The rise of the “chief data officer”
Yep, another one to add to the c-suite. Visual Capitalist breaks down why they’re so important: 90% of large global companies will have one by 2019, and 45% are there for creating value. Time to turn that data into some actual money.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“CDOs spend 45% of their time focused on value creation or revenue generation, 27% on risk mitigation, and 28% on cost savings and efficiency.”
Mary Meeker’s privacy problem
If you’re not aware of Mary Meeker’s annual internet trends report, you should be. It’s one of the most important ways to see topline trends in internet, smartphone and general technology usage. (Silicon Valley practically salivates over it.) One of the more interesting takeaways this year was that we live in a “privacy paradox” – and businesses need to figure out new ways to navigate it.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“Meeker said it’s key for internet companies to understand the unintended consequences of their products and that regulators understand the unintended consequences of regulation.”
FlyBuys uses customer data to thrive
Post GDPR, more businesses are thinking about how they’re going to use data and marketing in new ways. Though not affected by the laws’ fallout here so much, FlyBuys is using personalisation to add value and drive revenue: a blueprint worth considering.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“It latched onto the idea of turning these vast stores into hyper-personalised content customers could not only engage in, but also learn something about themselves.”
Open banking finally on the way
It’s been talked about for months, but finally some progress: the major banks have been given a deadline to come up with their open data sharing standards. It’s a rush though: customers need to have access by July 1, 2019 – and the banks say it’s a stretch.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“In the next week or so, 15 members of an advisory committee to be chaired by Mr Stevens will be announced. It will hold its first meeting on July 11 in Sydney, to determine a timetable for banks’ development of new “application programming interfaces” (APIs), software to facilitate the data transfers.”
Could the blockchain solve data’s problems?
The financial industry has been a big believer in open data, especially with the rise of AI and machine learning. But could blockchain offer a new way to share information? This Forbes piece explores why blockchain-powered data sharing could solve some key issues.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“Blockchain approaches, as described in the MIT Trust Data initiative, provide a path to a trusted data framework which can ensure:
• more secure personal information
• better access to data through a personal data store
• an unchangeable audit trail of who’s done what with personal information.”
Should you be linking your data sets?
Sounds obvious, right? But as this piece points out, there are plenty of barriers in the way. In the end it comes down to this: what specific data are you using, and for what specific purpose? A catch-all policy won’t work.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“Linking data sets means faster and easier access to information for everyone who needs it, but as well as internal pushback – or a lack of awareness of the benefits – there are other factors that stand in the way. These include both commercial and technical reasons.”
Woolworths supercharges its data strategy
The supermarket giant is giving suppliers a bonus: a direct view into consumer spending habits. Although it already shares heaps of information, Woolworths wants to start giving that data to smaller manufacturers with tiered pricing structures. Neat.
THE TAKEAWAY:
“Woolworths also wants to make the data more granular, analysing shopping trends by channel (supermarkets, convenience stores and online), by store or clusters of stores, by days of the week and by SKUs (stock keeping units) to identify opportunities…”
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