Do You “Own” Business Decisions Based on “Your” Data?

Data is the raw material of decision-making. Data is also what IT does. So, how far into the decision-making process should IT extend itself—including in terms of responsibility?

SAS and IDG recently conducted a survey of IT and business leaders about the role of analytics in an organization: who owns it, who advocates for it, who drives the projects. Perhaps not surprisingly, in most cases IT is the one pushing management to make better use of available business data. (The exceptions are organizations self identified as “data driven,” and in which, perhaps not surprisingly, IT and business share equally in analytic projects.)

But how far does that ownership go?

Said one IT leader: “IT are stewards of the data, databases, aggregations, manipulation tools, etc., while business owns the information and the resulting business decisions.”

Basic principle that seems to have relevance here: “IT must be the promoter of analytics initiatives, but never the sponsor.”

Courtesy: John Soat