For Penberthy, IT's role is "all about putting the data in the hands of people the way they are used to it."

This means allowing younger employees to use mobile devices and teaching more senior workers how they can expand content on their smartphone screens, he said.

Information generated from will prove valuable to marketing professionals, and future CIOs will help develop relationships between the IT and marketing departments, the panelists said.

"Having that data is not for the CFO anymore," said Dan Sheehan, chief operating officer of Modell's Sporting Goods. "That is looking in the rearview mirror." Instead, enterprises want to be more productive and drive traffic.

At Dunkin' Brands, the organization that franchises Dunkin' Donuts coffee and doughnut shops and where Sheehan served as CIO before joining Modell's, data was used to make real-time marketing decisions, he said.