CIO Influence Interview with Kevin Campbell, CEO at Syniti

Kevin Campbell, CEO at Syniti talks about the effectiveness of data governance, the latest data management trends, and data management best practices in this Q&A:
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Hello Kevin, with over three decades of experience driving innovation and growth, can you walk us through your journey so far in the tech and SaaS world?

Throughout my career, I have leveraged my experience scaling SaaS software and services organizations to help global Fortune 500 companies and start-ups achieve their goals through efficient data management strategies. Prior to my tenure as CEO of Syniti, I served as the president of global consulting and services at Syniti and was co-COO for Bridgewater Associates and COO of Oscar Health. I’ve spent more than 20 years during two terms at Accenture as Group Chief Executive for Outsourcing and Group Chief Executive Technology, where our team drove double-digit growth.

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Data quality errors can cause serious business process interruptions. Can you elaborate on how Syniti helps companies prevent and remediate these errors effectively?

Data quality issues impact every business process. To ensure successful transformations, businesses need to recognize that getting it right the first time matters and to do so they’ll require expert help. A recent study, conducted by Syniti in partnership with HFS, found that nearly one-quarter of lost revenue can be attributed to data issues. The same study found that nearly 85% of respondents realize that “data” is a cornerstone of business success, but only a third are satisfied with their enterprise data quality. They realize that more than 40% of their organizational data is unusable.

 Syniti’s experts helped Bridgestone realign its setup and design. Improving their data migration process resulted in a 99% success rate in data loads during the first attempted load cycle a few weeks later – a vast improvement over the 10% success rate from their previous load efforts. We’ve used this approach to enhanced efficiency and increased scalability across operations to ensure successful business transformations for a number of clients.

 Syniti champions leading with a Data First approach for all data initiatives. We understand that data is not a “one and done” endeavor – it takes continuous, proactive management to harness the full potential that good data quality has to offer. We serve as a partner for the long haul and staff a delivery team of data experts to lead critical projects for customers, while also providing management direction and exercising influence over critical decisions. Syniti works with clients wherever they need help with their data – whether at the onset of a business’s transition to a new digital platform or during an MA&D event. We conduct a tailored assessment based on what a particular client’s data needs are, coordinate on business goals, and work together to achieve them. Addressing your data quality isn’t a last-ditch resort or an emergency effort; thinking Data First is key for achieving any desired business outcome and it’s what the most successful businesses today are doing.

What role does cloud technology play in Syniti’s solutions, and how does it enhance the effectiveness of data governance?

Cloud technology plays a huge role at Syniti, especially in tandem with our users and consultants. While you can’t simply throw a technology solution at a particular digital infrastructure and expect magic to happen, we pride ourselves on finding just the right business solution for the complexity and scale of the organization. Operating in the cloud can make working on various aspects of an organization’s digital infrastructure seamless and hassle-free. However, without clean data, as one client told me, you just end up with ‘lousy data in the cloud, and will do the wrong thing faster, like putting old gas in the new Ferrari.’

Predictably, Fortune 500 companies are going to have significantly different needs than a traditional organization, so we apply technology accordingly. When it comes to data governance, we have specialized tools in our Syniti Knowledge Platform (SKP) that will help immensely in cleansing data from any corrupted, duplicate, or unnecessary pieces of data. This will have an immediate impact on any internal processes and these changes can be sustained through active governance.   

In your view, what are the most significant challenges organizations face in managing and transforming their data, and how does Syniti address these challenges?

Bad data is estimated to affect 32% of data-driven decision-making processes. Not only that, but bad data harms productivity. Our survey with HFS Research found productivity is reduced by 33% because of the time it takes to grapple with poor-quality data.

Aside from obvious hurdles like transferring to a new digital infrastructure or preparing for MA&D activity, one of the biggest things businesses struggle with is attaining contextual, quality data in the first place. More often than not, company executives have a hard time justifying the spend on what is traditionally seen as an IT issue – when conversely, data is a business issue. Syniti comes into play here by immediately identifying, categorizing, and cleaning an organization’s data. Our goal is to not only improve quality but also provide context, which allows companies to directly correlate their data quality issues with business impact. This further bridges the gap between business and IT, which often leads key to changes in business activities.

What trends do you foresee in the data management industry, and how is Syniti preparing to meet these future demands?

 Personally, I foresee data quality only becoming a bigger issue (or triumph) for businesses moving forward. As new technologies get thrown into every aspect of an organization (just look at how many companies are using AI), it’s only going to become more critical that data be of high enough quality that results can be trusted. On our end, we ensure that our delivery team has the capacity to guide our clients through data challenges with any emerging technologies to ensure they are maximizing the potential business benefits of these developing tools.

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What are the top five data management best practices you recommend to the IT teams before we close?

The top 5 data management best practices I’d recommend would be:

• Start Early: It is never too early to begin cleaning your organization’s data. In fact, putting data off for too long will only spell disaster and future headaches. Traditional approaches put cleansing way down the road of the project, we suggest actively making this a first step.
• Keep Up with Governance and Maintenance: As mentioned above, data cleanup cannot be a one-time effort. Without strong governance, data quality will quickly deteriorate, reducing the expected business value of transformational initiatives.
• Break the IT Mindset: Data is not an IT issue; it is a business issue. Data in context is the key skill. Make sure your partners take this approach and engrain this mindset into leadership early, and often.
• Nurture a data-driven culture: Aligning business and IT teams with shared business goals that value data-driven decisions will create a mindset shift that ensures pertinent stakeholders grasp the significance of a solid data foundation.
• Find a Trusted Partner: Data can be a complicated, and costly, issue. Don’t settle for a vendor that simply wants to apply a one-time fix or software only solution – your results will suffer for it. The road to successful business benefits is littered with people who ignore data in context. Find a partner willing to operate with your business for the long haul, and acutely understands your specific needs.

Thank you, Kevin, for sharing your insights with us.

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