The Case for Employee Data Self-Service, Part 1

This is the first post in a three-part series.

I’m old enough to remember when IT was largely seen as the gatekeeper of corporate information. When I first entered the corporate world in 1997, I had to request access to data from the IT department. Sure, IT provided limited access to certain datasets, but anything other than that required an often-arduous back-and-forth with techies charged with guarding corporate information. In other words, if employees in HR, marketing, sales, and the like wanted data back then, there was simply no way to avoid dealing with IT. Fifteen years ago, the vast majority of all corporate data was stored on-premise. Cloud computing existed but it was nowhere near as prevalent as it is today. Despite the proliferation of modern cloud computing, the “IT as gatekeeper of all information” mind-set pervades many hidebound organizations. More progressive ones, though, have evolved and enabled non-technical employees to effectively fish for themselves. No longer do everyday (read: non-technical) employees need to formally request access to internal datasets and wait days or weeks for approval.