Modern data strategy and practical governance to unlock financial services innovation at Credit Union SA
CLIENT
Credit Union SA
SERVICES
Data Strategy, Data Governance
YEAR
2025
Executive Summary
Bailey Abbott partnered with Credit Union SA, one of South Australia’s largest credit unions, to deliver a comprehensive Data Strategy and Governance Framework. This work strengthens CUSA’s data and analytics capability, supports innovation and growth, and reinforces regulatory compliance, with the aim of ultimately delivering greater value to members.
The engagement, conducted between May and June 2025, focused on creating a practical Data Strategy, an actionable Data Governance Framework, and an optimised Target Operating Model for the Data & Insights team.
The Bailey Abbott team assessed CUSA’s current data landscape and governance practices, provided a data management maturity assessment, then defined a future-state vision aligned with business goals and regulatory requirements. Key deliverables included a clear roadmap for data capability uplift, governance processes to ensure quality and compliance, and recommendations for team structure and sourcing.
CUSA now has a roadmap and an actionable framework to both lay the foundation to manage data effectively and chart the course for elevating the organisation’s data maturity and support future growth.
Bailey Abbott brought relevant industry experience on top of their data expertise to deliver a valuable and practical set of deliverables. They were flexible and responsive to our needs, and this enabled to project to run on time, budget and to agreed scope
Tim Prowse, Chief Operating Officer
Client Overview
Credit Union SA is one of South Australia’s largest member-owned financial institution with over $2b in assets and more than 54,000 members. They offer a full range of retail banking products and services.
The Credit Union SA purpose is “Helping South Australians Thrive” which applies to their members, their staff and the broader South Australian community.
Challenge
Credit Union SA recognised the opportunity to strengthen and modernise its data foundations and unlock greater value from information assets. While the organisation had strong intent and established data and analytics platform and practices, several areas offered potential for improvement to scale and innovate efficiently and effectively
Addressing these areas would enable CUSA to manage data as a strategic asset, improve operational efficiency, and support future growth. CUSA needed a clear, practical roadmap and governance framework to uplift maturity and optimise data capability in a sustainable way.
Key Challenges Included:
- Right-sizing the Data & Insights capability to align with organisational goals and resources
- Unifying data access and reporting across teams and systems to enable a more connected and efficient flow of information
- Establishing consistent metrics and shared definitions to build trust and clarity in decision-making
- Strengthening collaboration and expanding self-service analytics to empower teams to generate insights and innovate faster
Solution
Bailey Abbott delivered a comprehensive Data Strategy and Data Governance Framework. Through extensive stakeholder engagement with almost 30 participants, a tailored maturity assessment and application of best-practice strategy and governance models
Key Deliverables Included:
- Assessed the current state of data maturity and governance, surfacing key pain points and opportunities for improvement
- Developed a practical, business-aligned Data Strategy, including a clear vision and a prioritised roadmap for uplift
- Designed a fit-for-purpose Data Governance Framework to ensure data accountability, quality, security and compliance
- Defined target operating model with required functions, roles, responsibilities, and potential structures
- Provided actionable recommendations to build a shared data vocabulary, improve data quality and trust, introduce modern cloud-based analytics architectures and enable self-service capability for the organisation.
Outcome
The engagement delivered clarity, confidence, and capability – positioning CUSA to turn data into a true strategic asset.
Credit Union SA now has:
- A phased roadmap and actionable framework to manage data effectively
- A governance model that strengthens compliance and trust
- Clear recommendations for team structure and sourcing to support scalability
- A foundation for advanced analytics and innovation