BIG DATA SUCCESS: the sweet spot between uptime and bottom line
When CMOs and CIOs play nicely together, magic
happens, and the chances of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage from
data analytics are dramatically improved. However, when the lingering
indoctrinated divide between these two previously discrete disciplines isn’t
addressed then it’s probably time to start updating your CV…
It's not exactly breaking news that data analytics is a rapidly exploding field within Australian
businesses, with different organisations and industries across the country at
different stages of maturity. ADMA estimate that around 30% of Australian
businesses are currently at some point on the big data continuum between data
discovery and data commercialisation.
The potential value of all of the data available
to enterprises and SME’s cannot be underestimated; fact is, in our Information
Age the competitive advantage will rest with those businesses who are best able
to harness their data in order to make real-time decisions that protect their
customer base and grow market share. With this in mind, why is it then that
only 30% of businesses are taking action with their data?
In November last year, Hitachi Data Systems
Corporation (HDS) released a survey of Australian and New Zealand businesses
which revealed that, despite our eagerness to implement big data projects, we
still had a couple of genuine hurdles to overcome. The first issue is an
organisations big data strategic skills, the second issue is its quality of
internal communication.
According to Neville Vincent, senior vice
president and general manager, HDS APAC who commissioned the “The Hype and the
Hope: The Road to Big Data Adoption in Asia-Pacific” report, the key challenge
for organisations hoping to generate returns from big data was acquiring the right
skill sets and managing communication better across the enterprise and between
departments.
One of the most common examples of poor
cross-departmental communication on big data projects is seen when you consider
the recently emerged organisational imperative of achieving a Single Customer
View. Typically, the goal of the SCV is simple – by better understanding its
customer base an organisation is better able to achieve a bottom line return
from said customer base. The problem, however, is that achieving a SCV is
usually the goal of a siloed department like sales or marketing.
What many companies find out the hard way is that
an SCV project is equally as much an IT ‘capabilities’ project as it is an ‘ROI
driven’ marketing one. The challenge then in delivering an SCV project that
delivers organisational returns by taking into account the needs of the CIO and
the CMO is that both parties need to put aside the enduring power struggle over
who owns the budget.
Accenture estimate that by 2017 CMOs are
projected to spend more money on information technology and analytics than
CIOs, as such, the days where CMO’s and CIO’s quibbled over budget ownership
and varying departmental priorities cannot continue. The recent explosion in
the adoption of Information Technology to drive sustainable competitive
advantage is forcing Chief Marketing Officers and Chief Information Officers to
work more closely than ever before.
Bridging the gap between these previously
discrete disciplines has never been more important because in this Big Data era
we live in it will be he (or she) who leverages their data better who will
possess the greater competitive advantage. How do we get there? Through the CMO
and CIO developing a common language and understanding of each other’s roles
and priorities, and then working together to achieve the much larger
organisational goal.
It’s this issue of fostering genuine
cross-departmental collaboration that is the driving premise behind Australia’s
first CXO Data Summit to be held in Sydney, September 18. The invitation-only
Summit aims to bring together an exclusively C Suite audience for a day of Big
Data thought leadership from some of the industries finest, providing an
intimate environment for senior executives to converge, debate and discuss the
major strategic issues they face in Big
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