Why Launch An Internal Data Marketplace?

New data sharing technologies enable organizations to make the valuable data sets they produce through their business activities available to internal users. This approach can allow companies to harness their internal datasets to better meet the needs of their internal analysts, resulting in improved business outcomes and lower delivery costs.

Companies are learning that adopting a self-service approach to data access for internal data consumers can help ensure users receive the specific data they require. Using this approach, consumers can quickly discover the data elements they require for their specific use case, and start receiving the data in the format that best suits their needs.

For many organizations, the data they generate from their various business activities historically have been unwieldy, inconsistent, or unstructured. This has made it difficult to productize their data for immediate use by internal teams. Data may be generated and stored in many different repositories and systems, often with different formats, data fields, and frequency of updates.

This inconsistency of format and technology has stifled innovation as companies sought to exploit the full potential of their data. With business teams unable to get the data and analytics they needed in the format they needed it in, they were unable to respond to emerging opportunities or act swiftly to mitigate emerging risks to the business.

But things are changing.

Using data fulfillment platforms like TickSmith’s, organizations are discovering that they can productize their datasets and create ‘self-service’ facilities for internal data consumers. This kind of internal data ‘marketplace’ allows the creation of highly customized data products that meet the specific needs of internal business teams.

At the same time, TickSmith’s platform provides the framework firms need to strike the right balance between access and control: ensuring that those who are entitled to the data can rapidly access it and apply it to the business process while maintaining adequate controls so that sensitive information such as client data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

The ‘democratization of data’ afforded by the self-service approach reduces the burden on data producers while helping data consumers to discover and understand what data sets are available to them. By selecting the individual data sets they need for their activities, consumers are giving the firm’s data producers a better understanding of what data they require, and the delivery methodology that best suits their needs, whether via single download, subscription, or API.

This interaction between data producer and consumer, in turn, improves the likelihood that business users will make the right choices for their needs. This leads to better-informed decision-making, leading to improved business outcomes, and the discovery of new opportunities.

The approach also allows consumers to rapidly deploy the data without the need for  IT requests or resources. This cuts direct costs involved with the procurement of internal data services, and – more crucially – reduces time to value by rapidly deploying the data required to respond to an emerging business opportunity.

Moreover, through the greater use of data that is increasingly fit for purpose, consumers can provide feedback to the data originators. This creates a cycle of constantly improving data quality through an internal feedback loop.

Self-service through the use of data sharing technologies is still in its infancy. But the approach has the potential to empower organizations to better understand the value of their internally generated data, and make it available to help business decision-makers meet their objectives.

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