There are hundreds, if not thousands, of ways to get value out of your data catalog in an enterprise. A data catalog can help you organize all your data and apply governance controls to various types of data assets. And the best data catalogs can automate the process to collect, classify and profile data to ensure the highest standards of quality.

But the value of data catalogs can’t be derived by features or functions alone. Value comes from how fast a data catalog can meet the immediate and most important needs of your business.

As businesses continue to digitally transform themselves to build and incorporate AI into their overall business strategies, the value of data catalogs integrated with a data quality and governance platform becomes more essential.

However, enterprise data is only one part of the data landscape. Third-party data providers are becoming popular at more businesses. External data sets that contain “useful” data can help uncover hidden insights that can’t be found using your enterprise data alone. Third-party data can also be used to shape, refine, and produce AI models that can change consumer behavior and accelerate overall time-to-value.

This is why IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog in coming months will team up with Pitney Bowes, a leading provider of costumer engagement, information management and location intelligence data, to deliver rich data sets that come out-of-the-box with every purchase of Watson Knowledge Catalog. After all, data catalogs are only as useful as the data that’s in them.

Let’s take a look at three of the most popular use cases that show why companies are moving towards data catalogs.

1. Chief Marketing Officers: Understanding the customer

CMOs focus on customer acquisition, retention, conversion, and brand protection. Their job requires near real-time data about their customer demographics, revenue, conversion rates, abandonment rates, user journeys, product demand, supply, and market changes – all on local, regional, and global scales. They can’t afford the perception of the brand to falter in the face of evolving competitive threats. They need a single view of all data assets related to their customers.

A data catalog can be a powerful and essential tool to assist in the discovery and dissemination of information that helps CMOs and their team members find and share insights.

Take, for instance, cross-selling or up-selling customers new or existing products. In many companies, there are entire teams or lines of businesses (LOBs) that are dedicated to a customer or product channel. This means there are likely customer assets that are not easily accessible or even known to exist. For large retailers, building AI models to help generate new revenue streams through cross-sell and up-sell opportunities requires business analysts and data scientists having access to various types of customer data that may span various product lines.

A data catalog offers a single source to view and easily find all data assets related to customer demographics and buyer behavior across different departments. Teams can break down barriers to data within the business and getting to cross-channel customer information much faster. CMOs can spend more time building the analytical models that can positively impact their bottom line.

2. CDOs: The art of sharing protected data

Chief Data Officers have a growing number of challenges they face on a daily – if not hourly – basis. Protecting data in a world that is fueled by information can be daunting and exhausting for those tasked with having to do it. But data leaks happen, data loss happens, and data privacy gets broken. That’s why data governance must be at the top of mind for CDOs.

For large financial institutions, this is especially true. In addition to all the external regulatory guidelines set forth by various countries in the world – think of GDPR in the EU – CDOs also have internal compliance policies that protect their customer’s data.

IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog automates the classification and profiling of data assets using machine learning. Security officers can create various policies and rules to redact, substitute, or mask sensitive information to the viewer at the point of collection. This means there is no lag time of waiting for a human to ensure a data asset is protecting sensitive information. The catalog can automatically enforce the data protection rules established by the CDO office to anonymize and restrict access to sensitive information. The CDO can achieve peace of mind knowing various teams are only viewing information they should have access to.

With the catalog, CDO personnel can also monitor how many privacy rules and policies were enforced for a given period of time as well as the number of assets containing sensitive information that was viewed by a bank employee. This makes audits and internal compliance checks faster and more reliable.

3. CXO: Modernizing the patient experience

Chief Experience Officers (CXOs) in the healthcare industry need to ensure that that patient visits are as positive as possible. Patients are demanding more from their care providers in terms of the service they receive when accessing care services. From the time a person contacts a provider, to accessing in-patient care at a facility, providers strive to offer a personalized experience to every patient across the entire continuum of care.

This requires a 360-degree view of a patient’s profile. They need a single source for accessing patient information by hospital networks and other providers, creating a portal to organize and track changes to a patient’s medical history. And all the while, CXOs needs to mitigate the risk of exposing personally identifiable information (PII). IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog features an integrated quality and governance platform to help manage patient data and protect it from misuse.

Explore IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog

In your digital transformation journey, providing an optimized experience to your customer may be your top priority. But protecting your customer’s data is equally important. The IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog can inventory and protect your data assets by applying the relevant policies to govern them against misuse (whether intentional or not) all the while ensuring there is data integrity as information is shared throughout the enterprise.

To learn how you can strengthen your business with a data catalog, explore more about IBM Watson Knowledge Catalog. And learn more about how you can use Pitney Bowes data sets with Watson Knowledge Catalog.