The CDO drives the strategy to integrate data into an enterprise’s overall monetization strategy
Data used to be viewed by businesses as exhaust—a necessary but relatively useless output of projects that became a nuisance to store and maintain. Advances in analytical, and more recently cognitive, technology have changed that mindset for good. Data is now an asset that can be applied to benefit all aspects of an enterprise.
But what technologies can be applied to best take advantage of data? To extract insights that can help make more informed business decisions? What job functions can data be applied to? How can data be applied in these functions? These are the questions posed to and pondered by the chief data officer (CDO) .
Unlike the chief information officer (CIO) , who is responsible for planning, deploying and managing an organization’s technical infrastructure, the CDO is charged with creating and driving plans that best integrate data into an enterprise’s overall monetization strategy. A few functions include:
Some responsibilities of the CDO are clear: creating the data strategy, being an agent of culture change, and setting standards for data integrity. This role is growing rapidly as data volumes continue to grow. Smartphone traffic will overtake PC traffic by 2021, with nearly 3 billion predicted social media users in 2020. This dynamic combination will enable more people to create more data than ever before, even by today’s standards.
There is power in data, but also great responsibility. Now is the time for enterprises to take charge on both of those fronts, and establishing data leadership headed by a CDO will help accelerate the journey.
