25% of cos to have a chief data officer by 2017: Gartner

NEW DELHI: Research firm Gartner has said predicted that 25 percent of organizations will have a chief data officer (CDO) by 2017, as poor quality of data costs an average organization $13.5 million per year.

Gartner said that a CDO can address these challenges in several ways. He or she can manage data as part of business operations.

“The CDO is a peer of the CIO, but practises a different discipline…The CDO also becomes an advocate of information, not just a governor of it. Increasingly, successful information governance is about advocating the use of information as a source of value, not just controlling and monitoring it," Debra Logan, vice president and Gartner Fellow.

Gartner's 2014 CEO survey (410 CEOs and senior business executives) found that 20 percent of large organizations’ CEOs have already involved a data officer in leading their organization’s digital innovation.

Chief information officers (CIOs) and chief data officers (CDOs) should take the lead in anticipating and capitalizing on digital remastery.

Many industries have already been disrupted and redefined by digitalization. As the digital revolution progresses, it will create an even greater need for new information management roles as business units rush to harness the digital opportunities of big data.

“Data has become vital to business growth and yet so complex that good outcomes are unlikely without executive focus. While many business units, such as R&D and marketing, are rushing to exploit data-based digital opportunities, others, such as legal and HR, are rightly concerned about ensuring compliance with regulations and protecting their company's information assets and reputation. The IT organization, led by the CIO, must play a role in both enabling digital business and ensuring security and compliance,” Gartner said.

The job of the modern CIO, however, is increasingly overloaded with additional responsibilities relating to, for example, digital innovation, change management programs and transformation. Therefore, CDOs will be ever more critical to the effective management and control of data.

Digital leadership is not a replacement or substitute for IT leadership, however: it is an adaptation of business leadership to a digital context. "CIOs do not own the CDO's responsibilities. CIOs and CDOs should have distinct and separate roles in the digital era, and they will need different skills and capabilities." said Logan.