The boundary between chief data officers and chief digital officers has become blurred, according to a new report from analyst firm Gartner.
Based on a survey of 469 chief data officers, the report states that most data and analytics (D&A) leaders with digital initiatives are either leading, or are heavily involved in their organization’s digital transformation efforts.
“The results indicate that more organisations now understand the synergy between building a data-driven business and leading digital transformation,” said Debra Logan, Distinguished Research VP at Gartner.
“D&A strategy is a business strategy infused with D&A thinking; it has a primary role in digital business strategy, affecting everything the organisation does.”
And while data quality, D&A investment ROI and data sharing are seen as D&A leaders’ top objectives, their roles aren’t perceived as valuable until they start focusing on stakeholder KPIs, the report further stated.
“Data sharing is the way to optimize higher quality data and more robust data and analytics to solve business challenges and goals,” said Logan. “Data sharing is an important KPI and a business necessity. It accelerates digital business transformation.”
Gartner believe that, within two years, businesses promoting data sharing will perform significantly better in most fields, compared to those that don’t.
Chief Data Officers with business-facing KPIs and multiple business partners are 1.7 times more likely to consistently produce business value, as they’re able to better demonstrate ROI from D&A investments. They’re also 2.3 times more likely to effectively reduce time to market, and 3.5 times more likely to effectively monetize the data produced.
