Chief Data Officers are prioritizing the right things, but higher strategic focus is required: Gartner survey

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Chief data officers (CDOs) and their data and analytics (DA) teams are focusing on the right priorities, but they are not yet achieving the best balance of their various responsibilities to deliver superior organizational performance, revealed a recent Gartner survey.

“CDOs are generally focused upon the right things, but they do not have the right mix of activities,” said Debra Logan, distinguished research vice president at Gartner. The survey found that while the creation of a data-driven culture was ranked the No.1 critical factor to the DA team, there were conflicting rankings for technical and nontechnical activities, and strategic and tactical.

While the implementation of a DA strategy was ranked the No. 3 most-critical success factor by 28 percent of CDOs, another strategic activity – creating a data literacy program – was ranked only 12th. This was despite the fact that, in the same survey, ‘poor data literacy’ was rated the No. 1 roadblock to creating a data-driven culture and realizing its business benefits.

“The low ranking of strategic activities can be explained because the majority of organizations are at maturity level 3 or higher for EIM and business intelligence and analytics,” said Ms. Logan. “While the survey shows that information governance is important, especially master data management (MDM), CDOs should never lose sight of the business outcomes they are trying to achieve. Focusing exclusively on governance, even MDM, is not enough to succeed as a CDO.”

A majority of CDO respondents rated machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) as critical at 76 percent and 67 percent, respectively. Sixty-five percent of respondents were using or piloting ML, while 53 percent were using or piloting AI. Less than 20 percent of CDOs surveyed were using or piloting smart contracts (18 percent) or blockchain (16 percent).

“CDOs are embracing emerging technologies to enable and drive data program success,” said Ms. Logan. “The survey respondents reporting superior overall organizational performance compared to competitors or peers were more likely to use ML to drive revenue growth, attract and retain top talent and translate customer or business needs into high-value products or services.”

In terms of measuring the value of their organization’s information and data assets, only 8 percent of CDOs were measuring the financial value of DA. Forty-five percent of CDOs reported they produce some data quality metrics – such as accuracy, completeness, scale and usage – while 29 percent said they measure the impact of key information and data assets on business processes, such as KPIs.

“The measurement of information value clearly leans toward data quality. There is room for improvement as nearly a fifth of CDOs surveyed have no objective measurement of information assets,” said Ms. Logan. “Organizations need to realize that those who measure either the financial value of key information and data assets or measure the impact of these on business processes are nearly twice as likely to report superior performance in DA team effectiveness.”