Digital governance is a formal framework designed to assist businesses in being flexible and adaptable when conducting digital activities, avoid legal issues or cyber attacks, uphold compliance with privacy and data protection policy and maintain compliance. It involves creating strategies, policies and protocols that oversee an organization’s digital footprint.
Working collaboratively requires teams to share knowledge rather than working in isolation, which can be challenging when each team employs its own methodology and tools.
Strategy
Digital governance must be an ongoing process rather than an isolated project in order to be effective, with an action plan designed around meeting the needs of people, processes, and technology.
Digital governance goes well beyond simply setting rules and procedures; it also involves empowering those responsible for running daily operations of an organisation. Without an organized framework in place, teams may become distracted from larger goals or become bogged down with tedious daily tasks that limit productivity.
Approach is a comprehensive strategy designed to prioritize organizational goals when making decisions related to the School’s public platforms, such as its main website, GSD subsites and externally focused digital tools such as social media sites and mass e-communications as well as tools supporting our digital learning initiatives. Prioritization also serves as a mechanism for prioritizing, scheduling and approving changes for these essential digital assets as well as clear accountability structures and guidelines around content, design, technical infrastructure security funding product project program management responsibilities.
Policy
Small digital teams may be able to improvise and make up things as they go, while larger ones need a more organized approach. Governance provides this structure by setting forth guidelines and framework for establishing necessary policies, procedures, and roles that help the organization run more smoothly.
An approach centered on policy can reduce uncertainty and inefficiency in decision-making, and ensures the most important aspects remain at the forefront of development efforts, keeping projects on target to reach their ultimate strategic goals.
Your organization may need to abide by ADA web accessibility regulations or security compliance standards like GDPR in Europe, among others. Digital governance provides the means and frameworks for setting these standards and enforcing their enforcement – helping your business reduce potential missteps while guaranteeing integrity of data, software, and online tools as well as complying with local laws.
Training
Digital governance demands training and development for all stakeholders involved, including leadership. If leaders take seriously their responsibilities as champions of governance, employees are more likely to uphold policy and comply with rules, which ensures everyone is treated equally and fairly.
Digital governance training ensures all employees possess the skills required for creating a more productive and sustainable workplace, including access to various tools designed to facilitate collaboration among all stakeholders and manage these tools effectively.
To gain a deeper insight into digital governance, board members can access online courses and webinars available on platforms like Coursera, edX, and LinkedIn Learning. Furthermore, industry documents from Gartner, Forrester, and McKinsey can also help educate board members on latest trends and best practices for digital governance.
Accountability
Due to an array of platforms to manage, staff changes to oversee, meetings to attend and emails to send, digital sustainability can be challenging to keep track of. By adopting clear digital governance policies, teams can gain greater control over any decisions related to content that could have repercussions for the whole organisation.
An effective governance framework can ensure that an organization adheres to its goals, strategies, aims and objectives throughout all of its content. Furthermore, it can address accountability for digital strategies and policies and help prevent organizations from operating like jazz ensembles instead of orchestras.
Maintaining transparency and accountability across your board, from donors, volunteers, and other stakeholders to donors is crucial in creating transparency and maintaining accountability across your organization. Making policies easily available (using BoardEffect for example) ensures everyone can work to them and understands what stands for your organisation which boosts engagement while increasing effectiveness of policy implementation.