Adopting NDMO as an opportunity to unlock business value

Adopting NDMO as an opportunity to unlock business value

Introduction 

As Saudi Arabia’s digital economy continues to grow in alignment with Vision 2030 ambitions, an increasing amount of data is generated. This data deluge comes with a substantial potential to produce unique insights and generate quantifiable economic value. However, Saudi entities are unable to realize the vast majority of that potential as data is not well structured, prepared and governed. Moreover, growing risks associated with personal and sensitive data represent another barrier to harness the full value of accumulated data.

In this context, Saudi Arabia’s government has taken a solid step towards data governance and data management by establishing the National Data Management Office (NDMO) which acts as the national data regulator under the supervision of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence (SDAIA). The NDMO published Data Management and Personal Data Protection Standards with required controls and specifications for implementing and governing effective data management practices across entities. Through these standards, NDMO aims to help entities manage their data as assets and unlock its economic and innovation potential both at entity and national levels.

Similar efforts are happening across the world, other countries have recently enforced national data regulations which cover both safeguards that protect the rights of market players and enablers that facilitate data sharing. For instance, on June 23rd 2022, the European Union (EU) published a Data Governance Act which aims to increase the amount of data available for re-use within the EU in order to boost data-driven innovations and enable cost reductions in data acquisition. As a comparison, The Saudi NDMO regulation turned out to be more comprehensive as it covers all the pillars of data governance and data management.

Saudi organizations need to embrace the wealth and magnitude of the NDMO framework which covers 15 different data domains and includes hundreds of specifications that must be implemented within specific timelines defined by SDAIA. This white paper intends to first highlight key challenges that typically arise when embarking on NDMO programs then provide Saudi leaders across industries, specifically data leaders and compliance leaders, with the key factors that pave the way to successful NDMO implementation.