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.