Hosted by CDO Magazine and ComSpark, the CDO Midwest Summit 2022 successfully portrays the data side of the business and vice versa in the session “Delivering Actionable Data to Drive Business Value.” Speaker Todd Henley, Data Strategy, Governance, and Architecture Manager at Northwest Bank, highlights the best practices to achieve business value through data. Amanda Petzinger, Associate VP of Strategic Growth & ESG/Sustainability at Benchmark ESG, moderates the session.

Henley discusses the interconnected aspects of business and data capabilities from a banking perspective. He says that the bank’s business capabilities of retail lending, mortgage, commercial and industrial, and wealth management contribute to goals through decision-making.

Decision-making requires answering questions, which requires data. “So you have to have data management capabilities, data governance capabilities, and data architecture capabilities that are all there to provide the business something that it needs, to answer questions, make decisions, and contribute to the organizational goals and objectives to make it actionable,” Henley explains.

He encourages timely data delivery to derive actionable insights. Sharing his experience from the utility sector, Henley mentions analyzing Oscillography during energy outages to understand how energy runs through a line. “If a tree fell on a line, that tells you what you need to roll on that truck, and you have a short period to configure that vehicle, get the right crew on that vehicle and tell them exactly where the problem is,” he says.

He emphasizes that having data and knowing how to use it can save the company a ton of money. Moving forward, Henley states, the business culture must include new ways of working with data to succeed. The change should start at the director level, he affirms.

Concerning data governance, Henley starts by understanding who the data owners are and figuring out problems at a tactical level.

Henley describes the three Cs of culture – change management capacity, collaborative capacity, and cultural roots.

Emphasizing the trustworthiness of data, he recalls focusing the data governance program on data integrity. Henley notes, “If the data product provides the use case for which it was defined, then you can consider it trustworthy.”

Henley notes that it all starts with understanding the business purpose of the data product. He then shares a success story of acquiring 430 percent ROI through customer-targeted marketing with the help of data and in-house analytic tools.

In addition to data governance, Henley says there is a massive political component to providing actionable data. He adds that different lines of business are politically unique — some are well-regulated, while others need the law to do certain things. In conclusion, Henley urges us to embrace organizational uniqueness to understand how to move it.

Watch other CDO Midwest Summit 2022 sessions HERE