Data collaboration is nothing new to CIOs and the peers they collaborate with. For example, co-marketing with brands outside your industry is a fairly common project for CIOs and CMOs to partner on—think about the many retailers, airlines, and hospitality groups that offer co-branded credit cards.
What makes modern data collaboration more challenging, yet no less critical, is consumers’ growing desire for personalization and the global push for privacy-centric data policies. While the former is data intensive, the latter introduces new, ever-widening gaps in customer intelligence. Without a trusted, connected ecosystem of data partners and the ability to collaborate with them in a way that preserves privacy at scale, it’s challenging—if not downright impossible—to consistently offer consumers welcome experiences.
A key opportunity for CIOs is to facilitate data collaboration in a way that preserves privacy and enhances customer experiences at scale. Although spearheading data collaboration often comes from the commercial side of a business, enabling data to be safely and securely connected is a key opportunity for CIOs in building the future of data collaboration for their business.
Data governance and cloud migration set the stage
The good news for many CIOs is that they’ve already laid the groundwork for this endeavor through investments in data governance and migration to the cloud. While the passage and enforcement of GDPR, CCPA, CPRA, and other data regulations may have once been seen as seismic events affecting brands and publishers alike, they’ve actually been a forcing function for companies to organize their data, remove data silos, and clearly document what they have access to and how it can be used. This knowledge is a powerful springboard for data collaboration.
Another springboard is the move to cloud infrastructure. If your company is in the middle of a cloud migration or even at the start of it, you’re in pole position to make greater use of your customer data and bring in trusted partners.