Achieving Data Quality, Security, and Compliance with Power BI and Qlik Sense
In today’s data-driven world, implementing best practices in data governance is essential to ensure quality, security, and regulatory compliance. Organizations that adopt strong governance practices can extract greater value from their information, reduce risks, and enhance decision-making.
In this article, we explore some of the best practices for data governance and how tools such as Qlik Sense and Microsoft Power BI can support organizations in this process:
Define Clear Policies and Procedures
The first step is to establish clear rules for how data should be managed, shared, and protected. This includes guidelines on:
- Who has access to the data;
- How the data should be classified (sensitive, public, restricted);
- How to ensure data quality and consistency.
Microsoft Purview is an excellent tool for creating and implementing data governance policies, enabling organizations to track and classify data across the enterprise. It helps identify sensitive data and enforce appropriate access control rules. Additionally, Power BI can be used to monitor compliance with data governance policies through detailed reports and interactive dashboards that provide real-time visibility into data usage and access.
Qlik Sense offers greater flexibility to meet specific needs, making it recommended for organizations that require advanced customization.
2. Ensure Data Quality
Inconsistent or incorrect data can lead to misguided decisions and negatively impact the business. To maintain quality, it is essential to have processes for:
- Data cleansing and standardization;
- Input validation and regular audits;
- Continuous monitoring of data quality.
Qlik Sense allows automation of data integration and transformation, ensuring that information used for analysis is always consistent, up‑to‑date, and reliable.
Power BI enables the creation of data quality reports that highlight inconsistencies and issues in real time.
3. Implement Access Control and Security
Protecting data from unauthorized access is essential to avoid breaches and ensure compliance with regulations such as GDPR.
- Multi‑factor authentication (MFA);
- Role‑based access control (RBAC);
- Encryption of data.
Microsoft Enter ID enables efficient access management, ensuring that only authorized users can view or modify sensitive data. Power BI offers detailed permission control at the row level (Row-Level Security), allowing different users to view different information based on their permissions. Qlik Sense uses a Section Access approach, which is highly effective but may require more detailed configuration.
A company with a national sales team may have a performance report containing data from all regions. With Row‑Level Security, a salesperson only sees data from their region, while a regional manager can access all regions under their supervision.
4. Monitor and Audit Data Regularly
Data governance is not static. Continuous monitoring and auditing are essential to identify risks and improvement opportunities.
Qlik Sense provides interactive dashboards for monitoring governance‑related KPIs, ensuring transparency and traceability.
Power BI allows automated alerts and audit dashboards that track data access and modifications. When combined with Azure Monitor and Log Analytics, it offers a detailed view of data behavior over time.
If a dashboard shows an increase in duplicate customer records, the team can investigate and correct the issue before it affects marketing or customer service operations. Similarly, identifying missing values in critical fields can trigger immediate action to complete the information and maintain data integrity.
5. Empower Employees
Technology alone is not enough — employee engagement is essential. Educating teams on data governance best practices helps prevent errors and strengthens information security.
Power BI and Qlik Sense can be used to create educational dashboards showing compliance indicators and best practices adopted by the team, reinforcing a culture of governance.
Implementing an effective data governance strategy is not simple, but with the right tools and a structured approach, organizations can ensure reliable, secure, and compliant data.
