As organisations continue to operate in resiliency mode and have responded to the opportunities and threats from the first Covid-19 wave focussed action is now required by CDOs (Chief Data Officers) and data organisations to address the challenges of the second Covid-19 wave.
In many organisations the digital agenda and its reliance on data has advanced 5 years in the period of the last 5 months. This has pushed reliance on data and effective data management to the forefront of all organisations ability to continue to do business. The following themes will need to be prioritised to meet the data challenges of the Covid-19 second wave.
Intensify engagement with senior business stakeholders to ensure the value of data as an asset is understood and kept high in the priority list – start with the board and work your way down with a targeted communications and culture plan
Proactively champion business driven investment initiatives through harnessing your organisation’s data on the “offensive” rather than the “defensive”. This should include shaping data initiatives to support AI/machine learning data analytics, customer service/sales data, next generation digital and cloud platform delivery, risk data management and data centric regulatory change
Data cost reduction focus is likely to intensify with further cost challenge and budgeting rounds. Mobilise an effective data cost reduction initiative (do more for less with more effective tooling and management). Build compelling business cases to protect existing critical data initiatives – data is not valued on the balance sheet and extra justification to simple NPV calculations is often required
Ensure continuous data management operational excellence with your existing data capability to both avoid “dropping the ball” and also to build your organisations data capability maturity. Ensure your data management team is focussed with clearly articulated goals, effective KPI and metrics to measure performance and regular management team interactions to maintain direction and control
Data security and privacy – with reliance on data even more critical additional focus must be given to ensuring effective data security operations and systems are in place. Data privacy management must be maintained as both consumers and regulators are more data aware and literate as challenge and responses will be more likely required
Prepare for the emergence from the 2nd wave and the new world by working with customer service/sales, product development, risk and finance business heads to ensure data is at the forefront of strategic investment and planning initiatives
Retain existing data management and delivery talent and secure additional skilled data management and delivery resource to build your data team
CDOs and data organisations should be acting now to address these issues in order to protect their business and to build effective data capabilities to manage these unique Covid-19 risks and harness the opportunities. Quaylogic can help you to establish and build the data management capability and tools to meet the opportunities and threats presented by the Covid-19 second wave. Contact us now at info@quaylogic.com.