I continue to process the results of the recent CDP Institute Member Survey.
One has to marry the findings from the members with deployed CDPs and the inputs from the martech vendors to really develop a go forward plan for increasing CDP deployment success.
It is a bit back to the future.
We’ve never really nailed the data problem – after billions of investment over the years.
The survey shows that martech vendors cite bad data as a root cause challenging success. But it is not bad data alone – in fact, I believe (decades of) bad data is a symptom of lack of executive sponsorship.
Thus the marriage of member inputs with martech vendor inputs.
Organizational readiness is the most common problem cited by one fourth of members with deployed CDPs. Let’s talk about what goes into organizational readiness.
It starts with executive sponsorship which ensures budget and resources. Lack of both is cited in the survey.
Organizational readiness includes engagement and commitment to success throughout the organization. What part of today’s organizations does not touch the customer? We are seeking a unified view of the customer, correct?
Executive sponsorship ensures engagement, commitment and alignment by all through a system of incentives or disincentives. That sponsorship incents high performance delivery – the survey cites challenges in on time, on budget delivery.
And finally, the data. It’s all about the data and its ability to drive profitable organic growth and long term customer loyalty.
Organizational readiness includes recognizing data as a strategic asset and treating it as such. A commitment to implementing an ongoing data governance process to treat that data as a strategic asset is required.
Data governance is a formal process that recognizes data as a strategic asset and treats it a. There is a formal organization to manage and consume the data which includes owners, stewards, consumers and custodians. Data is mapped to a data architecture. Over time the quality of data improves.
Use of data for competitive advantage becomes a core competence.
I find the survey energizing. It demonstrates the evolution of data management continues as the technology available to us to manage that data becomes more sophisticated.
CDPs are the answer to decades of data mismanagement. We are on the cusp of solving that failure.
Getting to a high value CDP implementation is a transformational initiative. It is ongoing and requires continued attention and investment. If data is a strategic asset, it requires ongoing investment like other assets – plants, equipment, people.
Let’s DO IT!
