According to a 2015 Experian Data Quality study, 92 percent of chief information officers have experienced problems due to poor data quality in the past 12 months. The accelerating influx of information in today’s business landscape further challenges what is already a complex environment. Without a cohesive data management program addressing the range of data needs, executives may struggle to make sound strategic decisions for their organizations.

Brazilian market intelligence company Neoway Business Solutions faced the challenge of adjusting its operations to scale with growth and required a process and strategy for handling its main business asset: data. Neoway turned to CMMI® Institute’s Data Management Maturity (DMM)SM model, a framework for best practices that supports organizations to become more proficient in managing critical data assets, improving operations, enabling analytics, and gaining competitive advantage.

“Managing every bit of data in a totally data-driven company can be quite complex,” said Michel Ávila, chief data officer at Neoway. “When we started to study the DMM model and implement its activities, we felt very confident that we were going in the right direction. It’s amazing how this model, built based on the reality of banks and large companies, is also a perfect fit for a small, agile IT startup like ours.”

The flexibility of the DMM model made it possible for Neoway to develop a clear and rapid path to process improvement that was aligned to the company’s specific business goals and supported by the entire organization. The DMM model enabled Neoway to evaluate its current-state data management capabilities, discover gaps to remediate, and identify strengths to leverage. The assessment method revealed priorities, business needs, and a vision for data management capability improvements.

“The DMM program has greatly improved our business,” said Rodrigo Barcia, product vice president and data steward at Neoway. “It has added great value, not just in terms of process and governance, but in actual product development. The DMM model brings a direct technical and business impact to our company and enhances our ability to add value to our customers. The program has had full support and involvement from our senior management, and has been embraced by the entire technical team.”

The DMM model applies a structured framework of best practices for data strategy, allowing organizations to build their own customized roadmaps to data management maturity and capitalize on their unique strengths. By building data process capability across business lines, executives are able to make better and faster decisions by employing a shared vision. Since the formation of the DMM model, over 600 organizations of all sizes have used it in a wide variety of industries, including financial, healthcare, technology, regulation, scientific research, government, and retail.

The DMM model is supported by a robust portfolio of offerings to bring data management maturity to your organization. Get started with a Data Management Maturity (DMM) assessment, a workshop-based process that rapidly identifies an organization’s current capabilities with a detailed report of recommendations that guide data strategy and implementation.

About CMMI® Institute

CMMI Institute (CMMIinstitute.com) is the organization behind Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®), the globally adopted capability improvement framework that guides organizations in high-performance operations. CMMI Institute provides the tools and support for organizations to benchmark their capabilities by comparing their operations to best practices and identifying performance gaps. High performing organizations in a variety of industries, including aerospace, finance, health services, software, defense, transportation, and telecommunications have earned a CMMI maturity level rating to benchmark their performance and prove that they are capable business partners and suppliers. To learn more about how the Data Management Maturity (DMM) model can help your organization improve your data management program, visitCMMIinstitute.com/data-management-maturity. Stay informed of updates regarding Data Management Maturity by subscribing to receive DMM emails, or follow CMMI Institute on Twitter and LinkedIn.