Data governance & AI readiness
Data governance consulting
Data you can run the business on and build AI on: ownership, quality, lineage and access made real, at fixed published fees. AI fails when data is weak. We fix the foundations first.
What each engagement costs
Definition
What is data governance?
Data governance is the system of ownership, quality standards, lineage and access controls that makes an organisation’s data trustworthy enough to run the business on and safe enough to build AI on. Good data governance means every critical data set has a named owner, a known quality level, a traceable history and controlled access, with evidence a board, auditor or regulator can check.
Intelance delivers data governance for UK mid-market and PE backed organisations: a ten day evidence based baseline, foundations built around how you work, and the function run month by month where you want it run for you, aligned to UK GDPR, ISO 27001 and DAMA DMBOK.
If AI is the reason you are here, start with our guide Why data governance is the foundation of safe AI. The AI governance practice covers the model side of the same problem.
Baseline the estate
Critical data sets profiled from real evidence rather than workshop opinions.
Fix ownership and quality
Named owners, agreed standards and the forums that keep them honest.
Run it month by month
Stewardship, monitoring and reporting that survive contact with business as usual.
Evidence ready to show
Evidence for boards, auditors, regulators and the AI programmes that depend on it.
What gets governed
The five controls of data governance
Every engagement works the same five controls. Each one answers a question your board, auditor or AI programme will eventually ask. The damage comes from the ones nobody owns.
Ownership
Who is accountable for this data?
Without it, quality problems have no owner and every fix is somebody else's job.
Quality
Can the business trust the numbers?
Without it, reports disagree, migrations stall and AI learns from errors.
Lineage
Where did this data come from?
Without it, nobody can explain a figure to an auditor or trace an error to its source.
Access
Who can see and change it?
Without it, sensitive data leaks sideways and UK GDPR exposure grows quietly.
Retention
How long should it live?
Without it, storage and risk grow forever and deletion duties are missed.
The QuickScan scores your critical data sets against all five controls in ten working days, from profiled evidence rather than interviews alone.
Our services
Data governance services
Every service has a published fee and a defined output. Start with the one that matches your situation. They stand alone or run in sequence.
Data Governance QuickScan
Your critical data sets profiled from real evidence: ownership, quality, lineage and access mapped in ten working days, with a board ready summary.Best whenThe board has asked whether the data is fit for the plans built on it, and nobody can answer with evidence. FeeFrom £14,500 + VAT · 10 days 02Data Governance Foundations
Ownership, standards, forums and controls built around how your organisation works, designed to run without us.Best whenEveryone agrees governance matters and nobody has made it anyone's job. FeeFrom £45,000 + VAT 03Virtual CDO
A named senior data leader, part time: strategy, standards, priorities and board reporting without the permanent hire.Best whenYou need data leadership now and the full time hire is a year away. FeeFrom £7,500 a month 04Data Governance Office as a Service
The governance function run for you month by month: stewardship, quality monitoring, issue resolution and reporting.Best whenGovernance exists on paper and stalls in practice because nobody runs it. FeeFrom £9,500 a month 05Project DG
A dedicated data governance workstream inside your ERP, cloud or AI programme, so migration and models stand on clean, owned data.Best whenA major programme is underway and data is the workstream nobody staffed. FeeFrom £22,000 a month 06EA for Data & AI Platforms
Target architecture for the platforms your data runs on, from our enterprise architecture practice.Best whenPlatform investment is planned and the architecture underneath is unproven. FeeFixed fee, scopedNot sure where to start?
Which data governance route fits?
Six situations we are usually called into. If one of them sounds like yours, that is the place to start. If none of them fit, book a call and we will point you at the right first step.
How we work
How we deliver data governance
The same model that runs across every Intelance practice: we assess, we build, and we operate, with independent assurance across all three.
Assess
Profile the critical data sets from real evidence and put the honest picture in front of the board.
Services in this stageBuild
Ownership, standards and controls built to hold, inside business as usual or inside a live programme.
Services in this stageOperate
Named senior people run stewardship, quality and reporting month by month.
Services in this stageIndependent assurance runs across all three
When a board, investor or regulator needs proof that the data foundations are real, we verify independently. If we built your governance, a different and independent team assures it.
Every engagement starts with a thirty minute call and a fixed fee in writing, and ends with evidence you own.
Why Intelance
What you can hold us to
Evidence based assessments
Baselines come from profiled data rather than opinions gathered in meetings. If the quality is poor, the numbers say so before anyone debates it.
Standards aligned
Work maps to UK GDPR, ISO 27001 and DAMA DMBOK, so it holds up in audits and due diligence rather than living in its own vocabulary.
Fixed fees with no drift
Every service on this page has a published fee, confirmed in writing before work starts. Any overrun is our cost and your fee is fixed.
No juniors on your engagement
Engagements are led by a senior partner and delivered by senior data consultants, with established associates across architecture and AI governance where depth is needed.
Built to run without us
Foundations are designed for your people to operate. Where you want it run for you, that is a choice rather than a dependency.
The team on your engagement
Every engagement is led by a senior partner. Nothing is offshored and nothing is handed to a junior bench.
Data and AI governance guides
All insights
Data GovernanceData governance vs data management: what leaders need
The practical difference between data governance and data management, a test you can apply in a meeting, how to match your symptom to the discipline that fixes it, and which to fund first.
26 July 2026 · 14 min read Read the guide
AI GovernanceAI governance consulting: how to choose a partner in the UK
25 July 2026 · 17 min read
AI GovernanceISO 42001 explained: what an AI management system is and whether you need one
25 July 2026 · 8 min read
Data GovernanceHow to implement data governance: a step-by-step framework for the UK mid market
25 July 2026 · 9 min read
Data GovernanceWhich firms specialise in data governance in the UK and how to choose one
25 July 2026 · 10 min readReady to talk?
Speak to a senior data adviser
Thirty minutes on your data, your programme or your AI plans. If a board question or a struggling migration is driving this, say so: the QuickScan reports in ten working days.
FAQs
Data governance questions answered
What does data governance consulting cost in the UK?
With Intelance: the Data Governance QuickScan runs from £14,500 + VAT as a ten day fixed fee. Foundations programmes start from £45,000 + VAT. A Virtual CDO runs from £7,500 a month, the governance office run for you from £9,500 a month, and a programme data workstream from £22,000 a month. Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing.
What is in the Data Governance QuickScan?
Ten working days, senior led: your critical data sets profiled from real evidence, ownership, quality, lineage and access scored against the five controls, UK GDPR exposure flagged, and a board ready summary of what to fix first. From £14,500 + VAT.
What is the difference between data governance and data management?
Data management is the doing: storing, integrating, securing and serving data. Data governance is the deciding: who owns each data set, what quality is acceptable, who may access it and how long it lives. Management without governance produces fast pipelines full of data nobody trusts.
Is our data ready for AI?
That is an evidence question rather than an opinion question. AI amplifies whatever it is fed: weak ownership, poor quality and untraceable lineage become model behaviour. The QuickScan answers it data set by data set in ten days, which is why AI programmes are the most common trigger for it.
Do we need a Chief Data Officer?
You need the decisions a CDO makes. Whether that is a permanent hire depends on scale. A Virtual CDO provides named senior leadership from £7,500 a month while the case for a permanent role proves itself, and hands over cleanly if you make the hire.
How does data governance relate to UK GDPR and ISO 27001?
UK GDPR demands you know what personal data you hold, why, and for how long. ISO 27001 demands controlled access and classified information. Both depend on ownership, lineage and access, which is exactly what data governance provides. We align the work to both from day one.
Can governance run inside a live ERP or AI programme?
Yes, and it usually should: migrations and models inherit every data problem nobody fixed. Project DG embeds the data governance workstream inside the programme from £22,000 a month, so cleansing, ownership and standards happen ahead of go live rather than after it.
The team on your engagement on an Intelance data governance engagement?
Engagements are led by a senior partner and delivered by senior data consultants, with established associates across architecture and AI governance where specialist depth is needed. Nothing is offshored and nothing is handed to a junior bench.