In difficult economic climates, businesses are always looking for opportunities to contain costs. Data governance programs are very positioned to assist in these efforts. Data governance can have many benefits for your organization, including the ability to:

• Become aware of gaps and overlaps in management efforts
  
• Learn about software products and how they can be leveraged to achieve multiple goals
  
• Observe proactive, reactive, and ongoing processes
  
• Easily see where money is being spent and find where costs can be trimmed

The following paper outlines seven ways that data governance programs can help manage costs and presents a mechanism for quantifying the return on investment (ROI) for these contributions.