Are CMOs wasting money on faulty marketing analytics?

Manji Matharu writes:

CMOs are now at a crossroads between data quality and data results. It’s no longer enough to dabble in analytics and come out with the richness required for informed decision-making. The business needs integrated systems across IT infrastructure, and marketers — not IT pros — must champion the call for improved data controls and governance as their cause.

Data quality is the first step in all marketing processes.  Ensuring this is boring and hard, but it is a necessity.  This is the first step when I come into an organization, determine the quality of the data and work to fix that.  Once there is a trusted version of the truth, marketing analytics come to life.  

How to Make Big Data Work for You

This article is the problem with Big Data.  Everyone wants to jump so many steps on their way to true 1-to-1 marketing using data as the cornerstone.  Great marketing is always an evolution.  One step forward using data brings results and different behavior is gleaned from that data.  Then that data is taken and different questions are asked of the data based on the results using the previous data set.  This is how marketing problems are solved using data.

Marketers can't take a dataset that is fairly large, one they are already struggling to make the most of anyway, and then be given a much larger dataset and told to "go make magic".  Marketing with data is a disciplined venture.  As a marketer, make sure you are making the most out of the data you already have before worrying about what keystrokes the customer is making or the "Internet of Things".  

Always make sure the next step in the data is one that will bring you value today.  Have a long term understanding of where the data can take you, but be disciplined in getting there or you just might miss a lot of insight on the way. 

Interactive Data Visualizations - It's Still About the Data

With so many data visualization tools out in the marketplace, it is a wonder why most organizations are still struggling to get these easy to build dashboards adopted throughout the organization.

It usually comes down to the data.  The data still has to be accurate and up to date and reliable.  So many organizations still struggle with this.  I believe it comes down to structure within the organization.  How does IT still control the data in many organizations?  IT tends to create processes and documentation that takes data forever to get into the hands of the users.  

It all depends on the size of the organization.  When organizations are very large, this type of process and documentation is needed.  Most organizations are not this size.  The data is used by a handful of people within the organization and a more agile approach to data needs to be taken to always have the best data at the soonest possible time.  Long lead times and processes that make moving things forward difficult lead groups within the organization to get their own data in many different ways and this leads to many different versions of the truth and lack of trust in the interactive dashboards.

Organizations need to move the data ownership into the hands of the data users to ensure one version of the truth.

The Chief Data Officer: An executive whose time has come

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.  

Manage Data with Organizational Structure

Article on who should manage data...​

most people management is actually done in the course of day-in, day-out work, by managers and employees. HR may very well define the semiannual performance review process, provide the needed forms, and make sure it is carried out. But performance assessment is completed by employees and managers.

This last point strikes at the heart of the federated model. Corporate HR sets policy; department HR may modify it in accordance with specific needs; and departments, managers, and employees carry out these policies. Most have a certain degree of latitude in how they do so.

 I am a big proponent of moving data management out of IT.  The HR model is exactly the model that works.  The business is closer to the data and very few IT department can handle the pace of the business when it comes to data management.  IT designs the network, builds the hardware and manages updates, while the business manages the ETL, data model and governance of the data.