Master Foo Defines Enterprise Data

by Sean McGrath

November 10, 2005 —

Master Foo once said to a visiting CIO from a Fortune 500 company:
"Tell me. If a PC is destroyed in your company when nobody is around
to save it, does the event make a noise at boardroom level?"

The CIO thought for a moment and replied : "That would depend on
whether or not the PC held important enterprise data."

Master Foo, who seemingly anticipated this exact response, was quick
with his follow up question: "Indeed so. Tell me, how does your
organization define enterprise data?"

The CIO, who recently had presided over the installation of an
enterprise-wide database management system, could not believe his
luck. The question from Master Foo provided a great opening to hold
forth on the wonderful new enterprise data management system he was so
proud of.

"My definition", he began, "is that enterprise data is data that is
critical to a business function. In any large organization, it is not
unusual for information to be duplicated in multiple places. The
critical distinguishing feature of enterprise data is that it is the
definitive, authoritative source of a particular piece of business
information. Copies of enterprise data can be destroyed without any
significant adverse affects but it is vital for an organization to
centrally maintain definitive, authoritative versions of each piece of
mission critical data. This is what we do with our enterprise data
management system. We do not mind if PCs have copies of enterprise
data as long as the definitive version is managed centrally."

"Interesting", said Master Foo.

At this point, the CIO became slightly nervous. Master Foo often
pre-fixes a pointed observation with the word "Interesting".

"Tell me,", Master Foo asked with just the glimmer of enjoyment
appearing around his eyes, "what form does your enterprise data
management system take?"

With a little trepidation, the CIO replied : "We keep all our data in
a top of the range database management system. All our applications
are web based so users only need to have a web browser. All the data
and all the applications are held centrally."

The CIO was getting into his stride. He began to feel as if his fears
were unfounded. Perhaps this conversation with Master Foo was going
swimmingly after all? "I would go so far to say", he continued, "that
any of our employees could hurl their PC off the top of this mountain
with minimal impact on any of our business processes because we have
centralized all the enterprise data." He stopped, beaming slightly,
searching Master Foo's face for a positive reaction.

"Interesting", said Master Foo again.

"Oh dear", thought the CIO. Here it comes...

"How many of your employees use spreadsheets?", master Foo asked.

"Nearly all of the business users use spreadsheets.", the CIO replied.

"Are all the spreadsheets managed centrally too?"

"Well, no. The spreadsheets used by the accounts people are. Beyond
that, I must admit I don't have a good feel for what everyone else
uses spreadsheets for."

"Think of your centralized database applications as a set of large
rocks. Their great strength is their solidity. Their
great weakness is their lack of flexibility. Think of spreadsheets as
the water that flows over and around the rocks. Their great strength
is their flexibility. Their great weakness is their lack of
solidity. The easiest route to the far side of a rock is to be like
water and flow over or around it, rather than to change the nature
of the rock."

"Would you mind repeating that more slowly?"

"No problem", said Master Foo. "Database applications have rigid
structure and rigid behavior. If a
business process exactly matches the structure and behavior then
nothing inhibits the flow of business processes. As soon as the
rigidity becomes a problem, users will seek to find the quickest way
around the rigidity. This often takes the form of spreadsheets that
supplement the data and the behavior of the centralized
systems. Spreadsheets do not involve getting the IT department to do
anything. Nobody even needs to be told. The spreadsheets can be stored
locally. Individuals can set up their spreadsheets to model how they
themselves work. They have complete control."

A cold sweat formed on the brow of the CIO.

"Over time, more and more key information lives primarily in the
spreadsheets rather than in the centralized data stores. In advanced
cases of this phenomenon, it is the expense
centralized enterprise applications that can be destroyed without
causing a noise at board level because individual, local PCs hold the
true enterprise data in an amorphous assembly of spreadsheets."

"Ah. Yes. I understand now, but I can assure you that this is not the
case in my organization.", said the CIO as his shaking hand reached for
his cell phone.

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