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Anthill, Australia: Cognizant’s Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Information Management Outlines Steps to Create a Data Culture for Thriving in the Digital Age

“CIOs are about to be joined at the C-level summit by CDOs…Chief Data Officers,” writes Poornima Ramaswamy. “Because young companies have a distinct advantage over their longer standing competitors and data is in their DNA. For these digital natives, it’s second-nature to put data and digital processes at the heart of their strategy and use data-based insights to make their decisions.” Excerpts:

“Traditional companies can close the gap by hiring a chief data officer (CDO) to develop a data strategy, manage the information ecosystem and, most importantly, educate employees on the power and possibilities of data.

Employees need to perceive data as a flexible asset whose use and value ripples throughout the organization. CDOs can encourage that by mapping the organization’s data supply chain into a big-picture view of available data — who creates it, where it resides and who consumes it.

The hallmark of a data culture is the ability to understand the versatility of data and identify alternative uses for it. CDOs should encourage a mindset of finding alternative or unusual uses for data by sharing it with other teams.

Data can become a valued asset only if its accuracy is trusted, its provenance is well established and its security is safeguarded. CDOs can build trust in data by tracking its quality and lineage and providing multiple use cases depending on the data quality.

Celebrating data successes is essential to promoting a healthy data culture. The data initiatives selected for recognition should be aligned with the organization’s innovation objectives, whether it’s reducing customer churn, increasing customer intelligence or penetrating new markets.

In a thriving data culture, information-sharing should be a way of life, not a source of tension. By using data to prioritize features, teams can choose objectively between time to market and cost.

Everyone in the organization should be made aware of the real purpose behind a data culture: to sharpen the corporate strategy and drive innovation. CDOs can promote the link between data and strategy by hosting ideation sessions and hackathons to accelerate strategy and innovation efforts.

By taking these steps, CDOs can help their organizations move towards managing data as a strategic asset.”

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