Get your budget on
You know Pocketbook? It’s an Australian budgeting app, and it’s kind of a big deal – 400,000 users say so, anyway. Macquarie is letting the app access a bunch of spending data through an API. Fancy. This is a big win for all those open banking advocates.
The takeaway:
“While the big banks have direct API connections for business customers using cloud-based accounting software like Xero and MYOB… it is believed this is the first time in the Australian market that any retail banking data has flowed out of a large bank into a fintech player.”
Can big data predict politics?
Many did not see Trump coming. But data might have? Maybe? Kind of – that’s what this Vox piece says anyway. But it seems like the idea here is to use data to explain why things happen, instead of predicting them. Less sexy. But still useful.
The takeaway:
“For those who seek to use these tools for influence, or to help achieve particular policy outcomes, wouldn’t it be better to know how and why something works, rather than whether or not it is likely to happen?”
Data needs to deliver or die
Harsh! But that’s what CIO thinks. The short of it: there are a bunch of cool analytics trends, but they need to start giving value. Data lakes, data curation and even CDOs need to provide their worth. It’s optimistic about some of them – less about others.
The takeaway:
“The new dumping ground of data — data lakes — has gone through experimental deployments over the last few years, and will start to be shut down unless they prove that they can deliver value.”
A guide for using data in retail
Using data is hard! We all know that. But what to do? This Marketing Land piece has a pretty nifty guide on how retailers can start actually using it to get value. Hint: you need to spend a lot of time being nice to people.
The takeaway:
“In most cases, marketers are dying to have some insights to work from instead of stabbing in the dark on campaigns. Data is the answer; they just need to see the light.”
That’s our wrap for this week. Thanks for reading – we hope you found it entertaining and informational. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these articles and anything else data related! Email us anytime at enquiries@datarepublic.com!
Until next week,
Team Data Republic
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