Unlocking value at the CDO Summit

Last week, we attended the CDO Summit in London. Chief Data Officers from top organizations like the Guardian and Utility Warehouse each led a series of roundtable discussions, with Harbr’s own Tom Blacksell moderating a conversation on the challenges of data commercialization.

As organizations undergo digital transformation, they increasingly collect and store valuable data in modern cloud-based infrastructures. However, as the discussion demonstrated, there are a number of challenges faced by both data providers and data consumers.

The roundtable explored some of the key challenges faced by data providers, including the need for operational effectiveness that can support faster data product development, customization, and optimized data distribution. Each of these challenges contributes to lengthy sales cycles, so addressing them is key to shortening the time to value.

In addition, they discussed the importance of differentiating your data business through fostering customer relationships. In the experience of the CDOs in attendance, improving the customer experience can be instrumental to securing recurring revenues in an increasingly competitive market.

Marvin Reynolds, who heads up Harbr’s customer success operation, pointed out after the event that this aspect in particular resonated with the participants. “Making it easier for data consumers to realize value sooner and with fewer obstacles is absolutely essential to running a good data business,” he said.

For data consumers, the group identified key challenges such as ease of use, data product discoverability, the ability to evaluate data products against priority use cases, and effective delivery mechanisms. The panel also emphasized the importance of delivering valuable data outcomes at a scalable cost.

Overall, the discussion provided valuable insights into the challenges of data commercialization in today’s market. As organizations continue to collect and store large volumes of data, they will need to address these challenges in order to fully realize the potential value of their data assets.

Tom Blacksell said, “We were delighted to host the data commerce working session as part of the recent CDO Summit. The topic was top of mind for many of the attendees, and it was an excellent opportunity to exchange views on the opportunities, as well as the most effective path to value realization.”

If you’d like to join in on this conversation, get in touch.

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