Contentsquare to undertake it. We would have liked to have one thing precious in Atlan that folks could be involved in to keep away from rejection from our enterprise models.
So our greatest group for adoption was the BI group, the place all their deliverables are actually supported by Atlan. I believe that is the easiest way to get the corporate to undertake it. It may be troublesome for the corporate to undertake a brand new instrument, however it’s a lot simpler after they have already got a method of working with technical workers who’re already utilizing Atlan.
I believe our Information Governance group has grown and advanced, and Atlan has grown and advanced alongside us. There are lots of modifications. Proper now our precedence is rebuilding our structure and programs and issues are a bit on pause, however Atlan remains to be used for lots of vital work. If there are new KPIs or updates to our stories, we use Atlan.
What recommendation would you share together with your friends who’re contemplating Atlan for knowledge governance?
Now that I have been with the corporate for nearly three years, I do know our programs by coronary heart, our knowledge domains by coronary heart, I do know everybody, and I do know the place we stand. I now perceive that the corporate does not all the time know its knowledge and I believe we might have moved a bit of extra slowly in the beginning of our journey to actually perceive what knowledge and programs had been getting used. The whole lot was a bit of extra difficult again then once we did not have an Info Methods Division.
Again then there was numerous documentation and processes lacking, and we determined to skip some components to leap straight to Information Governance, once we might have spent a bit of extra time understanding what we had and what we did not have, what we should always map, and so on. earlier than serving to the corporate on its governance journey. That features Atlan and likewise Monte Carlo, the place programs and knowledge change and it may be troublesome to make certain which knowledge high quality guidelines to make use of.
I believe the recommendation for me, if I might return, could be to spend extra time understanding the structure, the plan and our knowledge stack, and spend extra time on the enterprise. Even when the product is nice, there are nonetheless individuals who will discover it troublesome to go away what they’re doing to rebuild and transfer ahead in a greater method.
My second piece of recommendation, and I believe I am a bit of divided on this, is to “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 group, knowledge governance was new and we wished to do huge issues, we did an excessive amount of for the enterprise they usually anticipated an excessive amount of from me and the group. Due to this, they by no means felt accountable sufficient for his or her knowledge.
For me, the info is the property of the corporate. The programs might be owned by a central group, however the knowledge have to be owned by the corporate, as a result of on the finish of the day, they’re answerable for who ought to have entry to it, the way it must be delivered, what it’s used for, and the way it’s used. that’s calculated. If you end up “holding arms” an excessive amount of, possession is troublesome and will probably be even slower to maneuver ahead.
Normally, I consider in taking issues gradual. Information Governance means quite a bit and nothing on the identical time. There are numerous issues concerned and it’s best to divide the work and never attempt to do it all of sudden. You possibly can’t work in your knowledge, implement an information catalog, work on knowledge high quality, and handle compliance all on the identical time. It isn’t potential.
Lastly, compliance must be a excessive precedence. I believe that is too simply brushed apart, when it must be one of many huge arguments for why everybody ought to use an information catalog. I believe numerous firms are inclined to put that apart, pondering that they’re tech savvy and that knowledge is a site of experience, however tomorrow, when you get audited, will probably be essential.
That is one of many causes I attempt to push Information Governance as a lot as potential, not simply throughout the enterprise, however throughout every part within the R&D and Product groups. Contentsquare labored laborious on this and I am very blissful that we had been capable of maintain the Compliance folks in every division accountable. We had knowledge compliance ambassadors who labored instantly with me and the authorized group to work on that particular department of governance.
On the time, it was nice to have instruments like Atlan, as a result of it made issues simpler to begin someplace, have a look at our knowledge, and mark it up. It is one of many issues I’ve actually appreciated about Atlan.
Picture by Jason Goodman in unpack
