Domofrance

Domofrance is a social landlord that owns and manages more than 40,000 housing units, mainly in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. As an organization responsible for providing affordable rental housing to individuals and families, Domofrance is part of a highly-regulated industry, subject to specific controls, standards, and regulations. For that reason, they must regularly produce data to demonstrate their alignment and compliance with these requirements.

However, Domofrance faced a number of data-related challenges, including:

• Data quality: in order to confidently demonstrate compliance with controls, standards, and regulations, it was imperative that Domofrance improve the reliability and completeness of their data.
• Data governance: Domofrance lacked a common language as it related to their data. Much of the data knowledge was trapped in people’s heads, with no documentation that users could search to understand the meaning of the data.
• Data transformation: Domofrance recognized that their current, IT-driven approach to data management was no longer working. Instead, they needed to decentralize data management and implement tools that support their goal to have a common understanding of the data, including its definition and lineage.

The team selected DataGalaxy to enable them to improve data quality, implement stronger governance, and decentralize the management of their data. As well, DataGalaxy provided the intuitive, simple-to-use experience Domofrance needed to drive adoption across the organization, all at an affordable cost.

Using DataGalaxy’s business glossary and data dictionary, Domofrance was able to provide information about the data to everyone who needed it. As well, Domofrance was able to improve efficiency and ensure that the data they provided regulators was accurate and complete.

Domofrance began their implementation of DataGalaxy with a focus on improving data quality. As an organization subject to compliance with specific controls, standards, and regulations, it was imperative that Domofrance felt confident that the data they extracted was accurate and complete. However, they lacked a common data language, and the knowledge that was available was mainly in people’s heads – not a centralized location accessible to everyone who needed it.

The team initially focused their efforts on use cases which would enable them to follow all of the company’s assets: housing, commercial buildings, homes, and annexes. Once established, Domofrance would then expand their use cases to include vacancy, housing, unpaid debt, as well as ten-year and investment work plans.

DataGalaxy’s Business Glossary enabled Domofrance to create bridges between IT and the business, enabling users across the organization to embrace a common data language. By centralizing the knowledge into a single, user-friendly tool, everyone across the organization could feel confident that the data they were using was consistent and reliable.

Understanding data lineage was another high priority for the organization. Using DataGalaxy, Domofrance was able to visualize how data has changed over time and make that information available to everyone who needed it. Because DataGalaxy was easy-to-use, it was simple for users across the organization to adopt and use. Using the visualization capabilities, users could easily see the lineage of the data and click to learn more about it.

As part of the implementation, Domofrance also established the role of data steward within the business, enabling them to decentralize the management of data across the organization and drive greater adoption throughout the business. Using DataGalaxy, the data stewards could apply their knowledge of the data and improve it using an intuitive, easy-to-use interface.

Throughout the implementation, DataGalaxy worked closely with Domofrance to adapt the solution to their maturity level and support them as they progressed their projects. DataGalaxy also intervened on topics related to data governance and delivered data seminars to help acculturate the company on topics that were, at the time, unfamiliar.

In addition to their partnership with DataGalaxy, Domofrance worked with KPC, an integrator who is also a partner of DataGalaxy. By adopting a co-construction approach, Domofrance and KPC worked together to configure the DataGalaxy solution, giving Domofrance the knowledge and expertise to be autonomous in their use of the solution moving forward.

Looking ahead, Domofrance plans to expand their use cases to include ones such as energy performance diagnostics, which will be critical to secure their ability to continue providing housing to those who need it. Further, their objective is for data stewards to become true ambassadors of DataGalaxy and promote the use of the data dictionary and business glossary to enrich the quality of the data.