Digest...

The situation reflects a central truth in today’s big data world: both the CMO and CIO are on the hook for turning all that data into growth together. It may be a marriage of convenience, but it’s one that CMOs and CIOs need to make workespecially as worldwide volume of data is growing at least 40 percent a year, with ever-increasing variety and velocity. That’s why many CMOs are waking up to the fact that IT can’t be treated like a back-office function anymore; rather, the CIO is becoming a strategic partner who is crucial to developing and executing marketing strategy.

 

The digital explosion has forced CMOs and CIOs to work more closely. But that hasn’t always made them work better together. As the mix of IT spending shifts from the back office and supply-chain management (for those industries that have a supply chain) to the front office and customer engagement, tensions may arise about the CMO’s and CIO’s decision rights and budget authority. These tensions are reflected in research suggesting that most CMOs today see marketing as the natural leader of big data efforts, while most CIOs see IT in that role.

 

It’s easy to say that the CMO and CIO, and sometimes the CTO, should share leadership of the overall analytics effort and a mutual definition of its success. But that agreement needs to be followed quickly by the next stage: having shared accountability for business-performance improvement based on specific key performance indicators such as revenue generation, usage, and retention.

 

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