As businesses continue to collect data, the piles are getting bigger.
In fact, a June, 2015 poll by Experian Data Quality revealed that 57 percent of U.S. chief information officers (CIOs) expect the volume of data they would need to manage to rise by 33 percent over the next 12 months.
What’s a company to do? Hire more help.
“While the data explosion has spurred some companies to bring in external partners, Experian found that others were adding a new role to their organization: chief data officer (CDO),” reports eMarketer. “Considering that 83 percent saw data as a valuable asset not being fully utilized, and 64 percent believed their organizations weren’t making optimal use of data to drive their businesses, it makes sense that more than four in 10 CIOs without a CDO expected their company to appoint one within the next 18 months.”
The report also revealed that about 20 percent of surveyed companies plan to do some data management hiring within the next two years.
Three main issues are driving the desire to hire: the need for a consistent approach vis-a-vis data-driven projects, the demands of increased regulations and governance, and the rising costs inherent in poor data quality.
“Issues with organization and a lack of ownership, as well as problems capitalizing on big data, were also drivers,” noted eMarketer.
While firms with CDOs on board were less likely to have difficulty using data for decision-making or exposure to regulatory risk than companies without, the poll referenced a small downside to work on: “employee distrust in decisions being made and hampered process efficiencies due to duplicated efforts and time spent sorting out data problems.”