Data governance · Delivered by senior people, evidence based
Data Governance QuickScan
Ten working days to answer what no data strategy deck can: who owns your critical data, whether it can be trusted, where it came from, who can touch it and whether it is ready for AI. The data sets that matter are profiled rather than discussed, every gap is costed, and the plan is walked through with your board on day ten. From £14,500 + VAT, fixed in writing before day one.
The QuickScan at a glance
Definition
What is a data governance assessment?
A data governance assessment measures how well an organisation controls its data: who owns each critical data set, what its quality genuinely is, where it flows from and to, who can access it, and whether it meets the law and the demands AI now places on it. Done properly, it profiles the data itself rather than interviewing people about it, because opinion is exactly where data quality problems hide.
The Intelance Data Governance QuickScan delivers this in ten working days for a fixed fee from £14,500 + VAT, senior delivered throughout and walked through with your board on day ten. UK data governance day rates typically run £1,100 to £2,400 per day, which is why open ended reviews grow. This one is priced in writing before it starts.
The findings feed everything that follows: the fix, the operating rhythm and every AI ambition that inherits the data. Our guide to why data governance is the foundation of safe AI makes the case, and the wider practice is described under data governance consulting.
Profiled data before opinions
The critical data sets are profiled directly. Nobody scores their own homework.
Ownership checks
Named owners checked against reality rather than org charts.
Every gap costed
Findings priced and sequenced, ready for a budget holder.
Board ready on day ten
The walkthrough lands with the people who fund the fix.
The questions
Six questions your data has to answer
Every data problem a board meets traces back to one of these. The QuickScan answers all six from profiled evidence, and each card shows what you know at the end.
Who owns it?
Every critical data set has a technical custodian and, usually, no actual owner. Decisions stall exactly there.
You learnWhich data has a real owner, which has a folder, and which has neither.Can it be trusted?
Completeness, accuracy, duplication and drift, measured by profiling the data rather than polling its users.
You learnA quality score per critical data set, built from evidence.Where did it come from?
Lineage: the systems it passed through, the transformations applied, and the point where the numbers stopped matching.
You learnThe lineage of the data your board reads, traced end to end.Who can touch it?
Access rights accumulate for years: leavers, contractors and whole departments with write access nobody remembers granting.
You learnThe access reality per data set, against what the policy claims.What does the law expect?
UK GDPR retention, purpose and accuracy duties, mapped against what the estate does with personal data.
You learnWhere practice and obligation diverge, ranked by exposure.Is it ready for AI?
Every AI ambition inherits the data underneath it. Models trained on unowned, unmeasured data industrialise the errors.
You learnWhich data sets are AI ready, which are fixable, and which would poison a model.How it works
Day by day through the QuickScan
The QuickScan runs to a published rhythm, so you know what is happening on every one of the ten days.
Evidence and access
A precise request list and read access agreed, so the assessment profiles the estate rather than the org chart.
Discovery and profiling
The critical data sets profiled directly: quality measured, lineage traced, access mapped.
Testing and scoring
Ownership, quality, lineage, access and the legal position scored per data set, from evidence.
Validation
Findings validated with the people involved, so the report lands as recognition rather than accusation.
Board walkthrough
The scores, the gaps and the costed plan presented to the people who will fund the fix.
Larger and multi-entity estates take longer, and we say which on the first call. The findings feed Data Governance Foundations directly, so nothing is profiled twice.
Published fees
What usually comes out of the findings
Every route out of the findings is priced before you choose it. Some organisations run the ninety day sequence themselves, and that is a legitimate outcome.
Data Governance Foundations
The fix the QuickScan prices: named owners who accepted the job, standards with worked examples, a forum with decision rights and a measured quality baseline.Best whenThe gaps are known and the organisation wants them closed properly. FeeFrom £45,000 + VAT3 to 9 months 02
Virtual CDO
Senior data leadership run monthly: the owner your data has been missing, without the permanent hire.Best whenNobody senior owns data, and the board keeps noticing. FeeFrom £7,500 + VAT / month 03Project DG
A senior data lead inside your ERP or AI programme: data profiled early, mapped deliberately and rehearsed before cutover.Best whenA programme is about to inherit the data problem. FeeFrom £22,000 + VAT / month 04AI Governance QuickScan
The AI twin: every AI use case found and tiered in two weeks. Run together, the two scans answer the question AI boards ask.Best whenThe AI plans are moving faster than the data work. FeeFrom £15,000 + VAT2 weeks
The alternatives
The alternatives in plain terms
Three ways organisations respond when the data stops being trusted. The difference is whether anyone looks at the data.
A consultancy operating model for data, written before anyone profiled a table
Principles, roles and a roadmap unmoored from the estate
Open ended, at day rates of £1,100 to £2,400
After the facts exist, as the wrapper around them
A platform licence that scores what its connectors reach, bought before ownership exists
Symptoms, in whichever systems the connectors reach
A licence, then the consultants to make sense of it
Estates where ownership and standards already work
Ten days of profiled evidence: ownership, quality, lineage, access, law and AI readiness, from £14,500 + VAT
The actual state of the data that matters, and who has to own it
Fixed in writing before day one
Anyone whose numbers are questioned, or whose AI plans assume the data is fine
Scope
What this covers and what it leaves out
You get
The critical data sets profiled directly, with quality measured rather than reported.
Ownership, quality, lineage, access and legal position scored per data set, from evidence.
AI readiness judged honestly: what is ready, what is fixable, what would poison a model.
Every gap costed and sequenced, ready for a budget holder the same week.
A board walkthrough on day ten, with the ninety day sequence mapped.
This is not
A software sale. We sell no platform and take no commission, so any tooling view comes with nothing behind it.
A survey. The data is profiled directly, because opinion is where quality problems hide.
A blame exercise. Findings are validated with the people involved before the board sees anything.
The fix itself. The QuickScan prices the fix precisely: Foundations, the Virtual CDO or your own team against the plan.
Where to start
How engagements usually begin
Four situations we are usually called into. If none of them fit, speak to us and we will point you at the right first step.
Why Intelance
What you can hold us to
Evidence over opinion
The critical data sets are profiled directly, which is why the QuickScan finds what surveys and workshops structurally cannot.
Delivered by senior people
The person in the work is the person who signs the report and faces your board on day ten. Nothing is handed to a junior bench.
No products waiting at the end
No platform, no licence, no commission. The plan is written so anyone can run it, including you.
Fixed against a day-rate market
From £14,500 + VAT in writing, against UK day rates of £1,100 to £2,400 that make open ended reviews expensive by design.
Built for what comes next
The findings feed Foundations, the Virtual CDO and every AI ambition directly, so nothing is profiled twice.
The team on your engagement
Every QuickScan is led by a senior data governance lead, end to end. Nothing is offshored and nothing is templated.
Data governance guides
All insights
Data GovernanceWhy data governance is the foundation of safe AI
Every property you want from an AI system is inherited from the data beneath it. Why the governing has to start with the data, the five foundations AI needs, and a ten minute readiness test to run before any AI project is approved.
9 July 2026 · 6 min read Read the guide
AI GovernanceEnterprise AI governance in 2026: a practical blueprint for CIOs and boards
9 July 2026 · 8 min read
AI GovernanceWhat is AI governance? The seven questions boards should ask
9 July 2026 · 9 min read
AI GovernanceEU AI Act ISO 42001: how they fit together in your architecture
7 December 2025 · 10 min readReady to talk?
Tell us which numbers are being questioned
Thirty minutes with the person who would run your QuickScan: which reports get challenged, what AI is planned and who currently owns the data underneath both. If the honest answer is nobody, that is the first finding.
FAQs
Questions about the Data Governance QuickScan
What is a data governance assessment?
A structured, evidence based measurement of how well an organisation controls its data: ownership, quality, lineage, access, legal position and AI readiness, scored per critical data set. Done properly it profiles the data directly rather than surveying the people around it, and it ends in a costed plan and a board walkthrough.
How much does a data governance assessment cost?
The Data Governance QuickScan runs from £14,500 + VAT with Intelance, fixed and agreed in writing before day one. For context, UK data governance day rates typically run £1,100 to £2,400 per day, which is why open ended reviews grow into programmes. This one cannot.
How long does it take?
Ten working days, to a published day by day rhythm: evidence and access, profiling, scoring, validation and the board walkthrough on day ten. Larger and multi-entity estates take longer, and we say which on the first call.
Is this the same as a data governance audit?
The terms overlap. An audit usually checks compliance against a defined framework. The QuickScan measures the working reality, ownership, quality, lineage and access, from profiled evidence, and prices the fix. If a formal audit against a specific framework is what a regulator or customer needs, we say so and scope that instead.
Does it include a data quality assessment?
Yes, at its core. The critical data sets are profiled directly: completeness, accuracy, duplication, consistency and drift, measured rather than estimated, producing a quality score per data set that becomes the baseline the fix is measured against.
What does profiling mean?
Reading the data itself, with agreed access: running structured analysis over the tables and feeds that matter to measure what is missing, duplicated, inconsistent or stale. It is the difference between asking whether the customer file is clean and knowing the duplication rate to a number.
Do you sell or recommend data tools?
We sell no platform and take no commission from any vendor. Where tooling would genuinely help, the report says so with reasons, and the recommendation carries nothing behind it. Most estates need owners and standards before they need another licence.
We already have a data catalogue. Does that change anything?
It helps and it rarely answers the six questions. Catalogues document what exists. They do not test ownership against reality, measure quality from profiling or trace where practice diverges from policy. The QuickScan uses your catalogue as an input and tests it against the estate.
What happens after the QuickScan?
Whatever the findings justify. Some organisations run the ninety day sequence themselves. Others take Data Governance Foundations from £45,000 + VAT, the Virtual CDO from £7,500 + VAT per month, or Project DG inside a programme. Each is priced before you choose it.