Table Of Contents
“Data is the new (fill in the blank).”
Experts love to invent metaphors that describe data as a valuable resource to be extracted and refined. Most of these stories about gold and oil don’t capture the immense potential of data as a shared resource. What happens when data isn’t hoarded in silos or closed systems? How can data sharing multiply the power of information internally or across a data marketplace built for third-party data sharing?
Suddenly, the proposition gets more interesting, and those fancy metaphors don’t tell the whole story.
What is Data Sharing?
Data sharing is an agreement between companies to share data outside traditional boundaries. They might collaborate to understand customers better or create new products or services. While modern data marketplaces simplify these transactions, data sharing is anything but.
Zooming out, data sharing is about unlocking the power of information by extending it to new places. We’ve seen the power of data democratization and co-creation for quite some time, maybe without even knowing it.
Large educational and research institutions have long been leveraging shared data to achieve breakthroughs that would be impossible working inside traditional institutional silos. More recently, commercial multiparty collaboration is helping drive a nearly $1 trillion global digital ad business. This is only successful because brands and publishers combine data to target customers more effectively and precisely.
Whether building for faster research or more significant revenue, a true data-sharing platform (and culture) will:
- Help stakeholders consolidate first-party data across the org, giving everybody equal access to internal data and tools across silos and systems.
- Identify opportunities to leverage third-party data to improve products, services, and business intelligence.
- Empower orgs to securely (and compliantly) manage the data-sharing tools and agreements required to make it all work. This might be as simple as a data-sharing agreement, or as complex as a complete marketplace. Either way, everything must be mapped to regulatory and security obligations.
Data sharing is critical to the successes above. But is it right for every organization? What about data privacy? What about complexity? Organizations must fully understand the advantages and disadvantages of data sharing before moving forward.
5 Steps to Unleashing the Benefits of Internal Data Sharing in Your Organization
Download Revelate's whitepaper to discover the key steps for building an internal data-sharing system and leverage your data ecosystem today!
The Benefits of Data Sharing
As the volume and variety of data they collect continue to soar, organizations seek data sharing to create new opportunities for monetization and other indirect gains.
Fundamental IT and Data Maturation
Simplicity rules in enterprise IT. The fewer vendors, platforms, and versions to manage, the better. Reducing complexity also enables us to consolidate consistent tools, services, and best practices. The same applies to our data infrastructure.
Organizations are accumulating more data from users, applications, and services. But just like with IT environments, inconsistency breeds risk, and solution sprawl is even messier when it comes to data. Data sharing is a foundational first step towards data modernization, driving orgs towards consistent internal standards and SLAs. How can we increase data quality, consistency, and usability? Formalized data sharing can help drive all three.
Greater Stakeholder Value and Trust
We started by discussing how valuable data can be, especially collectively, so we already know data sharing enables continuous monetization. Data sharing is the first step towards unlocking data’s value for internal teams and external partners.
Data sharing ensures you understand your data inventory, where it is, and who needs it. From there, you can begin to design mechanisms for sharing, from a single API call to a complete marketplace built around third-party data sharing. Everything starts with a formalized data-sharing strategy aimed at monetization.
Luckily, along the way, the same systems and tools that inventory first-party data can keep it secure and compliant. We can now always know where data is, our obligations, and how they’re being fulfilled. They also enforce the transparency, visibility, and controls stakeholders and regulators expect.
The Barriers to Data Sharing
It’s probably not entirely accurate to say there are barriers to data sharing itself. Headlines are full of stories about companies that manage to share data quite poorly. But building an organization that can consistently (and compliantly) generate value through data sharing isn’t as simple.
A Defensive Data Mindset
The number one concern about data sharing (and almost every other transformation initiative) comes down to security. Will a new technology change in applications or services increase the potential of a data breach? Is secure data sharing even possible?
Data sharing can dramatically expand compliance obligations. Suddenly, it isn’t only internal, first-party data that must be secured. Data, security, and compliance teams must work together to understand what can/must be preserved and shared according to the laws in place.
- What compliance obligations are in place?
- Who is the superseding regulator?
- Is the data sensitive or PII (personally identifiable information)?
- What are our requirements around retention, disclosure, and deletion?
- How do we manage these obligations while sharing data?
While these decisions are challenging for any company, they’re harder for organizations struggling to collaborate across business, technology, and data management. An outdated, siloed approach to product development and innovation always makes data-sharing outcomes like monetization harder to achieve.
Continued Stress about Tech Proliferation
Technology selection still feels overwhelming even when organizations can solve for collective compliance and governance. Whether looking for a third-party solution or building around internal data warehouses and data-sharing services, it’s a lot to stand up and staff.
Orgs must also avoid “shadow IT but for data,” where teams choose solutions while contributing to a typical sprawl. They have particular data-sharing platform needs and wants; any collective choice is measured against those requirements. Ultimately, unhappy teams will make data sharing harder and less effective.
The Road Doesn’t Have to be So Narrow: Data Sharing Best Practices
As organizations work to maximize their data-sharing advantage, the pressure to get it right, absolutely right now, is accelerating. Competitive pressures, stakeholder demands, and even cultural FOMO make the process feel frantic and overwhelming.
Luckily, moving from your current state towards somewhere better doesn’t have to be so tense. Revelate has seen organizations of all shapes and sizes chart their path toward data maturity and tapping into formalized data marketplaces and exchanges.
While every starting point is unique, we’ve seen some universal best practices make all the difference—and the Revelate data-sharing platform can help make it happen.
Make Allies Out of Compliance
A quickly evolving, always aggressive regulatory landscape puts more power in the hands of compliance, especially where data sharing is involved. Revelate enables compliance teams to manage sensitive data obligations transparently and holistically for all party data, regardless of source.
- Embedded reporting always gives stakeholders the data they need
- Built-in risk assessments to flag potential problems early
Argue for Simplicity
Organizations are nervous about the risks of extending and modifying the IT environment. The ability to increase capabilities without increasing complexity (or headcount) can be almost magical and Revelate wins here too.
- Easy integration that leaves your data in place, on-prem or in the cloud
- Automated workflows that link the tools and applications you already use
Use Data Sharing to Champion Change, Not Vice Versa
Data sharing and monetization offer a very clear use case for data modernization. It’s also a powerful incentive for teams to begin the necessary work, and Revelate is the ideal platform to bring it all together.
- Rapid time-to-value for data fulfillment and monetization
- Access to trusted partners and marketplaces
Make Your Next Move a Smart One
Maximizing data via direct monetization or greater collaborative innovation starts with knowing what you have and where it can add value. This makes data sharing a fundamental first step for any organization. But how fast can you move? How fast should you proceed?
Moving too fast almost guarantees unnecessary risk. It’s also the best way to ensure your early efforts don’t pay off ultimately. But moving too slowly can leave you stuck watching the competition fly by.
The time is now, the opportunity is yours. Revelate can help you navigate the rest.
Unlock Your Data's Potential with Revelate
Revelate provides a suite of capabilities for data sharing and data commercialization for our customers to fully realize the value of their data. Harness the power of your data today!
Seamless data discovery and sharing
With Revelate, prepare, package, and deliver data from anywhere to anyone to realize the full value of your data.
