Why Big Data will turn Chief Information Officers Inside Out

Big Data is going to turn your job inside out in the next 5 years. CIOs should start preparing for the onslaught of transparency that will be created as our customers harness Big Data solutions . Most of us are worried about how Big Data technologies and opportunities will help us sell more and service better. While CIOs are busy figuring out how to drive the Big Data strategy from the inside out customers will be acquiring tools and information that put them in charge of the buyer/seller relationship in a way that will change the roll of CIO forever.

We have already seen the early warning signs. Shopper platforms integrating price comparison tools, customer review/feedback models, social media and inventory data are an integral part of the consumer decision making process. Purchasing a book, making the drive to your local big box store or making an insurance decision all depend on these platforms. As a CIO your role in delivering and supporting these platforms to your organization is simple and driving technical, procedural and operational improvements for your C-suite peers a relatively direct extension of the data that is collected. We are already getting very good at understanding how consumers behave and why when they engage with our platforms.

Here is where the story takes a twist. It is quickly going to stop being about how the customer behaves when we are in charge and start being about how we behave when our customers are in charge. Big Data competencies are going to end up in their hands too. This is going to creep into every part of your supply chain, every professional or personal action taken by your employees, every market segment you create will be invaded by opportunistic customers and every single interaction you have will end up documented and dissected by every vector possible. Welcome to the role of Customer Information Officer.

Giving up every stitch of data about your organization is going to be the new normal for competing. A few will resist at first and when they see customers flocking to more transparent organizations they'll all follow. This isn't about simple metrics like price, availability and service. I am asking you to start thinking about metrics that are so intrinsic to your organization today you can't even begin to think how they will surface in a purchasing decision.

For instance, imagine you live in Lexington, KY near one of the world's largest online retailer's distribution center. You also can see the local big box store as you drive into and out of your subdivision every day. You know you can get the latest Grind of Carnage video game from either source in 24 hours at the same price. However, new Big Data consumer focused apps are giving you some new data to consider. You realize the local big box store has a cleaning contract with the company your son-in-law works at as a manager. You see the majority of social media posts for employees of that local big box store have political leanings similar to your own. You see most of the employees of this store get drive through lunch at a restaurant where your cousin is a shift manager. You see a private carrier in their distribution channel that is headquartered in the same town your brother lives in with his family. Your buying decision has been made and it has nothing to do with the data the retailer wants you to use in making the decision! The same pattern is going to occur in healthcare, utilities and education.

Big Data tools and platforms are removing the barriers to a customer managed transaction. Barriers such as the variable frequency of event occurrence, highly unstructured nature of the data and the sheer volume of information your data provider will have to sift through to answer your one question are all disappearing. Your mission is to start helping your organization look at how their employees, supply chain, and partners reflect on the organization not as a reputation separated from specific products, but integrated into the customer's decision.