Modernizing talent one of the keys to analytics success
Establishing and empowering a chief data officer is one of the crucial elements of analytics success. So is modernizing talent by adding data experts and data training.
That was the message from Fern Halper, vice president and senior director for advanced analytics at tech training vendor TDWI, and Joe DosSantos, chief data and analytics officer at analytics vendor Qlik, who spoke on Oct. 26 during a webinar hosted by Qlik.
They noted that many businesses have reached an inflection point.
To compete with peers and to have the agility needed to react quickly amid tumultuous economic times created by world events like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, enterprises understand that they need to develop analytics programs and deploy analytics platforms to inform their decision-making.
“The market is more dynamic than ever,” Halper said. “We’re dealing with supply chain issues, a pandemic, [and] unrest in the world. And companies are realizing — now more than ever — that they need data and analytics to compete.”
Organizations have their own data but want to enrich it with external data to get a more complete view. They have structured data, unstructured data and semi-structured data. And they’re dealing with higher volumes of data than ever before.
Meanwhile, they want to do more than simply look at data in a spreadsheet or chart. They want to apply machine learning to automate workflows and create predictive models.
As a result of that complexity, many organizations are struggling to effectively use their data and reach the level of success with analytics they imagined when first developing a data and analytics strategy.
According to TDWI research conducted earlier this year, three quarters of organizations have been unable to reach a desired level of analytics maturity and success.
“They’re struggling to compete,” Halper said. “They’re struggling to capture and analyze this new data.”
But the organizations having success with their data and analytics strategy have some common characteristics, including modernizing talent. That involves hiring a chief data officer (CDO) — or chief data and analytics officer (CDAO) — to develop and lead their organization’s data strategy, hiring of data engineers, and development of a data literacy program to educate employees.
The necessity of the CDO It’s been 20 years since Capital One hired the first known CDO. Widespread adoption of the role, however, took time. As recently as 10 years ago, only 12% of blue-chip organizations — large enterprises such as American Express, McDonald’s and Walmart — had CDOs. By 2021, however, that number grew to 76%, according to a by NewVantage Partners. And that’s a strong first step toward analytics success. But it takes more than just hiring a CDO to achieve analytics success. That CDO has to be empowered, according to Halper. They have to be part of their organization’s leadership team rather than just the leader of a team — a move that shows the CDO is a true leader within the company rather than just a figurehead. In that leadership role, CDOs should be responsible for developing and implementing a strategy around data that is designed to lead to value. That strategy includes establishing policies and standards around data — which is a data governance framework — and processes for collecting, preparing, organizing and using data. “It’s not enough just to have a CDO,” Halper said. “That’s very important. But we saw the companies that had a CDO as part of the C-suite where the CDO could actually get visibility. [They] had more top-line success.” Qlik’s Josh Good (top) and Joe DosSantos (bottom right) speak with TDWI’s Fern Halper about how organizations can achieve their desired success with analytics. Similarly, DosSantos said the role of CDO must be defined — and valued — and that its definition has evolved. When organizations first started hiring CDOs, the data executives’ role was essentially to protect their organization.
