The Importance of Data Ownership

I’ve sat on both sides of the table - as a CIO responsible for building enterprise strategy, and now as Qlik CEO, accountable for delivering outcomes for thousands of organizations. There’s one belief that has never changed, and people have often heard me repeat: your data should serve your business, not someone else’s agenda. With Salesforce moving to acquire Informatica, many CIOs and data leaders are facing a dilemma. Consolidation may promise simplicity, but it often brings the opposite: slower innovation, tighter vendor lock-in, integration risk, and higher long-term costs. I’ve seen what happens when control over your data is handed off to a single-stack provider. Innovation slows. Priorities shift. And your strategy becomes someone else’s roadmap. You need to own your data strategy - with flexibility, transparency, and the freedom to act at your pace. That’s especially true as we enter the age of Agentic AI, where trust and interoperability aren’t nice-to-haves - they’re non-negotiable. If you’re an Informatica customer or simply watching the shifts happening in the industry, here’s my advice: Ask the hard questions now. Don’t wait for a roadmap to catch up to your reality. Choose openness. Choose control. Your business deserves nothing less. Read my full blog: Why Your Data Strategy Needs to Be Open, Now More Than Ever: https://lnkd.in/df59jhEs

Over the past decade, Salesforce has built its empire by being the system of record for the modern enterprise. But lately, it feels like they’ve traded #innovation for inertia—and control for compliance. The latest updates to Slack’s API Terms of Service are a clear signal: Salesforce wants to decide how you can use your own data. And if you plan to use that data to power AI or search platforms that aren't theirs? Good luck. This is more than just a technical limitation. It’s a philosophical one. In a world where companies must activate their internal knowledge to stay competitive, locking down data access feels like a defensive move to fend off disruption—not an effort to enable customer success. The fact that customers now need to request permission to access their own communications, for internal use, sets a dangerous precedent. One that prioritizes Salesforce’s competitive moat over your operational autonomy. We’re at a critical moment. AI is changing how work gets done, and businesses need partners who unlock possibility—not gate it. If Salesforce continues to restrict data portability and interoperability, customers will eventually walk. Because in the age of AI, your data isn’t just an asset—it’s the engine. And no one should get to tell you where you can drive it. Anyone else frustrated? https://lnkd.in/gHFfdKsx #Innovation #DigitalTransformation #DataOwnership #AIethics #EnterpriseTech Denise Holland Dresser

Who owns data in a business? Data is a novel asset that is monetized multiple times, serves multiple functions, and requires multiple owners. Here’s how to break it down. Finance should own the monetization and valuation of the business’s data assets. This allows it to estimate the near- and long-term AI opportunity size to budget appropriately. Individual business units have functional objectives for data and must have ownership that allows them to leverage data to improve outcomes. That includes self-service tools and upskilling. The data team owns engineering new data-generating processes, curating datasets, and transforming the asset into artifacts that can be productized to deliver value. AI strategy owns opportunity discovery and defining the highest value datasets and artifacts to be built. AI product owns the initiative breakdown, productization, and taking data and AI products to market. The security team owns validating and safeguarding the asset. The quality and governance team audits and enforces standards. Other technical teams own integrating data artifacts into existing systems and products. IT may own the infrastructure and architecture. Every part of the business generates data, can leverage it to create more value, and needs ownership. #AI #Data