Generative AI and low-code/no-code “citizen developer” offerings are some of the latest technologies contributing to end-user computing (EUC) risk at many enterprises. As generative AI, low-code/code, and edge computing deployments increase, EUC risk becomes increasingly important. Taking steps to ensure the accuracy and quality of critical enterprise data can help to minimize EUC risk.
EUC Risk: A Growing Concern
Anything that isn’t an application or tool implemented and supported by your IT department is a potential source of EUC risk. “Anything” can range from databases to low-code/no-code and online tools and services. Many of these are implemented outside IT’s purview. Unfortunately, this means they often lack good governance and security protections.
EUC tools may also need clearer and current documentation, making errors and inconsistencies more likely. These risks can be exacerbated if EUC tools are deployed across multiple teams or departments. Increased support requirements for remote and hybrid workers, especially those using their own devices, also make management of EUC risk more challenging.
The Critical Data Connection
The most significant risk associated with EUC tools is the data they consume, manipulate and produce. Since they are often under IT’s radar, they can contain data that is inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date. This means business decisions driven by data from EUC tools can be inconsistent with corporate goals at best and damage your enterprise’s operations, revenues, and reputation at worst.
To drive the best business decisions, your enterprise needs a “single version of the truth” – a set of data that is accurate, complete, consistent, and up-to-date. Unfortunately, EUC risks can make achieving this goal difficult or impossible if not effectively managed and mitigated. And with EUC devices and tools growing prodigiously, achieving and maintaining a single, consistent set of critical business data becomes more essential and more challenging.
What You Should Do Now
Know your organization’s EUC tools – and their risks to your data. EUC risk mitigation at your enterprise must start with an accurate and complete assessment of the current EUC tools and their impacts on critical enterprise data. This will likely require a combination of multiple technologies and human intervention, and oversight involving IT and departmental leaders. The goals are to achieve as complete a picture as possible of EUC tools and their risks to your data and to keep that picture accurate and complete as EUC deployments grow and change.
Get your critical data together. Another critical element of your EUC risk mitigation efforts is to achieve and sustain your critical data in ways that achieve and maintain that “single version of the truth.” This requires a careful, complete data assessment, focusing on its quality and criticality to your business. Again, a collaboration between IT and business operations and department leaders will be necessary to develop a complete view of your enterprise’s most critical data.
Know who does what with that data. You and your colleagues must then implement the technologies and processes necessary to keep tabs on that critical data. They must also notify all those responsible for managing data risks. Your enterprise also needs tools and strategies that help ensure those changes do not result in risks or degradation. Awareness and effective management of data lineage will be essential here.
By maximizing and maintaining the highest quality and accuracy of its critical data, your enterprise can do much to mitigate EUC risks and their effects. A well-designed, well-implemented EUC risk management program must include and align with efforts to reduce data risks. These combined efforts can help ensure every business decision is based on the best available data, regardless of how EUC risk grows and evolves at your organization.
How Incisive Software Can Help
Incisive Analytics Essentials enables enterprises to gain managerial control over generative AI, other low-code/no-code deployments, and complex spreadsheets while making them available to authorized users. The foundational Incisive Concourse platform provides holistic visibility into low-code/no-code deployments, open-source tools, and spreadsheets across an organization, making these resources more visible and easier to manage effectively and consistently. These features help to minimize risks posed to your enterprise data by these deployments.
Incisive Analytics Essentials also includes Xcellerator, an add-in software that works seamlessly within Microsoft Excel to detect and highlight errors and risks. Patented overlay technology generates a color “heat map” that displays and highlights errors and potential risks for further examination. Xcellerator’s features appear to users as additional Microsoft Excel menu items.
For more information, a live demo, or a free trial, visit https://www.incisive.com, email [email protected], or call (US) 408-660-3090.
