If you are someone who has been following the evolution of strategies, new technologies, architectural innovation, best practices, success stories and a host of vendor-driven publicity in the data and analytics space, it is very easy to be influenced and assume that this is the direction you want your company to grow into. You may even want to initiate some of these cool projects and proceed with the creation of a CDO role in your organisation.

There is nothing wrong in wanting to embrace the advancements in the data space to position the business for growth, but that decision cannot be based on someone else’s story. Before you or your company start down the path of setting up the CDO, you need to understand what your unique story is. A unique story that is crafted from a combination of problems and opportunities. That is, your case should reflect the collective scenarios of the need to solve existing problems, as well as a larger desire to embrace and grow from opportunities in the marketplace. What usually succeeds in crafting this story is a blend of factual and creative exercises to identify ‘Musts’, ‘Shoulds’ and ‘Nice-to-haves’.

Thinking through the following questions can help with articulating your story better when it comes to making a formal business case.

Is the volume, variety and velocity of data & analytics needs complex and critical enough to justify a CDO? Based on your specific needs, all that is required could be a few tweaks to the existing processes when you may already have a mature organisation supporting it. For example, some companies have a small data footprint when it comes to variety, a very deep requirement in volume and they manage a specific set of functions where complexity is low to medium. Do these companies need a CDO? Maybe. Maybe not. It totally depends on the specific situation and what the intended expectations are.

Beyond solving immediate problems, what are the long-term expectations on data and analytics? Independent of your immediate drivers, there are extended benefits that can be realised through the CDO. If the immediate needs are driven by regulatory/compliance mandates, what are the opportunities that exist for extending the purpose of this function beyond these needs to ensure achieving overall business growth?  In fact, regulatory mandates and regulators are CDO’s best friends, as the primary expectations and principles from these agencies are fully aligned with how data and analytics functions should be rightfully managed – with level of controls, ease of change, comprehensiveness of coverage and adequate management oversight. Make this as a standard yardstick for managing data across the company and you will automatically achieve success with managing the entire business through actionable insights based on reliable data and analytics, not to mention the heightened level of efficiencies created in the process.

Can you or your company support a function that operates across organisational boundaries? Where the function lines up is irrelevant as the application of the processes, procedures, and tool sets are company-wide. Typically, CDOs are aligned within Risk, Finance or Technology, and in some cases, under Marketing or Strategic initiatives area. There is a cultural component involved here that needs to be addressed in almost all CDO initiatives. For a CDO function to be effective, the reach need to be across organisational boundaries. When it is truly addressed this way, it is easy to extend the applicability to realise extended benefits that cannot be perceived initially.

How are you going to support the organisation and its leader to succeed? Who will this function report into? The easiest and quickest way to ensure that the CDO initiative fails is to align it with a C-level leader who does not understand the function (even at a high level), not value it, cannot see the strategic benefits to the organisation or have conflicting interests that the person would rather see it fail than succeed. In the previous point, I discussed that it does not matter where the function aligns, but it is critical that it is aligned within an area where the greatest support can be provided. Also critical is ensuring that adequate support is provided on items related to funding, resources, independent authority, strategic evolution and reporting.

The easiest and quickest way to ensure that the CDO initiative fails is to align it with a C-level leader who does not understand the function (even at a high level), not value it, cannot see the strategic benefits to the organisation...

Once the question “Does your company really need a CDO?” has been answered based on the above-mentioned points, the next step is to sell the case for the CDO, and for this, the full range of benefits need to be established. This will be covered in greater detail in future articles. However, some of the most obvious are listed below.

• Establishing comprehensive data governance through Business glossary, data lineage, business/technical metadata, and data certification.

• Handling Data privacy, data classification, access control and entire range of information lifecycle management.

• Robust and reliable data quality through a structured process of data quality rules definition, assessment, monitoring and reporting.

• Data Issue identification, inventory, research and remediation activities that may start with data but if properly implemented, can be extended to cover critical aspects of managing the business – across policies, procedures, alerts, broken/missing controls, process gaps & improvements and efficiency creation.

• Manage data as an asset – address platforms, sourcing, processing and consumption with the company and across vendor relationships as applicable, as well as increased coverage from inclusion of new sources – internal, external and social-media.

• Promotion of Analytics internally, enhancing customer engagement and experience, behavior predictive modeling for risk mitigation & upsell opportunities and operationalising analytics through front-line systems (digital, including cross-channel evolution, mobile, robotic automation for processes, and enhanced data exchange possibilities across entities).

• R&D, new product development, market expansion, M&A or new industry diversification.

I have included a lot of benefits and an initial response could be to even challenge these benefits since it covers a wide footprint. Establishing a CDO is an opportunity to really embrace management of data as an asset. It is as important as people asset or financial asset for company’s survival and growth. Unfortunately, not many companies and leaders have embraced this notion yet. The first three or four benefits are the obvious benefits. But if data is well-managed as a business-critical function, there should be no doubt why the extended benefits cannot be realised.

Get creative and reap the boundless benefits. Isn’t it time you start your Chief Data Office?

Disclaimer: All thoughts, ideas and opinions expressed in my articles are my own and do not reflect the views of my current / past employers or clients. No references or details will be provided in these articles that would expose any trade secrets or inner operations of any company whatsoever.

To read all articles in this series, click here.

Prakash Bhaskaran is a Business-Technology leader with a passion for solving complex business problems and challenges, using a combination of business process, technology, data, analytics and organisational transformation. Through his varied experience across manufacturing / supply chain, higher education, software development, banking and financial sectors, he helps companies excel at managing data as an asset.