(US and Canada) Sandip Sahota, Enterprise Chief Data and Analytics Officer, BMO Financial Group, talks to Susan Wilson, VP Data Governance and Privacy, Informatica, about how BMO took a different approach to data, and how it helped them connect with an array of groups and businesses.

Sahota shares that every organization has a way it develops and matures over time. Some challenges are inherent to how the organization has thought about the problem space or has operated in a certain way. For example, he shares that BMO Financial Group is very thoughtful and has brought a number of their leaders together to build a transformational program, cutting across many businesses. About 55 people participated in this active dialogue at a mostly senior executive level. The dialogue focused on ensuring that BMO’s chief data and analytics officers are totally aligned with and appreciate the company’s business strategy and how best to bring value from their data. Their two grounding principles: how do they get the value from their data, and then how do they accelerate the path to insights? That’s how BMO has driven all their decisions. Shata says that the financial group’s operating model has been critical, and there is an understanding that they will build upon that solid core.

He shares that they do allow and actively support flexibility around the edges, giving them a lot of independence in driving economic value and customer experience, and building the right set of capabilities to support. Hence, they are tying everything back to those outcomes. They look closely at how they balance the outcomes, and how they can ensure that they can get value from their data and introduce real speed inside and measure it appropriately.

Sahota notes that while keeping alignment in mind as BMO moves forward, like any business, there will be competing priorities, new priorities, different latencies in terms of what’s needed. So, BMO keeps a relentless focus on their customers and their experiences, their employees and their experiences, providing them with the best tools and capabilities to operate. As with any ongoing transformation or ongoing relationship, there is a constant investment to make sure everyone involved stays in sync.