How IT and values ​​define the business

TThe digital C-suite – chief information officer, chief data officer, chief analytics officer – must find solutions for the business. Every investment, technology and method is defined by the value it delivers to the business and its bottom line. As the Harvard Business Review puts it: These roles are uncertain and doomed to failure because they were originally defensive, focused on control and risk rather than business value. It was not a role that would deliver the commercialization of data that the organization wanted.

This is reflected in data from the 2023 Data and Analytics Leadership Annual Survey – the CDO role has grown from 12% to 82.6% from 2012 to 2023, and yet only 35.5% of organizations believe the role is successful and only 40.5% say the role is understood within the organization. This sentiment was echoed at the 2023 Gartner Data and Analytics Summit, where less than half of data and analytics leaders (44%) believed their teams add value to the organization, with limited funds (13%), resource constraints (29%) and talent (39%) being the biggest barriers to success.

Technical leaders need to find ways to work with the data and technology to ensure they are more aligned with the business. Digital leadership needs to wear the business hat firmly on their head, so to speak, as they think about how to optimize data, analytics and systems to support every unit within the organization. HR, finance, supply chain, marketing – every unit needs a piece of the digital insights pie to ensure they too are optimizing their success.

Value is the bridge between IT and the business. Now CDOs, CIOs and CAOs must rethink their architectures and approaches to ensure this value is reflected in their overall digital transformation and investment strategies. But there are challenges involved.

The first is the impact of the cloud. The cloud is often perceived as an extension of the data center and is a risk factor. Digital leaders must understand the impact of data in private and public spaces while adeptly navigating the challenges of seamlessly linking and managing the data between different cloud implementations. This is further complicated by data security, change management, and data sovereignty. Teams struggle with massive amounts of data that are unlinked or duplicated, and their data management is still evolving. This is a complex landscape to navigate and manage, and it is made even more difficult by the limited availability of skilled talent. There are not enough people with the expertise and training to extract the value from the data.

Teams need to align the business roadmap with technology investments to ensure the value created matches expectations. This should be further balanced by focusing on improving processes to ensure the business can better leverage the data using analytics tools or AI capabilities. Additionally, it makes sense to focus on storage solutions that reduce the costs and complexities associated with massive amounts of data – instead, use tools that refine governance while increasing value and accessibility. These tools need to help teams reduce data duplication, improve movement, and optimize costs.

BCX has developed a suite of agile data and analytics tools and capabilities designed to clean, refine and manage data for the business. This deep expertise leads us to deliver Data-as-a-Service capabilities with teams that have exceptional skills and a deep understanding of the challenges facing the digital leadership. This support goes down to the smallest detail within each organization, enabling the business and teams to build a data culture on a strong foundation of data literacy and transparency.