BBVA Fuels Digital Transformation Progress with a Data Science Center of Excellence

BBVA was a global financial group that established a data science center of excellence (CoE) in 2014 to co-create high-value analytics-based solutions with BBVA project teams; create innovative BBVA data science capabilities; and lead BBVA’s data-driven culture change. BBVA established the CoE as a wholly owned subsidiary called BBVA Data & Analytics, and by 2017, the CoE had taken several noteworthy actions, which included (1) launching more than forty data science projects for approximately one-third of the business units at BBVA; (2) commercializing a flagship data product for markets in Spain, Mexico, and Colombia; and (3) developing an active, BBVA-wide data science community of practice. The case illustrates exemplary CoE activities and describes lessons learned that can help managers accelerate the spread of data science and maximize financial returns from their own data science investments.