If you were asked, “Who should lead data and analytics activity across the enterprise?" you’d probably respond by saying the CIO should be the big data champion for the enterprise, right?
If so, you’d be in the minority. NewVantage Partners, which advises Fortune 1000 corporations on data and analytics strategies, recently asked that question to 86 top executives from 53 corporations. New Vantage Partners found that only 31 percent of respondents named the CIO as the person leading data and analytics activities across the enterprise, while 58 percent named other C-level executives leading the charge, such as the CMO, COO or CFO.
The survey also found that nearly half of the companies had hired or were planning to hire a chief data officer. I thought that advances in big data would only enhance the role of the CIO, creating greater urgency for business analytics. As the owner of the strategic use of technology within the enterprise, the CIO would seem to be the obvious choice to champion the strategic use of big data to create business value.
Randy Bean, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of NewVantage Partners, writes “CIOs will be in a much better position to be a champion in these efforts if they focus on business benefits, not technology. Articulate an enterprise vision for data and analytics. Demonstrate how leveraging data and analytics as an enterprise asset will change the business. CIOs can either champion this effort or face the prospect of being relegated to the sidelines as the mantle of leadership is assumed by their business colleagues.”
While it’s hard to see the CFO filling the role of big data champion for the enterprise, I can understand how a case can be made for the CMO or the COO. The CMO increasingly mines massive data sets to understand buying behaviors across multiple channels, and COOs are leveraging sophisticated analytics to drive down production costs.
But shouldn’t the CIO ultimately be the owner of big data infrastructure for the enterprise, establishing policies for managing, sharing and securing information and selecting the tools and infrastructure used by the organization to capture value from big data?
Do you think the CIO is already the big data champion for the enterprise, or does the CIO face the threat of being relegated to the sidelines by other C-level executives who will become the enterprise big data champions?
Have you read the Harvard Business Review article, "Why IT fumbles analytics?"