Recently I was reminded of one of my grandfathers favourite stories, the “story of the drunk man”…….

A policeman sees a drunk man searching for something under a streetlight. He asks him “What have you lost?”. The drunk man replies “I’ve lost my keys”, so the policeman starts helping him to look for the keys under the streetlight. After a while the policeman asks the drunk man “Are you sure you lost the keys here?” The drunk man replies “No, I lost them in the park on the way over”. So the policeman asks “Then why are you searching here?” and the drunk replies, “Well, this is where the light is”.

In the search for data value, I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of focussing on where the light is. Without pushing the analogy too far, analysing the end-to-end data value chain allows us to light up the areas “in the dark”. It allows you to find where the value is and uncover blockers that are getting in the way.

MetadataWorks are working with a number of newly formed Integrated Care Systems who are gearing up their data integration activities. We’ve pulled together a ‘straw-man’ data value chain that’s kick-started some interesting conversations. If you’re a newly formed ICS looking to discuss how your data value chain can be used to drive the right decisions over the coming months, please get in touch