The number of positions for chief data officer (CDO) has more than quadrupled over the last four years. As CDOs become more common, its important to understand their role and benefits they can bring to a business.
One of the first CDOs was Cathryne Clay Doss at Capital One. Her position was created to oversee collaboration between IT, market analysis, and supply chain management. Usama Fayyad, Yahoo!’s first CDO, managed the companies big data strategy to better target users and mine data. Since, the role of CDOs has evolved to encompass all a data initiatives within a company, from user demographics and social media, to financial records and operations.
The amount of data being used by companies is staggering, and a CDO not only keep it securely stored, but use that data to create value for their company. Most business find that big data initiatives, like those managed by a CDO, have many benefits. From disrupting industries with new innovation to launching new products and services, and increasing efficiency decreasing operating costs – data is an essential tool for business.
The CDO’s role is to maximize value with innovative analytics, create and implement data strategy, and increase operating efficiency. In order to do this, it is essential to start with high quality data. Data must be collected in a timely fashion to give businesses time to analyze and act before the market changes, consistent and uniform for easy comparison, complete and accurate to ensure analysis is meaningful.
Companies lose $9.7 million each year to poor quality data and analysis. But over 80% of business find big data initiatives beneficial to their company. The difference comes down to effect data strategy, analytics, and governance – all areas under the purview of the CDO.
Find out more about the role of CDO and how it could impact your business from this infographic.
Infographic source: Semarchy