By Johan Saton, Senior Data Management Consultant at Valid.

Data pressure is unsustainable, and that presents an opportunity

As a housing association, you are under enormous pressure. Social challenges are growing, obligations regarding sustainability and affordability are increasing, and you have to make decisions that affect millions of euros. The underlying data is often fragmented, outdated, or simply unreliable. 

The ambition to perform predictive maintenance or optimize business operations is there, but reality is stubborn: without a solid foundation of master data, governance, and data quality, among other things, every data-driven dream comes to a halt. In practice, I see the consequences: inaccurate object data, teams spending more time searching for data than managing insights, and a growing distrust of their own reports.

Yet this is the perfect moment to turn the tide. By making a number of fundamental choices, you can put your data to work for you. Practical, manageable, and with immediately visible results.

The path to achieving this is not a complex, multi-year IT project. It is a series of pragmatic choices and fundamental insights that make the difference. In my experience, organizations that are truly successful always come back to the following five crucial principles:

1. Stop wanting to rush things, start with the basics

The biggest pitfall is over-ambition. You want to go straight to the highest level of data maturity, such as predictive maintenance, but in doing so you skip the fundamental steps. The core of your data landscape is not the transaction data from your ERP system, but the master data: the correct, unambiguous data about your objects, buildings, and tenants. If this basis is not in order, any analysis or reporting you build on it will be unreliable. The solution is simple but crucial: always start here.

2. Governance is not just on paper, but pragmatic action

Forget the idea of a theoretical policy plan that disappears into a drawer. Effective data governance arises organically, in practice. Start a project, establish data standards immediately, improve quality, document what you do, and incorporate the lessons learned. In this way, you can build a supported governance model step by step that lives within the organization, rather than just on paper.

3. You gain trust by solving concrete problems.

A data platform only becomes a strategic tool when employees and managers feel that it improves their work. The key to adoption is not a large-scale rollout, but a small, targeted intervention. Listen to the organization, identify one specific, painful problem, and solve it with a reliable, user-friendly dashboard. That first, tangible success is the foundation for trust. The rest will follow from there.

4. Modernize your security: from open doors to Zero Trust

In a world where you work with privacy-sensitive tenant information, the "trust but verify" model is outdated. The modern approach is Zero Trust: no one has access to data by default. Access is determined based on a clear data classification (e.g., public, internal, confidential) and the role of the employee. It is the only way to stop the proliferation of access rights and regain control in a manageable way.

5. Combine internal knowledge with external expertise

The ideal mix is not complete outsourcing. It is a partnership in which you have an internal "front desk": people who know the business and the processes. They work together with external specialists who contribute in-depth data knowledge. Crucial to this is a firm agreement on structural knowledge transfer and assurance in the operation. This prevents vendor lock-in and allows you to build your own data maturity in a sustainable way.

What can you do tomorrow?

The path to becoming a data-driven organization does not have to be complex. Begin today with these three straightforward actions:

1. Make master data and data quality a strategic priority:Put it on the management team's agenda, appoint an owner, and start with object and real estate data as a fixed reference for the entire chain.
2. Choose a maximum of three KPIs:Focus on the indicators that really matter for the corporation's course.
3. Build the culture:Start with small, concrete successes that create trust and enthusiasm.

The foundation is the only accelerator. By investing now in the basics of data quality, governance, and security, you can make a difference for tomorrow's tenants.

About Johan Saton

Johan Saton is a Senior Data Management Consultant at Valid. With extensive experience and in-depth expertise in data modeling, data governance, data quality, and data strategy, he helps organizations strengthen their data foundation and unlock valuable insights. He always takes a pragmatic approach and helps businesses take the lead in their data management programs and projects. Johan knows how to translate complex data issues into clear, workable solutions.