Data sharing is a touchy topic in the world these days. Many applications and websites collect our data or require us to provide data to them. And when it comes to businesses and their data, there is a hesitation that comes with sharing it, and rightfully so. There’s a lot of private information that we don’t want to be shared with the world or with competitors as it could be damaging or harmful to our business. At The Intelligence Exchange, we know how important aligning your ecosystem is and that data can be a hoop you need to jump through. But what if that hoop was so large you didn’t have to jump through it? Capgemini Research Institute published a report titled “Data Sharing Masters” that details how data sharing ecosystems, like our Intelligence Exchanges, can lead to competitive advantages to help organizations thrive and survive both now and in the future.
Proven Benefits to Organizations
Data sharing ecosystems may sound daunting or difficult, but they’re a realistic option to assist many organizations. A data sharing ecosystem occurs when businesses agree to share information, such as data and insights, under locally applicable regulations to create new value for every participant. Simply put, with privacy-protecting technologies like homomorphic encryption and differential privacy, businesses have the opportunity to safely participate in data sharing ecosystems. The potential financial benefits that arise from this opportunity can reach up to 9% of annual revenue for an organization in total in the next five years. In that same time frame, these organizations can expect to deliver significant financial benefits like new revenue streams, cost savings, and increases in productivity in the same time period. This could mean not just the introduction of millions of dollars in revenue, but also the alignment of your ecosystem and a transition to becoming a resilient organization.
Specifically, there are several statistics that back the usage of data sharing ecosystems, such as an Intelligence Exchange. The most important figures that come from engaging in data ecosystems are:
- Improved customer satisfaction by 15%
- An improvement in productivity and efficiency by 14%
- Reduction in annual costs by 11%
- Up to fourteen times higher fixed asset turnover
- Two times higher market capitalizations
- 37% higher revenue per employee
The Future of Ecosystems
It’s evident that organizations already participating in data sharing ecosystems have started to succeed at what they’ve set out to do: find a way to survive in a world full of disruption. This successful option is something we will see pop up more often in the near future, as Capgemini states that 48% of organizations plan to launch new data ecosystems in the near future, and 84% of them will do so in the next three years. Even further, one in four organizations will begin to invest up to $50 million in data sharing ecosystems over that time frame. With a large number of businesses seeing the impact these ecosystems can have, it’s not a shock that more will begin to enter this world as well.
Data sharing ecosystems can be utilized across different data domains, sectors, and value chains, which provides flexibility in its utilization. Not every data sharing ecosystem operates the same. Some only have simple data sharing and low levels of collaboration, while others use more mature models that are very collaborative and have several external data sources. The study shares that organizations who are involved in more complex and collaborative data sharing ecosystems have “the potential to significantly outperform other organizations.” The businesses in these more complex ecosystems have the potential to drive in an additional 10 percentage points of financial advantage over the next three years. It all depends on how an organization would like to operate its data ecosystem. There are benefits to all kinds of data sharing ecosystems, but the most benefits come to those who have increased participation amongst partners.
Transparency and Safety
Both The Intelligence Exchange and Capgemini understand that getting access to external data is challenging. It requires transparency, which is the ability to enable trust and participants sovereignty over their data. “Technology is increasingly making it easy to collect, manage, and access new types of data,” the report states, “good-quality external data is especially hard to find. This is where data [sharing] ecosystems can help.” As stated previously, recent technological developments allow large organizations to share data safely and securely. All partners in a data sharing organization need a safe environment to participate. To participate, it is necessary to comply with regulations in order to protect that sovereignty of all users. The report also shares the fact that “data can be more than an asset – it can become a product in itself.”
Dadier Navez, a Senior Vice President of Strategy and Alliances at Dawex, is quoted in the report as saying, “At first, you need a trusted environment where organizations can come together to collaborate with faith in the onboarding and vetting of participants and their respective roles, and second, data exchange has to happen in a trusted manner, in compliance with regulations under mutually agreed terms and conditions, including transparency in data sharing and pricing.” Organizations that use more than seven total data sources have nearly fourteen times higher fixed asset turnover and twice the market capitalization compared to those that use no external data. There’s no doubt that some hesitancy will remain, but as Navez tells us, with proper protection, transparency and safety, organizations can benefit greatly from data sharing ecosystems.
Security and Sustainability
One of these new technologies that can help with safe and secure data sharing is homomorphic encryption. Capgemini tells us that this special encryption technique allows data processing without encryption of the data first. This results in the process being encrypted and secure behind a secret decryption key. Microsoft SEAL is a code library that makes homomorphic encryption easily available to use, and IBM recently completed field trials for their own homomorphic encryption. At The Intelligence Exchange, we also utilize homomorphic encryption to help organizations participate securely in data sharing ecosystems, and we see the benefits in action.
Data sharing ecosystems will play a large role in the future of sustainability and development in many sectors. But not just for businesses. “Societal good is one of the major drivers for our external data sharing…we share data with academic institutions and universities for research on optical health. It helps us understand the optical health conditions of citizens and suggest measures to improve them,” a Global Head of Engineering at a multinational optical retailer shares. There’s more to this than the survival of our businesses, as there are societal impacts and benefits as well. External data sharing can help businesses be better with analyzing customer purchase behavior, aligning media spend, and customer segmentation.
For More
It shouldn’t be a wonder why businesses want to align their partners with a data sharing ecosystem. The Intelligence Exchange knows that utilizing several data sources, both internal and external, is beneficial to all organizations involved in the ecosystem and to the world surrounding them. There are financial and societal gains to be had. The next step is putting together a data sharing ecosystem. The Intelligence Exchange can help you with that. To learn more about setting up an Intelligence Exchange for your partners and ecosystem, contact us with the information below. And to read the rest of the report from Capgemini, visit this link.