UPDATED 11:29 EDT / SEPTEMBER 03 2020

BIG DATA

Q&A: How to boost data security, quality with efficient data-administration hierarchy

As organizations go digital, data becomes the critical resource that drives organizational models and operations. The need to manage that data while ensuring it is high quality and kept secure has led to chief data officers and chief information security officers joining the chief information officer in the executive ranks.

But there is no defined organizational framework for these newly minted execs, and the roles and responsibilities can overlap or become confused. Providing a model for success is global pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., which has developed a clear and effective structure for its data-administration hierarchy.

The company’s chief data officer, Krishna Cheriath (pictured), joined Dave Vellante, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during the MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Symposium to discuss how Bristol-Myers Squibb is managing data and ensuring quality and security standards are maintained. The interview was edited for clarity.

We’ve interviewed many chief data officers over the years, and there seems to be some fuzziness as to the organizational structure. It’s very clear with you: You report in to the CIO. How did that come about, and what are the benefits of reporting into the CIO?

Cheriath: A data agenda cannot be done individually by a singular CDO. It has to be done in partnership with many stakeholders, business, technology, analytics, etc. So from that came this notion that we needed an enterprise-wide data organization. We also made a very conscious choice of separating the data organization from analytics. The reason we did that is when we looked at the world of Bristol-Myers Squibb, analytics is core and part of our scientific discovery process, research, our clinical development. All of them have deep data science and analytics embedded in. But we also have other analytics as part of our sales and marketing, finance and enabling functions, etc. The world of analytics is very broad.

The reason for having a separate data organization is that none of the business aspirations from data will be met if you don’t have the right level of data available, the velocity of data is not appropriate for the use cases, the quality of data is not great, or the control of the data. This is a little bit of a unique construct for us compared to what we see generally in the world of CDOs. And from that standpoint, then the decision was taken to make the CDO report to the global CIO.

So at Bristol-Myers Squibb, the chief data officer organization is a combination of traditional CDO-type accountabilities, like data management, data governance, data stewardship, but also all of the related technologies around master data management, data lake, data and analytic engineering, and a nascent artificial-intelligence data and technology lab. That construct allows us to be a true enterprise horizontally, supporting analytics, whether it is done in a central analytics organization or embedded analytics teams in the business area, but also equally importantly, focus on the world of data from operational execution standpoint: How do we optimize data to drive operational effectiveness?

So the CDO reports to the CIO; the data organization is separated from analytics to really focus around the availability but also the quality and control of data. And the last nuance at Bristol-Myers Squibb is that the chief data officer organization is also accountable to be the data protection office.

That makes a lot of sense; you’re not getting in the way of research and development. And the scientists, they know data science; they don’t need really your help. Could you clarify where the security organization fits?

Cheriath: At Bristol-Myers Squibb, we have a chief information security officer who also reports to the global CIO. The CDO and the CISO are effective partners and are two sides of the coin in trying to advance a total risk mitigation strategy. Whether it is from a cyber risk standpoint, which is the focus of the CISO, or whether it is the general data consumption risk — which is the focus from a CDO in the capacities that I have — together, those are two sides of a coin that the CIO needs to be accountable for.

It is important for when you want to be able to drive data-driven innovation but you want to be able to do that in a way that doesn’t open the company to unwanted risk exposures. That is always a delicate balancing act, because if you index too much on risk and then high levels of security and control, then you could lose productivity. But if you index too much on productivity, collaboration, and open access and data, it opens up the company for risks. So it is a delicate balance within the two.

We often say data is more valuable than oil because it doesn’t follow the laws of scarcity. You can use data in infinite number of places. How do you think about data as a resource today and going forward? 

Cheriath: The data as the new oil paradigm in my opinion was unhealthy. For certain companies, data is indeed an asset; but for many enterprises, considering data as a resource is a better focus.

What is important is for a company to have a true north star around its core mission and core strategy. For Bristol-Myers Squibb, we are about transforming patients’ lives through science. And we think about digital and data as key value levers and drivers of that strategy.

We are focused on making sure that data and digital are an accelerant and a value lever for the company’s mission and company strategy. That is why thinking about data as a key resource for our scientific researchers, or a key resource for our manufacturing team, or for sales and marketing, allows us to think about the actions and the strategies and tactics we need to deploy to make that effective.

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the MIT Chief Data Officer and Information Quality Symposium:

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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