Modern companies increasingly use data not only to make the right decisions. Global informatization leads to the fact that the efficiency of any business depends on working with data.
The growth of information volumes is facilitating the emergence of new professions and the growth of prestige of existing ones. Information analysis and processing specialists have made a real breakthrough in the technology job market. The need for a chief data officer is constantly growing: among Fortune-1000 companies in 2012, only 12% had such a position, and in 2018, 68% of organizations had one. Moreover, according to the analytical agency Gartner, 75% of large companies will consider the CDO on the same level as the IT manager and other representatives of the senior management team.
The high demand for data directors is due to a number of reasons:
new information appears regularly, but by itself it will not begin to represent value to the company;
the number of employees dentist database involved in receiving, processing and managing data is growing, which means it is necessary to organize a separate division that requires a qualified manager;
implementation of digital transformations, i.e. abandoning established mechanisms of doing business and managing an enterprise in favor of an organizational structure based on the widespread use of information.
In fact, the prospect of active implementation of data management technologies has been brewing for a long time. Many recognized methodologies for creating a company architecture pay great attention to the use of data to bring order to the organization. Although these theoretical studies were carried out more than 20 years ago, employers' requests indicate their continued value. Currently, there are a large number of tools that allow you to organize full-fledged work with information: the process of tracking, collecting and processing data can be automated, modeling can be carried out in continuous mode. The Chief Data Officer ensures the effective use of these tools and control over the actions of employees involved in managing digital flows.
Who is a CDO?
The need for a CDO arose in the context of the need to extract value from data through its generalization and analysis in order to modernize the company's operations. When information is the company's main resource, allowing for the creation of relevant offers, this specialist essentially acts as a link between the digital data area and the production sphere. Under his leadership, the company can quickly and fully provide customers and partners with information about its activities. Therefore, the main tasks of the CDO are:
approval of principles for working with corporate materials;
defining clear regulations for constructing data in all information systems and processes of the company;
monitoring the relevance of data by maintaining regular contacts with the company's management and data owners, as well as continuously monitoring the processes of obtaining and processing information;
participation in planning and implementing the digital transformation of an enterprise, measures to improve business efficiency, as well as determining requirements for new software products and data storage tools;
increasing staff awareness in the area of management and effective use of corporate information;
managing the activities of data stewards – employees who monitor data quality and ensure its improvement within their area of responsibility;
general management of specialists who collect, study and administer information;
creation of an effective data management system.
In some companies, the CDO also serves as the IT architect, chief analyst, and director of digital transformation, although, strictly speaking, there are significant differences between these positions. The Chief Data Officer's responsibilities include managing data flows and effectively working with information to optimize the company's operations, while the IT department should be concerned with ensuring the safety of corporate information and creating mechanisms for its processing.
Because of the growing value of data, the CDO is a senior executive and typically reports to the CEO. Sometimes, the CDO takes orders from the CIO, and sometimes vice versa. Because the CDO has broad authority and performs a variety of tasks, the results of his work are difficult to evaluate directly using basic metrics. Most often, the CDO's numbers are compared to the overal