I often ask people whether they know what Netflix, Harrah’s, Amazon and Wal-Mart have in common? The answer is pretty simple. They use data analytics to leave their competitors in the dust. Many other businesses are trying to do the same, spending millions of dollars on data software.

It takes more than a steep investment, however, to squeeze business value out of data. Companies have to establish an entire system to use data to drive competitive advantage.

Data as a competitive advantage needs a department that is responsible for the analytics and getting all the needed data. The data owners and the data users should reside in the same division to ensure the right data is always available and up to date. Also, the decisions on resources should be within that department, not within IT.

When IT is in charge of the data, they tend to not understand the business as well as needed to facilitate data. The operations does not understand databases and technology, however the analysts understand the business and the technology, so they should own the data and the facilitation of the data.