Data catalogues can be time-consuming and arduous to implement, but their worth and potential shouldn’t be underestimated for long-term data quality initiatives. By providing a central point for data discovery, the data catalogue, integrated directly into the company’s system, can help improve transparency and collaboration and productivity amongst different teams. Overall, it can also enhance your data security, privacy and governance initiatives and decision-making cross-functionally as data becomes easier of access. But implementation is nevertheless not something that should be rushed into. Whether you have implemented one already or are looking to, it is invaluable to consider all angles of this organizational tool, and most importantly, to have the tools necessary to monitor and maintain it once you have brought it onboard.

-   Evaluate the pros and cons of buying vs. building, addressing questions of resources and project goals, to better assess what is most useful and valuable for your company

-   Home in on the various options available to you, from stand-alone solutions to cloud-native data catalogues, in order to determine what is most suited to your company, people and processes

-   Assess what your company structure currently looks like, and the needs and responsibilities of each team in order to establish a data catalogue strategy suited to all