Data is the lifeblood of The Living Enterprise. Left siloed, unseen, or unmanaged, it loses its power to drive innovation and improvement. It can even become an organizational risk. But when employed in a data-driven organization, it can do incredible things. By using data to improve operations and focus on its customer experience, the department store Kohl’s has seen its posted revenues and share value exceed expectations during the pandemic. With help from the Microsoft-Adobe partnership, federation of motor clubs AAA Northeast has seen online memberships grow from 26% to 45%.
“Data-driven does not mean running manual spreadsheets across the organization,” says Isaac Sacolick, president and CIO of the consulting firm, StarCIO. “Nor does it mean centralizing BI.” Instead, Sacolick argues, “it’s really about bringing data and analytics capabilities across the organization, so that anybody can do a Power BI dashboard.”
In a data-driven organization, everyone understands what data means and how to use it, and whether it’s trustworthy, reliable, and accurate.
Jay Ferro, CIO of ERT — previously at Quikrete — agrees on data’s value. “The more you know and the faster you know it, and the more accurate and timely that data is, the better decisions you can make.” In Quikrete’s case, data could be the difference between a production machine suddenly failing and having the ability to fix it and minimize any downtime. Data from temperature, vibration, and moisture sensors can also reduce product spoilage.
“There are huge opportunities for CIOs to do these things,” he says, “and they don’t require a significant investment of capital. They require an investment of attention and intentionality.”
Being data-driven also means breaking data out of silos and enabling it to be used throughout the company. “If we say that the ecosystem is the ship,” says British American Tobacco’s Beatriz Copelli, “I think data is the fuel. We really need to have the fluid that goes through all the components.”
In order to do this, though, you also need data that’s sanitized, secured, and managed. As Microsoft CDO Andrew Wilson puts it: “Data and Intelligence really need to be at the heart of the strategy, because they’re driving an ability to be compliant. They are driving the ability to be secure.”
Unquestionably, data is at its most powerful when aligned to a more wide-ranging business strategy. For Adobe, that means its Data-Driven Operating Model (DDOM); a business model that uses data to put the customer front and center.
“We use this in order to make the customer experience better,” says Adobe CIO Cynthia Stoddard. “Are they getting stuck in a particular product? Do they need help? Can we build our products better?" DDOM brings in a mass of customer data, but focuses in on specific and well-defined customer-centric KPIs, and the data the organization needs to meet them.
Because Adobe is disciplined in following this model, and has the people, tools, and processes in place, it can work more effectively in understanding its customers and delivering the best possible customer experience. Through this, DDOM has become the backbone of Adobe’s personalized customer experiences — and its own business transformation.
Find out more about Adobe’s Data-Driven Operating Model (DDOM), and how it contributed to climbing business revenues, by reading this case study.
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