Over the past few years, UDS has worked with university leaders across Northeastern to understand what they need from data and analytics. What we’ve heard has been consistent. Leaders want better data literacy for their staff, strong governance, improved data quality, and most of all, one place to go for the data they need to make decisions. The list of data needs is long, spans dozens of data sources and systems, and is frankly too much for any single centralized team to tackle alone. The answer isn’t to centralize everything; instead we need to build a smarter operating model.
Enter the franchise model for data & analytics! Think of it like a well-run franchise business, common in restaurant chains: franchisees buy in with a set of agreements and training, follow defined guidelines, and in return get access to tools, data, and capabilities that others don’t have. The key is that it balances central control over the basics with local autonomy for the details. A Northeastern data & analytics franchise is a trusted person, department, or team — led by a franchise owner — that is enabled to provide advanced data and analytics to their unit and the broader university. Franchise owners earn the Data & Analytics Fellow badge to certify their knowledge, and take on data governance responsibilities on behalf of their team and any data they share, including accountability for privacy, security, and compliance with university data policies.
To understand why this matters, consider how data sharing often works today: an analyst needs a dataset, finds out through informal channels that a colleague has it, and gets it shared person-to-person — without proper authorization, without an audit trail, without metadata, and with no assurance the data is current or accurate over time. The franchise model addresses all of this. Going forward, franchise owners will have privileged access to share data products that are governed, documented, and reliable. Data access becomes discoverable, auditable, and sustainable and will not be dependent on knowing the “right person”.
Northeastern is now live with the franchise model. We have established the Franchise Governing Board, a cross-university body that will oversee franchise activity, approve new franchises and franchise owners, refine the model over time, and revoke privileges if policy violations occur. A Technical Review Board will oversee the promotion of shared datasets and ensure their ongoing quality and reliability.
This is a significant step forward in how Northeastern manages and shares data, and we are excited to grow the franchise community across the university. If you are interested in learning more about starting a franchise for your department, please reach out to Rana Glasgal in UDS.