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Despite record investment in data platforms and products, most employers still struggle to turn data into decisions
In recent years, many organizations have focused on the technical and governance side of data management: developing products, enabling marketplaces, and defining contracts. Now, the competitive edge lies in enabling a broader base of less data-savvy consumers to turn data into actionable insight. True data democratization demands equipping people with the right skills and achieving a level of data quality that fosters trust, accelerates decisions, and drives business growth.
This blog post offers an in-depth exploration of one of three key data management trends in 2025, which we identified in this blog at the start of the year.
Kickstarting your company-wide data democratization
Empowering people begins with a clear view of your organization’s data literacy and analytics capability. Accordingly, identify skill gaps across business units, and deliver targeted trainings. We see that successful companies pair this with two things: (1) the simplification of the technology to produce and consume data, and (2) dedicated accelerator teams. The former lowers the required technical expertise; the latter paves the transformation path while the abstractions layers are still being developed. Specifically, business teams that are guided by an accelerator team fully adopt data-driven ways of working, ensuring your investment in data democratization delivers measurable business impact and competitive advantage.
Trust & quality: from building data products to building confidence
The real barrier to adoption is trust in the data produced, or rather, the lack thereof. This, in turn, stems from the gap between those who produce the data and those who rely on it to make decisions. When the producers and consumers of data operate in silos, context gets lost, quality issues linger, and decision-makers are left second-guessing the numbers. For example, if a supply chain dataset is outdated and this isn’t flagged, finance teams may base forecasts on flawed inputs, triggering a chain reaction across procurement, sales, and reporting.
So once the core data products are in place, the focus should shift to governance and collaboration. Without that human-driven quality loop, even the most advanced data product remains underused and under-trusted. With it, data becomes a reliable foundation for confident, timely decisions.
Achieving the balance between data democratization and trust
The power of data democratization lies in accelerating insights and enabling better business decisions. However, data democratization goes hand in hand with capabilities building: without the right skills, context, and support, data access can lead to confusion and misuse. And capability-building without democratization simply wastes resources.
At the same time, empowerment without trustworthy data is ineffective. Without strong collaboration between the producers and consumers of data, effective data observability, and clear communication on quality, trust diminishes. This erodes the value of democratization and leads to inaccurate decision-making.
In sum, organizations that successfully create the foundation for reliable data that drives smarter, faster and more confident decisions will focus on both people and processes, by (1) developing data literacy and confidence across the workforce via tailored trainings for the producers and consumers of data; and (2) managing data as a product with transparency, accountability, and continuous feedback loops.
Building your data and analytics capabilities
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Explore our data management servicesThis article was written by Nanne van't Klooster, Program Manager, and Freek Gulden, Lead Data Engineer at Rewire.
