If you have advanced data governance and analytics, you have the power to make the right decisions

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Prosegur is a prime example of this. Three years ago, the company created a data governance area as one of the cornerstones of its digital transformation. Today it is a much more data-centric and data-driven company. Which is to say that most of its important decisions are based on data and it has a complete Data Governance & Analytics area which started with two professionals and now has more than 25 in Spain, Argentina and Brazil. "We are considered a benchmark with a complete results orientation, adopting a practical and realistic approach and focusing on the business and support areas that we serve. Whoever does the best job of interpreting, managing and using data will lead the market", explains Francisco Torres.

Torres is not just the CDO (Chief Data Officer) of Prosegur, he is the number one in 2021 in Spain and Latin America chosen by the Club CDO Spain & Latam. Nominally this is a personal accolade but in essence it is collective, awarded for the management of the entire company.

Its structure is global in two respects, because it serves all of the group's businesses and countries, and because it encompasses the complete data function developed on four units:

Data Governance & Management. Structures the organisation's master data (customers, employees, suppliers and assets), unifies the sources and standardises information so that the entire company speaks the same language. "The quality, integrity and consistency of data is the cement for building efficient and scalable solutions", says Torres.

Data Analytics & Business Intelligence. Drives the analysis of information through reports, dashboards, graphical and geospatial information, and with self-service models that democratise the use of data in the organisation. It designs and implements analytical and predictive models to optimise processes and to collaborate in the creation of new products and services.

Data Solutions & System Information. Guardian of the information and analytics platform which integrates data and tools for users for consultation, processing and exploitation. Its migration to the Cloud is enabling more independence of use and availability of information in real time.

Data Services & Management. Promotes the company's major internal data initiatives, starting with its own digital transformation plan and any global initiative that requires particular commitment.

The structure of the Data Governance & Analytics Area reflects its mission: to promote the projects of the five business lines and other areas, from finance and innovation to administration and human resources. If it is an activity that generates data, it is an activity that the area can optimise, make more efficient, adaptable to new technologies, scalable across the organización, with fewer errors and an exhaustive knowledge of itself and of its users.

In the corporate world this is a recurring question: how much is the knowledge acquired by you and your company worth? Perhaps the most impulsive response would be "it has no price" or "it's worth what the company is worth in the market", because information, in the digital economy, is the company in itself. But as the organisational expert Geoffrey Moore says, "without big data analytics, companies are blind and deaf, wandering out onto the web like deer on a freeway". And this is because the value is not in the data itself - oil is not useful unless it is refined -, but in the technological capability to transform it into conclusions and, therefore, in the orientation towards this management model.

"We are more a service area than just a support or control area", explains Torres, "we provide added value to the businesses and users of the platform, be it a commercial user, a manager, a guard or senior management, and this function as a service provides a direct benefit for our customers". According to our CDO, data governance is especially strategic in a security multinational, "not just for the purpose of revenue generation or of cost optimisation, but as a guarantee along with other areas in the processing and use of data, from an ethical standpoint and in accordance with the company's values".

The list of improvements reflects its crucial role in the digital transformation of Prosegur. For example, logistical optimisation in the transportation of cash, commercial analysis, usage patterns for the development of artificial intelligence models and algorithms, standardisation of the mass migration of data, management and analytical control in human resources, financial monitoring… In short, periodic reports that allow market developments to be anticipated and which provide customers with information about their business of which they were unaware.

So what needs to be done now? We need to maintain the pace and focus of significant transformations in order to continue democratising the use of data, for the analytical platform to be even more accessible to any user so that the solutions can be used independently and, above all, to offer ever more data-based services to our customers. In short, to expand the data culture to naturally express its (increasing) value. To transform it into an asset and a competitive advantage.