Canadian Western Bank
client success story
What we delivered
Definition, development, and continuous improvement of corporate data governance program focusing on data quality
- Established a data governance framework
- Implemented automated and manual data quality controls
- Assisted in a data quality campaign; establishing data stewards
- Built data metrics and reports to be part of new data management platform
The organization
The organization
Edmonton-based financial institute
Offering full-service business banking for individuals, and specialty business banking services for small and medium sized companies. CWB Financial Group is a diversified financial services organization providing specialized service in banking, trust and wealth management. Since 1984, we’ve grown from a single branch operating in Edmonton, Alberta, to a western-based, federally regulated financial institution with a national presence.
The challenge
The challenge
Poor data quality
The solution
The solution
Data Quality embedded throughout
Silver Creek have been deeply engaged in the data governance program since its origins in 2017. Throughout this time, we have worked alongside the CWB data governance practice. Here are some highlights of our contributions:
Data governance framework
Building the formal structure that ties together the necessary data policies, rules, standards and definitions are in place to have agreed upon practices across the organization. As well as defining an appropriate system for management, oversite, and decision making.
Automated data quality controls
Monitoring processes were built within the SAS suite of tools to flag and track issues from identification to resolution, as well as reported trends within this data. In a highly technical effort, Silver Creek also worked with the CWB members to provide insights in the use of Data Flux, SAS DI, SAS Workflow, SAS Remediation server and SAS Business Data Network, providing an overview of how the data flowed from the source system through the various SAS tools and providing data lineage to answer regulatory compliance concerns around where data came from and how it was transformed to appear in the EDW-DDS model.
Manual data quality controls
A system has been put in place whereby CWB users can submit any data errors or omissions. Data pain points are captured in a database which tracks all identified concerns. These submissions are independently investigated and quantified and compared against risk thresholds by Silver Creek technical resources. Problems that are considered significant are identified as a data quality issue, which require further investigation and prioritization by a data governance committee. These data issues are then addressed and remediated on a case-by-case basis thereby dealing with data problems as they arise through daily interactions.
Employee data governance campaign
A corporate initiative to establish data stewards was put in place, establishing appropriate activities and responsibilities. Additionally, a training and educational program to raise awareness of data governance concepts such as master data management, data quality, and data lineage.
Data management platform
Introduction of a tool that will help manage, monitor and report on data assets in a united and simplified manner. To help streamline the existing activities around gathering, reporting and analyzing of data quality and usage metrics.
The benefits
The benefits
Significant improvement in data quality
Canadian Western Bank have realized tangible gains from their prioritized and maintained focus on data governance with specific focus on data quality. The progress has been recognized publicly as proven in this excerpt from their 2023 annual report.
As data is produced and consumed by different business lines and geographies across CWB, an effective, collaborative, and holistic approach to data risk management has been implemented to minimize reputation, regulatory and financial risk. Our Data Governance framework and supporting protocols reflect a risk-based approach to support oversight and management of critical data elements to enable greater coordination and consistency of our data. We continue to enhance and mature our data remediation processes and data quality monitoring tools. Our ongoing programs related to data protection and access management also ensure that data is only accessible when directly relevant to the team member’s role
Looking for a similar solution?
SilverCreek is a premiere IT professional services firm at the forefront of data management, analytics, application development and automation. We have established ourselves as the leading digital innovation partner in western Canada by delivering industry-leading data products with excellence in customer service.
Let us help improve the value of your data and build solutions you can use.
