The importance of the Chief Data Officer (EVERY) in an organization

You could say that the barrage of data … 250 billion terabytes generated per day- make him Data director (EVERY) a fundamental role in organizations. The CDO is responsible for converting this data into relevant information for the business. And we all know that raw information has no value.

The role of data director combines accountability and responsibility for the protection and privacy of information, information governance, data quality and management, along with exploiting data assets to create business value.

Comparing it to the CIO, the data manager plays a more risk-related role, compliance, policy management and business functions. It is a role that drives information and analysis strategies with a commercial purpose.

The rise of the chief data officer

It is clear that the data does not manage itself. And as we saw, as data increases and also the relevance that they acquire in the day-to-day life of organizations data driven the role of the CDO acquires greater prominence. In fact, this role is a declaration of intent and reveals aspects such as:

• Recognition of the value of data.

• Acceptance that data in the business environment is separate from the systems that run it.

• The vision that, if they explode, data drives business and performance.

But it was not always like this. For too much time, information assets were considered secondary, a protected part of organizations, but that at the same time they lacked the current recognition that attributes them a differential of added value. Until the arrival of the Chief Data Officer, those in charge of defining and ensuring the application of the best data management practices in the organization were profiles such as:

• The data controller.

• Some charge attached to either of these two.

But, in practice, those functions of such a level of responsibility can only be performed by people with very specific technical knowledge and experience. And it wasn't always like this.

The consequences were dramatic when mismanagement led to the loss of customers, partners or even employees, and so, sometime in the late 1990s 1980, a new role was created, the CIO. This position raised a TI profile to a Council position for the first time., but, Who is responsible for the ownership of the data?

This problem fell into a gray area, beyond definition and got caught between the organization's IT and business areas.

Fortunately, the inconsistency of this model soon became apparent and led to the emergence, about 2002, of a new position that bridges the gap between IT and business: the chief data officer or chief data officer who assumes overall responsibility for managing the organization's information assets. Its mission consists of:

• Define a data strategy that legitimizes it, by creating a homogeneous set of definitions, governance standards and practices that enable informed business decisions.

• Leverage data as a competitive advantage, or as it is called, to achieve the much desired analytical advantage.

• Innovate to advance, determine which technology investment is the most convenient for the organization at all times and provide information on how such innovation can transform the business.

You may be interested in reading: CIO Guide to Business Intelligence

The move from a desk in some corner of the IT department to a position in the Executive Committee is a qualitative leap that not only implies the creation of a new position in the organization chart, el de Chief Data Officer, rather, serves as a springboard for organizations to be more consistent and understand the true cost and value of their data assets.

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