| | June 201619CIOReviewDeveloping a Common Business Language: The Importance of Data Governance in HospitalityBy Kelly A McGuire, VP, Analytics, Wyndham Exchange and Rentals and Dexter E. Wood, Jr, SVP and Global Head Business & Investment Analysis, Hilton WorldwideCXO INSIGHTSMany hotel companies are embarking on analytics programs to improve the guest experience, maximize revenue and profits, optimize operations to control cost and increase the value of the guest relationship. Brands are hoping to drive value for owners through robust guest databases and advanced targeted marketing programs. Hospitality companies are looking to other industries such as retail, CPG and banking for inspiration on building analytics programs and analytics cultures. This activity is, of course, very encouraging to those of us who have been evangelizing the value of analytics for years. However, many hotel companies are struggling to get these programs off of the ground, are not able to implement as fast as they would like, or are failing to see value from their efforts. The fault, as it turns out, is rarely the technology solution. The reason why these initiatives are so fraught with difficulty is that organizations fail to sufficiently plan for the data requirements that support them. The hospitality industry is particularly impacted by this issue because data exists in myriad disparate systems, such as property management, central reservations and CRM systems. These systems tend to be either proprietary, or so highly customized that even data generated from systems from the same vendor could look very different. All of this creates a very complex data infrastructure that represents a huge barrier to analytical success. There are many components to a data management strategy, much of which is under the complete purview of IT and the CIO. What we will focus on today is data governance-the portion of data management, which, while requiring a tight integration between business and IT, needs to be owned by the business if the reporting and analytics are to provide the value the business is hoping for.Data governance refers to the process of gaining enterprise agreement on metric definitions, data sourcing, integrity, and security of the enterprise's data. A data governance program includes a cross-functional governing body or council, a defined set of procedures, and a plan to execute those Kelly A McGuire
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