| | JUNE 20248CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBy Ido Biger, EVP, Chief Information and Data Officer, Delek US HoldingsFour years have passed since I was appointed to the dual role CIO & Chief Data Officer, enough time to comprehend the evolving responsibility of migrating from someone who's in charge of the data culture and insights-based decision making to the person who's able to complete the desired cycle of prescriptive data analytics by embedding these insights in the operational systems. It's been over 7 years since I started my first role as a chief data officer of an organization, and as such it was a necessity to overcome the main obstacle of making a business measurable value out of the data. As a BI Manager, it is a known fact that your main responsibility is to enable the means for the organization to consume data by extracting the data from multiple sources and creating the data products designed and required by the analytical units. As a Chief Data Officer, you're obligated to make sure the utilization of the data is being done on the highest level possible through overseeing the analytical units, both professionally as well as process wise. It is typically the role of the CDO to establish and manage the data science team, which will enable the advanced analytics capabilities throughout the organization. Let's go back to the data layers models that were presented by Gartner almost a decade ago.As it can be seen in the diagram, the main role of the BI manager is to enable both the descriptive as well as the diagnostic layer. By gathering the relevant data sources, extracting the information, maintaining a robust and transformed semantic layer, implementing a comfortable self-service BI platform and technically supporting and delivering the business units analytical needs, the BI team allows the company to answer the "what" and "why" questions. The CDO on top of that, is enabling 2 main things: advanced analytical capabilities is the first, creating and establishing a data driven approach throughout the organization is the second. It is crucial that the BI manager will report (directly or dotted) to the CDO. It was tested in several organizations, and I've never heard of a CDO that wasn't managing the BI Team without a huge struggle thus not being able to bring the necessary value that was expected. By appointing a CDO without the privilege to hold both sides of the equation (creating the data platform and building the analytical layers on top of it) means that practically you're sending a soldier to the field without ammunition. The BI manager will see the CDO as yet another customer (and someone that thinks highly of him/herself) which will politically, for sure, lead the CDO to the bottom of the data food chain. The predictive layer would be accomplished by the CDO only when the data platforms and the advanced analytical skills would reside together under his/her responsibility. In order to push the organization to step forward to the prescriptive layer - he would A BI MANAGER, A CHIEF DATA OFFICER, A DATA DRIVEN CIOIdo Biger
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