Study Defines the CDO Reason, Role, and Responsibilities for 2017

Among organizations that have created an office around the chief data officer, three primary business objectives stand out as driving forces. They are to: Improve efficiency (cited by 93 percent of CDOs surveyed by Gartner Group as a primary or secondary objective); increase competitive advantage (cited by 89 percent); and create greater customer intimacy (cited by 88 percent).

Other top driving forces cited were: cost optimization (cited by 83 percent); improving risk management (cited by 82 percent); product innovation (cited by 81 percent); and faster time to market (cited by 74 percent).

These numbers are courtesy of the research firm’s recent Second Gartner CDO Survey – The State of the Office of the CDO — which was compiled by Gartner’s Mario Faria, managing vice president of Gartner Research, and David Newman, leadership partner, Gartner for Enterprise Leaders. The study provides a look at how the office of the CDO will be used in 2017.

Gartner surveyed 180 professionals in the role of chief data officer or chief analytics officer to learn more about their responsibilities, background, and tenure in the role. These professionals most heavily represented the financial services and banking, IT and business services, insurance, healthcare and government sectors, though others were also represented.