Published on the 05/02/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
The white-anting of chief information officers continues with the rise of a new c-suite executive – the chief data officer…
Time was when the chief information officer (CIO) had control of most of an enterprise’s technology and data portfolio. However the rise of the chief technology officer, chief security officer, chief marketing officer and now the chief data officer (CDO) has fractured the ownership and oversight of IT.
According to Gartner at the end of 2014 17 percent of large enterprises had CDOs (up from seven percent a year earlier) and by next year 25 percent of large global organisations will have CDOs – particularly those in heavily regulated industries, media and government. The rising interest in big data and acknowledgement that data is a strategic business asset is spurring the trend given the current “troubling lack of leadership” in terms of taking advantage of big data according to Gartner.
But what does the rise of the CDO mean for CIOs?
Writing in a blog post Gartner fellow and vice president Debra Logan, noted; “CIOs should view the CDO as a peer and partner who can manage data and who has the knowledge, background and skills to do so, which allows CIOs to focus on the more-than-full time job that they already have. Banking, government and insurance are the first three industries to adopt the CDO role.”
She noted that CDO’s do not “own” the data, but may own key processes around the data and be accountable for an enterprise’s master data.
The burgeoning challenge for CIOs is managing the web of relationships and responsibilities surrounding ICT in the enterprise. This is being compounded as public cloud services and BYO technologies percolate the enterprise, turning the CIO role into that of ringmaster rather than architect.
CIOs’ gradual loss of control of the enterprise IT budget is already apparent. A 2013 Forrester Research report revealed that while CIOs controlled 74 per cent of all enterprise IT spending in 2010, by 2012 that had plunged to 58 per cent and there are no signs of the trend abating. Rival analyst Gartner has similarly forecast that by 2017 the chief marketing officer will spend more on technology than does the chief information officer.
