CIO Karriem Shakoor on harnessing the power of data democratization

At UL Solutions, CIO Karriem Shakoor has identified clear cultural and architectural requirements for achieving data democratization so that IT can get out of the reports business and into driving revenue.

Recently, I had the chance to speak at length with Shakoor about data strategy at the global safety science company, which has over 15,000 employees in 40 countries. What follows is an edited version of our interview.

Martha Heller: How is software changing UL Solutions as a business?

Karriem Shakoor: UL Solutions’ ambition is to be our customers’ most trusted, scienced-based safety, security, and sustainability partner, which means that we need best-in-class technology infrastructure. For example, investing in industry-leading customer relationship management software lets us leverage the collective innovation of that software company’s entire customer base toward meeting our own transformation goals, rather than starting from scratch. That allows our sales teams to run and track their activities with feature-rich and fully integrated processes.

But the software tools are only as powerful as our ability to create a consistent view of our customer base. We can digitize our services and enable their appropriate pricing and configuration for a customer, but to fully leverage the software investment, we also need reliable, accurate customer and account data to support direct marketing, lead generation, and personalization.

What are the steps toward having a data strategy that fully leverages the software?