Data must become a driver of growth for the Moroccan economy
Jalal Benabdouh discusses the cost of poorly managed data and the first steps towards remedying the situation.
The cost of poorly governed data is rarely the cost of correcting it. It is the cost of the decisions it has led to. In an interview with Le Matin, Jalal Benabdouh, CEO and Managing Partner of Baker Tilly SEVEN, describes common scenarios: profitability being underestimated because the value actually created has not been measured, or two departments reporting different turnover figures for the same activity.
He distinguishes between two concepts that are often confused. Compliance indicates whether data can be processed. Governance indicates whether it is reliable and who is accountable for it. “Being compliant on paper does not necessarily mean that someone is accountable for the data on a day-to-day basis.”
The issue is particularly sensitive in the banking and insurance sectors, where decisions on risk, pricing and prudential reporting depend directly on the quality of the data. On the subject of open banking, he points out that it “does not mean opening up data to everyone”, but rather enabling it to circulate within a framework of trust.
The interview also addresses the role of the Chief Data Officer, who, in his view, must have a genuine mandate and the power to make decisions, as well as the issue of sovereignty, which he does not see as being at odds with the use of the cloud.
For companies wishing to move forward, he recommends starting simply: sharing a common vision, identifying a few critical data sets, assessing their quality, clarifying responsibilities, and then testing these rules on one or two use cases.
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