Welcome to the Corporate Data Management Programme – we help to take the guesswork out of deciding, by enabling data-driven decisions! But we cannot do this alone. To ensure that our data is credible, accessible, and relevant, we need your help.

Page through our FAST FACTS, or refer to the DETAILED DOCUMENT option for everything you need to know about UFS Corporate Data Management.

Our vision is to enable data-driven decision-making through a culture of data stewardship. Our mission, that will help us accomplish this, is:
- Producing credible data that is accurate, complete, timely, valid, consistent, and unique.
- Delivering accessible data that is available, and understandable.
- Presenting relevant data that meets user requirements.

What is CORPORATE DATA?

To help you understand what UFS Corporate Data is, ask these three questions:
1. Who owns the data? If the university owns it, we must govern it. We don’t, for example, own the bibliographic database hosted by the library – once our subscription expires, we won’t have access to it anymore. We do, for example, own data of current students.

2. Who stores the data? If the data is stored in one of our software systems, we must govern it – for example our financial software system. If it is stored within someone else’s system, for example a commercial journal database, it is not ours to manage.

3. Who uses the data? Data that we own, store, and use for the following, must be governed by us too: Data needed
- by more than one UFS unit
- to compile reports and/or records
- for strategic planning
- to inform tactical/operational processes

Generally, this programme will not address paper documents, scholarly research data, and data stored on individuals’ devices.

What is CORPORATE DATA MANAGEMENT?

“Having more data does not always give you the power to make better decisions.”
― Jeffrey Fry

1 Data is an Asset
What does this mean?
Our corporate data is valuable – without it, we will not be able to exist. Because it is valuable, we protect it.

“Data matures like wine, applications like fish.”
– James Governor

2 Data stewardship
What does this mean?
Our job is to look after our data responsibly. Why? Because it was entrusted to our care.

 

“I am a data steward – what is your superpower?”

3 Business benefit
What does this mean?
Because data has high value, it has power. Because it is powerful, it can be used to destruct just as much as to build. We use data to build our business.

 

“Keep calm and ask the data.”

4 Data Quality
What does this mean?
To get quality output, you need quality input. Since institutional decisions depend on data, we will make sure that there is quality data throughout the data lifecycle.

 

“Business intelligence = IQ (input quality)”

5 Compliance
What does this mean?
We all need to follow the same set of instructions: policies, procedures, standards, and guidelines. Not to cram your style, but to ensure good data.

 

“A lack of compliance creates a lot of complaints.”

6 Rationalisation, Standardisation, and Simplification
What does this mean?
Making it easy. 

“Every day, three times per second, we produce the equivalent of the amount of data that the Library of Congress has in its entire print collection, right? But most of it is like cat videos on YouTube or 13-year-olds exchanging text messages about the next Twilight movie.”
– Nate Silver