Data governance is an organizational, cultural and ethical challenge for communications service providers, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach. But a team of TM Forum members believes it is possible to create a data governance framework that can help.
Telecoms needs a standardized, agile data governance framework
The Covid-19 pandemic is shining a spotlight on the issue of data governance and how widely approaches vary around the world. In some countries, for example, individual privacy safeguards have been relaxed to fight the spread of the disease through contact tracing, while in others strict data governance practices have constrained the ability to respond to the pandemic. This is leading a group of TM Forum members to study how to create standards and best practices around data governance in the telecoms industry, specifically a standardized, agile data governance framework. During Action Week, Christian Maitre, VP of Smart Territories Development at Orange, gave a preview of a new TM Forum white paper on data governance that will be published later this month. It offers a definition of data governance and looks at how some communications service providers (CSPs) approach data governance today and what needs to change. The white paper has been authored with participation from a huge number of companies including Antel Uruguay, ATC IP, BolgiaTen, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Etisalat UAE, Fujitsu, Globe Telecom, Huawei Technologies, International Free and Open Source Solutions Foundation, International Software Techniques, KCOM Group, Liquid Telecom, Netcracker Technology, Nokia, Oracle, Orange, Orange Espagne, PT XL Axiata, Rogers Communications, stc, Tech Mahindra, Tecnotree, Telefonica Moviles, Telkom and Viettel.
“We wanted to really understand, what is the real context in terms of current data governance and current limitations,” Maitre said. “And also, how can we find a new way? We feel it is absolutely mandatory to innovate in this data governance field.”
The pandemic brings up some provocative and difficult-to-answer questions such as: Do governments have the right to impose geolocalization on people and record lists of others they come into contact with? Can CSPs legitimately share cross-border migration data, and if so how? How can CSPs authorize the use of data to better understand population flows and correlate it with pandemic infection data?
To lay the foundation of a data governance framework, the team first had to define data governance. This wasn’t easy because a definition must take into account a large variety of stakeholders. The team settled on the following:
“Data governance constructs a strategy and a framework through which an organization (company as well as a state…) can recognize the value of its data assets (towards its own or global goals), implement a data management system that can best leverage it whilst putting in place controls, policies and standards that simultaneously protect data (regulation & laws), ensure its quality and consistency, and make it readily available to those who need it.”
Maitre sees data governance as an organizational, cultural and ethical challenge for CSPs. “There is no one-size-fits-all approach to data governance,” he said. “How it is implemented within an organization is dependent on a number of factors such as its size, its complexity, the skills and competencies it has at its command, and its existing culture.”
The team has uncovered a few keys to success in developing a data governance strategy: In addition, a data governance framework must consider all stakeholders including not only companies such as telcos, which want to find ways to monetize data, but also but governments and other public institutions, and citizens or individuals who have expectations of trust and privacy.
“We’re at the beginning of a revolution,” Maitre said. “We need to create in advance – if it’s not too late – this kind of governance vision.”
If you would like to get involved in TM Forum’s work to create a data governance framework, please contact Aaron Boasman-Patel.