siliconindia | | Jan - March 20189generated, from a much wider variety of sources, and at a more frequent pace.We used to think of data mostly from a business viewpoint, as data generated from business transactions, but almost every action now leaves a digital footprint and generates data. We have data pouring in from an increasing number of sources, including sensors and devices that form the Internet of Things (IoT), from social networks, research data, government data, and from an organization's own systems.Improved Data AccessibilityBy some accounts, the amount of data is growing exponentially, doubling every two years. However, more data by itself does not necessarily mean more value. For data to be valuable, it needs to be curated and made easily accessible.According to Forrester Research, 70 percent of companies that grew over 15 percent YOY believe external data from partners is strategic to their firms' overall business strategy, and 72 per-cent believe the same for third-party data.This means that companies understand they cannot generate or own all the data they need to de-liver the right services to their customers. There is signifi-cant value to be gained from data provided by partners or other external providers.This concept of organizations obtaining data from external vendors is not new. Several institutional data vendors and providers like Dun & Brad-street and Reuters sell curated and aggregated data-sets to businesses. The important shift is happening, however, with the ease of making data available in the cloud and use of APIs significantly increases accessibility, the barrier to shar-ing data has been lowered dramatically. Technology is making it easier for organizations to publish valuable data and give ac-cess to customers and partners. As a result, a growing number of organizations are publishing an increasingly large number of datasets, including private companies, research institutions, educational institutions, and government agencies.One prime example is the data government site from the U.S. government, which hosts more than 192,000 datasets (e.g., information on population statistics, demographics, health, agriculture, energy, and education). These are made accessible through APIs, allowing developers to easily build a wide range of applications.An example is Zillow, providers of a website in the U.S. offering detailed information on real estate, including current home values, price history, neighborhood comparisons, information on schools, and pricing trends for neighborhoods. This is based on data from Zillow's own primary research, combined with data from public records (e.g., real-estate transactions) and external third-party data sources (e.g., maps, neighborhood stores).Companies are thus bringing together data from multiple sources to deliver new products and experiences for their customers.Data: The New CurrencyIncreasingly, companies and organizations are realizing the value that their own data may provide to their partners and others, and they're looking at ways to share it for mutual benefit. An example is the multi-brand loyalty program Plenti that provides one common loyalty card used by several U.S. retailers, including Macy's, Rite Aid, Exxon and Mobil. Customers can earn points by shopping at one of the participating retailers and redeem these points with several of the other companies in the group. In this case, since customer buying history gets shared across companies, it raises some consumer-privacy concerns­something to be addressed in a separate discussion.Increasingly, businesses are also looking at ways to monetize their data by making it available at a price to other companies that can, in turn, use it to create new services for their customers.In conclusion, data is not only more available, it is more easily accessible and shareable because of the ease of cloud deployment and increasing use of APIs. Combined with the new generation of big-data technology and infrastruc-ture makes it possible to process, combine and create a new mash-up of services that can deliver significant competitive advantage. Organizations are more frequently using internal and external data to increase revenue by creating new offer-ings, sharing data with partners to create new services, or even monetizing data by selling to customers and third parties.Data is becoming one of the most important corporate as-sets that can help drive revenue. It is indeed the lifeblood of the digital economy.
< Page 8 | Page 10 >