How LichtBlick established scalable data governance with Secoda

‍Introduction

LichtBlick SE is one of the largest renewable energy organizations providing sustainable electricity and gas solutions to residential and commercial customers across the EU. With a modern data stack that includes Snowflake for warehousing, dbt for transformations, and Power BI for reporting, LichtBlick has built a strong foundation for data-driven decision making across the business.

As part of a heavily regulated industry, and under Mitsubishi’s ownership, LichtBlick also adheres to strict compliance standards under JSOX. Their data spans everything from customer account info and energy usage to billing and operational metrics. With such breadth and complexity, data governance naturally became a growing area of focus as the organization matured.

As LichtBlick scaled, it shifted from one centralized data team to embedding most of their data professionals directly into business units. This strategic change gave teams more autonomy and improved decision speed. But with this decentralization came the need for clearer structures: who owns which data, how access is managed, and how definitions are shared across the business. 

By adopting Secoda, LichtBlick was able to strengthen and scale governance practices to match the pace of the business.

The results

• Centralize definitions of business-critical terms and metrics in a shared glossary, improving alignment across teams and reducing confusion
• Increase data ownership assignment to 100% using Secoda Automations tied to Snowflake domain rules, making accountability clear from the start
• Improved efficiency of access request approvals by enabling data owners to approve permissions directly in Secoda
• Establish a robust semi-automated PII management process by combining automated detection with human validation and audit trails, all in one place

The goal

LichtBlick was looking for a governance solution that could support a decentralized model without compromising control or compliance. Their goals were to:

• Give business units more ownership over their data while maintaining clear guardrails
• Reduce friction in access requests and approvals
• Meet JSOX compliance requirements through structured tracking and audit history
• Improve data literacy by centralizing documentation and business definitions

"We decided to decentralize our data operations... and we did not have any data governance at all. In a decentralized setting, data governance is key. You have to have policies, but also the tools and means to set them up and enforce them so that people can handle data securely and efficiently. That’s what Secoda is for us—the one place for everyone at LichtBlick to search for and find data, assign ownership, and manage access efficiently."

— Kryztof Urban, Head of Data, LichtBlick

The solution

LichtBlick used Secoda to enhance the structure around their decentralized data model. The focus was on automating ownership, simplifying access, improving documentation, and meeting compliance requirements without slowing down day-to-day work.

Step 1: Automating ownership assignments and verification

The central data team focuses on governance, literacy, and platform ownership, while embedded data teams handle domain-specific analytics and modeling. This model benefits from clear ownership boundaries and automation to keep processes consistent across the business.

The team started by defining data domains in Snowflake that reflected their business structure. These domains became the basis for ownership assignments in Secoda. Two roles were created: one for technical data owners and another for business data owners. Using Secoda’s Automations, new tables were assigned owners based on domain rules.

To scale ownership further, LichtBlick implemented group ownership. This allowed responsibility to be shared across roles or individuals. They used Secoda’s bulk assignment capabilities to automatically distribute ownership as new resources were added. This removed the need for manual follow-up and ensured governance stayed consistent across teams.

They also introduced lightweight verification logic. If a resource has both an owner and a description, Secoda automatically marks it as Verified. This small but meaningful signal helps users trust the information they find and reinforces good governance habits.

"If there's an owner and if there's a description in Secoda, then we're verifying the document, which then signals to all the other users that, hey, I can trust this piece of information."

— Kryztof Urban, Head of Data at LichtBlick

Step 2: Moving access requests and management into Secoda

Previously, access requests were managed with different tools. Role-based access requests  went through MyAccess, while Jira was used for access to specific tables. Requests were typically approved by business managers with limited knowledge of the data. Conversations about access would take place in Teams channels or Jira tickets, which made it hard to track and slowed things down. With Secoda, requests are made, approved, and tracked all in one place. Data owners manage approvals directly, with features like expiration dates and fine-grained controls. Every action is logged, giving LichtBlick the ability to meet audit requirements without relying on a separate ticketing system.

Step 3: Centralizing business definitions

Before Secoda, definitions for key metrics were either undocumented or scattered across tools. LichtBlick brought everything into Secoda’s data catalog. They use the Related Resources metadata tag to connect each term directly to the Snowflake tables and Power BI reports it references. Terms that are shared across domains can be assigned to multiple Teams, making it easy for the team members to collaborate and co-own the definition. This makes it easier for teams across the business to understand definitions in context and reduces the risk of misinterpretation. 

Step 4: Strengthening PII governance

LichtBlick used Snowflake’s automated PII detection to generate initial classifications, but they recognized the need for human validation. To strengthen the process, they added tagging rules in Secoda to flag potential PII fields based on patterns like "first name" or "email." Once flagged, fields are automatically surfaced to the right data owners for quick review. They also created a feedback loop to refine tagging rules based on real examples, improving accuracy over time. All classifications and changes are logged in Secoda to support JSOX compliance.

Step 5: Creating visibility through Data Quality Scores

As part of building a stronger data culture, LichtBlick has started highlighting Data Quality Score (DQS) metrics in their all-hands meetings. This visibility has created a positive feedback loop across teams. Seeing their DQS performance motivates healthy competition and encourages continuous improvement. 

Over time, data quality has become a shared responsibility across the business. It is no longer just a compliance checkbox, but a measure of excellence that teams strive to improve together.

Looking ahead

LichtBlick’s focus moving forward is to embed governance into everyday workflows. Their priorities include:

• Making compliance a natural part of day-to-day operations
• Strengthening role-based access controls to balance security and speed
• Expanding automation to reduce manual work, with human oversight for key decisionsq

They’re also continuing to invest in visibility across their environment. Recent improvements to Secoda’s audit log and version history make it easier to track changes, understand the impact of Automations, and ensure governance actions are fully auditable. In addition, the new Overview pages for each feature provide a high-level lens into activity and adoption, giving the team a clearer picture of how different parts of the platform are being used. One future opportunity Kryztof noted is leveraging these insights to analyze user behavior patterns, refine Automations, and improve the platform’s usability based on real usage data.

With Secoda in place, LichtBlick is turning governance into a scalable system that supports how their teams already work. What started as a way to meet regulatory needs is now helping them build a stronger, more efficient data foundation for the future.

Want to learn how Secoda can help your team achieve similar results? Book a demo today.