VIDEO | CareSource VP Enterprise Data Services: Everybody Knows You Need Governance, but It Isn’t the Sexiest Work

(US and Canada) Russ Scoville III, VP of Enterprise Data Services at CareSource, speaks with Paul Hardy, EVP of Professional Services at Ironside, in a video interview about his role at CareSource, cloud migration, enforcing data governance, and the importance of partnerships.

Scoville leads the data engineering team overseeing data ingestion, engineering, modeling, architecture, warehousing, reporting, and enforcing data governance. Regarding priorities during cloud migration, he says that the organization’s goal was to create universal trust in the data, and the team picked areas of highest concern first. Next came key business drivers, followed by purpose-built solutions to help the company’s individual areas perform better.

The team chose this approach to best demonstrate value, Scoville explains, and that exercise led to developing partnerships with various units within the business. This, in turn, helped develop the right solutions and get automatic adoption from people. Scoville stresses that communication, partnership, and alignment are critical to success, and these aspects are often overlooked in the data and analytics space.

Sharing his data governance implementation experience, he notes that the cloud migration was an opportunity to reboot and have data governance from the start. Scoville adds that everybody knows the need for governance, but it is not the sexiest work. The ideal way to approach it is analytically so everybody can understand it.

When asked about the impetus for the migration, Scoville replies it was to have a trusted, reliable data source and ensure that the data was properly curated, aggregated, and managed, along with the platform’s availability.

Regarding the choice of a decentralized or centralized approach, he believes it is necessary to make the best choice for the organization and its stakeholders. Scoville points out that CareSource ended up building a hybrid approach.

CDO Magazine appreciates Russ Scoville III for sharing his insights and data success stories with our global community.