Customer Stories |
Impact

How CEFCU Operationalized Data Governance—Making It Engaging, Collaborative, and Even Fun

CEFCU, a member-focused credit union, always prioritized delivering exceptional value to its members. However, behind the scenes, its data governance efforts were a challenge. Despite the team's dedication, progress was often invisible, alignment was difficult, and proving business impact felt like an uphill battle.

Challenge

The team at CEFCU knew data was a critical asset, but without a clear framework, it was difficult to pinpoint the core problems, align stakeholders, or demonstrate progress. Data governance efforts often felt like a black box—critical work was being done, but no one could see it, measure it, or rally behind it.

This lack of visibility led to frustration. Wins were happening, but they weren’t celebrated. Business teams didn’t fully grasp the impact, and executive alignment on data priorities was inconsistent. How could they turn governance from an abstract concept into something tangible, valuable, and scalable?

Solution

Enter XenoDATA®. By implementing DataWorkbench™, CEFCU transformed data governance from an invisible process into something structured, measurable, and easy to communicate.

For the first time, leadership and teams had real-time visibility into data initiatives—what was happening, who was involved, and how it tied to business goals. Instead of talking about governance in theoretical terms, CEFCU could now showcase clear, measurable progress with tangible metrics.

More importantly, data work became a team effort, not an isolated function. Business leaders were now part of the process, defining their own data needs and seeing firsthand how governance supported strategic initiatives. Alignment improved, engagement increased, and data governance shifted from a pain point to a competitive advantage.

Outcome

By implementing XenoDATA®’s DataWorkbench™, CEFCU transformed data governance from an invisible process into a clear, measurable, and business-driven strategy. Teams gained real-time visibility into data progress, aligning stakeholders and making governance an enabler of success rather than a frustration.

Now, data work is collaborative, transparent, and impactful—with clear business value, improved decision-making, and stronger executive alignment. CEFCU successfully turned data governance into a competitive advantage, driving efficiency, engagement, and long-term scalability.

Williams Lea Saves Over $2.5 Million in Lost Productivity Due to Data

The CEO knew they were having some friction on their operating model with data & reporting but couldn’t put their finger on the root cause. To clients, there was a feeling of dealing with a technological laggard, to employees it was frustrating, and to executive management, something didn’t seem right.

Challenge

Williams Lea spent significant time on each client providing data & reportable metrics. The problem was that in their customer surveys, clients lauded them for their role as a trusted advisor, but would view them as being less than innovative on monthly and quarterly report delivery.

Solution

After completing XenoDATA®’s road mapping program, Williams Lea identified they were losing almost a third of their client operations team’s time due to data & reporting related work. Furthermore, because of XenoDATA®’s process, they were able to pinpoint exactly where in their data the problems were coming from.

In response, and with our direct guidance, they invested in a modern reporting & analytics initiative as a beachhead use case, easily clearing the ground of inadequate or antiquated systems and building a scalable data organization. Their final modern cost-effective solutions, and appropriate processes developed by following our clear and effective methodology will eliminate waste and solve a clear business issue that will generate real EBITDA uplift (and 10x that in enterprise value).

Outcome

Identified 20-40% in lost productivity (~$2.5M) due to data and reporting inefficiencies, of which $500k in EBITDA improvement was committed to the deal book. This directly translated to a $5M+ improvement in enterprise value assuming a 10x valuation multiple on EBITDA. Once the root cause was identified, we helped them implement a solution and repeatable processes to realize current and capture future benefits.

Anheuser-Busch InBev saves over $2 million in Data Related Work

There was a lack of structure, process, and governance managing the People (Human Resource) data at the organization. Globally, most of the team felt that the data quality and access within the organization was poor, causing many complaints from the team. Specifically, the team had a large gap between how they spoke about data and how they measured data.

Additionally, the business had different global standards, data definitions, access, and engagement levels throughout the organization, leading to mistakes and confusion. At one point, an entire department was deleted from their HR system due to an amount of flexibility the system needed to support complex, competing requirements. It was determined that these data-related issues were causing a business waste of $2 million per year in lost productivity of front-line data workers, if not more.

Challenge

The Anheuser-Busch InBev People team was spending considerable time talking about poor data quality, yet data quality scorecards showed a 99%+ accuracy of people data. People were frustrated, didn't know what to do and fingers were being pointed from function to function.

Solution

The solution began by stepping away from technology, in the beginning, and looking at their current data strategy and solutions architecture through a data strategy accelerator. By making financial use cases to executive sponsors, the organization was able to get organic buy-in to proceed.

The data strategy accelerator provided a roadmap of items that needed to be completed on their path to digital transformation, including a metadata repository and a governance/ advisory committee. The new metadata repository helped improve the metric for data quality and clarity around what data meant and to whom while streamlining efficiencies. The team established KPIs to measure against that reflected universal business conventions, which helped them understand and correct their problems. XenoDATA® also standardized business terms within their business data glossary and mapped them to the appropriate fields within their data dictionary.

Anheuser-Busch InBev gained a lot of clarity, confidence, and value from their new data quality scorecards and metadata repository. They went from having no strategy to a clearly defined, well-executed plan that was easy to understand. The metadata repository ensured that the organization was speaking the same language across the globe and could be easily understood by both technologists and business leaders alike. By implementing a true data governance team, they were able to fix quality and data access functions to ensure more data accuracy and consistency across their offices. It was estimated that they saved $2MM in data-related work from the results of this project.

Outcome

Identified $2M in lost productivity on the People team due to data quality challenges alone. Brought structure and organization to a seemingly impossible problem. Empowered a champion to own and run the initiative after completion.

Achieving Data Alignment for Business Impact

Accurate Background struggled with an overwhelming number of custom report requests, lacking a clear data strategy to guide business decisions. They sought expert guidance to standardize their approach, improve alignment across teams, and ensure data was driving real business outcomes.

Challenge

The company faced a growing problem: they were repeatedly providing data without a structured strategy. Custom report requests were constant, but without a clear understanding of what the data meant or how it could drive business impact.

Internally, the team had highly skilled executors but lacked strategic expertise in data implementation. Leadership recognized that technology alone wasn’t the issue—it was the governance, alignment, and proper modeling of data that were missing.

Solution

Rather than investing in another technology or a large consulting firm, the company engaged with XenoDATA® due to its deep understanding of data governance, business alignment, and implementation strategy.

XenoDATA® worked closely with stakeholders to bring visibility to the core issues, empower teams to ask the right questions, and prioritize data efforts based on business value. The focus was not just on delivering reports but on aligning stakeholders around meaningful metrics and strategic decision-making.

Outcome

- Increased visibility into data issues and the need for business-driven prioritization.

- Empowered stakeholders to be more vocal about their needs and the impact of data on business decisions.

- Shifted focus from reactive reporting to structured, value-driven data governance.

- Achieved a 4-5x return on investment within the first six months by ensuring data efforts contributed directly to profitability.

Empowering Data Leaders at Kraft Heinz: A Scalable, No-Nonsense Approach

Kraft Heinz, one of the world’s largest food and beverage companies, needed to bring structure and clarity to its data management efforts. The challenge wasn’t just technical—it was about empowering business teams with a practical approach that avoided the complexity and jargon of traditional consulting firms. Partnering with XenoDATA, Kraft Heinz transformed its approach, achieving clarity, confidence, and measurable business value.

Challenge

When stepping into a data leadership role at Kraft Heinz, the new leader faced significant challenges:

- No prior experience in data management, making it difficult to navigate the technical complexity of the field.

- Overwhelming methodologies from big consultancies, which relied on jargon-heavy, multi-slide presentations that didn’t connect with the business.

- Skepticism from stakeholders, who were hesitant to embrace data governance due to fear of over-complicated processes.

- Pressure to deliver results quickly, without the luxury of multi-year transformations.

Without a clear and digestible framework, data governance efforts risked becoming stalled in bureaucracy rather than driving real business impact.

Solution

Rather than opting for a traditional big consulting firm approach, Kraft Heinz partnered with XenoDATA for a more pragmatic and actionable solution.

- Stripped away unnecessary complexity, ensuring discussions were clear, simple, and directly tied to business impact.

- Focused on fundamentals, ensuring the data leader was equipped to confidently navigate governance conversations.

- Enabled faster decision-making, eliminating the need for large-scale hierarchical approvals before making progress.

- Developed a self-sufficient strategy, ensuring internal teams could continue without long-term reliance on external consultants.

By making data management approachable, XenoDATA empowered Kraft Heinz to drive real change without unnecessary overhead.

Outcome

- A confident, empowered data leader, able to push back against large consulting firms and drive meaningful discussions.

- Faster implementation of data use cases, removing bureaucratic slowdowns.

- A clear, structured methodology, allowing for easier adoption across teams.

- A foundation for ongoing scalability, ensuring Kraft Heinz could sustain its data strategy independently.

M&A Insurance Solution Builds Real-Time Data Delivery Platform

M&A Insurance Solutions identified the market as a whole was struggling to manage a silo-ed, unclear, and inefficient process during this high-stakes M&A insurance brokering process.

The brokerage process for M&A insurance deals, typically a 10-day process, averages 250+ emails per transaction with 20+ steps between the clients, brokers, lawyers, and insurers. At any given time, one broker could be working on 10-15 deals and managing more than 3,500 emails.

Data was all over the place and too complicated to manage, leading to inefficient business processes and logistical nightmares between all parties. It’s quite common for clients and insurers to never speak with brokers directing all communications, yet the process must continue, quickly, before closing a deal. Because all steps of the RWI process were being managed through email, there was little transparency between all parties, frequent delays in information gathering, lost productivity, and struggles to provide real-time updates on current project statuses.

Challenge

M&A Insurance Solutions was spending considerable time collaborating with the various parties within the reps and warranties insurance placement process and was looking to build something disruptive for their industry.

Solution

XenoDATA conducted a deep dive analysis into existing market processes and data architecture to determine the best process to manage the flow of data throughout a deal.

The engagement involved developing a new strategy and plan to create a seamless and efficient process that could be collectively tracked by clients, brokers, lawyers, and insurers. The goal was to help everyone in the process through stronger transparency, data management, and work flows by making sense of various points of data required to complete the full underwriting process.

The result was not only a revision of their data strategy and process, but a product to help them manage multiple deals at one time. The strategy from this project went on to build this product: The RW Exchange. The RW Exchange (RWX) is a real-time delivery platform that brings all stakeholders of the RWI work stream together to facilitate a more efficient and transparent process.

By breaking down this seemingly complex work-stream into standard stages and adding the appropriate transparency, RWX allows the RWI process to be proactively managed by all parties (clients, lawyers, insurers and brokers), eliminating the full reliance upon intermediaries. RWX provides a single source of record to ensure these parties are working from the same playbook, thereby reducing potential delays and miscommunications.

View the full solution at rw-exchange.com.

Outcome

As a result of the work with XenoDATA, M&A Insurance Solutions was able to reduce the average deal time from 10 to 4 days. All parties from brokers to insurers and to clients and lawyers, now have full transparency and visibility into one single platform, architected by XenoDATA, for enhanced consistency and real-time status updates.