Brief: Choosing Data Governance Tools

Data governance helps businesses ensure that they can trust their data enough to base decisions on it and lower the risk of innovation. Companies have already invested in a range of tools to ensure data quality, address reference data, and maintain a business glossary. "The Forrester Wave: Data Governance Tools, Q2 2014" shows that the capabilities of currently available tools are mixed; they are particularly weak at addressing business concerns brought about by the new data landscape. The flood of information about customers, employees, products, and services originating from the Internet of Things provides significant business opportunities but also poses risks — and mistakes can have a direct impact on a company's reputation. This environment makes it difficult to select the right data governance tool or set of tools; this report provides short-term and longer-term guidance to support an evolving data governance strategy.