WHAT IS DATA DEMOCRATISATION?
Following on from the first article in my data series about the evolution of programming languages, I want to talk this time about a topic that is increasingly more relevant in both a professional and personal context, data democratisation.
Many will be familiar with the statistic that over 90% of all data that exists in the world today was created in that last two years; according to the World Economic Forum, the production of data will reach 40 zettabytes in the next 2 years – zettabyte being 270 bytes. I recently spoke at the Future Technology Summit, as part of the Ingenuity19 event, at Nottingham University about the future of data and what trends would significantly impact the volume of data produced. More and more, we are adding sensors to devices and connecting them to the internet, so the key trend I discussed was the Internet of Things as this is where the significant volumes of data will most likely originate from in the not so distant future.
The unprecedented amounts of data coupled with the relative shortage of talent in analytical fields makes the argument for making digital data available to all employees within an organisation, so that they can make better and more informed decisions, an increasingly compelling one. This concept is the basis of data democratisation within a business context.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES?
Historically data has been ‘owned’ by the IT department, and all other employees have had to go via this team to access a business critical resource. Data democratisation presents a potential opportunity to improve their decision-making capability, and reach new heights of performance:
Removing gatekeepers to the data that often create bottlenecks within the company structure;
Employees would be more empowered to make decisions as the barrier to access is removed; data democratisation also means providing education around what the data is (and perhaps more importantly, isn’t) such that the barrier to understanding is also removed;
Leads to faster decision-making and more agile, data-driven teams; giving employees an increased sense of ownership and responsibility at a localised level, as well as at a company-wide level;
Customer experience can be greatly improved by access to data at every level of an organisation, and companies that do this well often end up differentiating themselves from their competition.
Although the opportunities that data democratisation presents are vast, there are a number of concerns around the following areas:
Misinterpretation of data by non-technical staff which may lead to poor decision-making;
Increased security risk, due to more people having access to data – an increased attack surface and points of potential compromise;
Duplication of effort across multiple teams due to lack of a centralised analytical function.
Implementing data democratisation means making considerable investments in terms of budget, software and training
HOW DO WE ACHIEVE IT?
Implementing data democratisation means making considerable investments in terms of budget, software and training. There needs to be a clear strategy and measurable success factors as to how data democratisation will impact the company culture and bottom-line; relevant KPIs need to be set up in order to track the progress and impact of data democratisation on a company.
Breaking down information silos and linking the data to create a 360° view of customers is a significant transformation undertaking from both a people and software perspective. Increased access to data means well defined data quality responsibility is required to ensure that appropriate and defensible decisions can be made off the back of this data. A data governance strategy should be implemented to ensure best practise.
Data visualisation becomes of vital tool, particularly for non-analytical staff, giving users the ability to work independently to extract insights that are relevant to their areas.
CASE STUDY: www.harbr.group
There is a wealth of companies who are trying to help companies implement a successful data democratisation strategy, but the example I’ll cover here is a start-up called HARBR. Their mission is to provide a platform where users can easily distribute and control their data, as well as providing a space for analysis, collaboration and the sharing of ideas.
What I particularly like about the HARBR offering is their Store concept. This allows users to subscribe to data feeds, both internal and external, and use the data (dependant on permissions) for as long or as short a time as is necessary. The look and feel of the Store is very much inspired by the app stores we’ve all become so accustomed to, so using it is already very intuitive. The idea of the store also starts to touch on the idea of data monetisation, which will be discussed in a subsequent article.
Increased access to data means well defined data quality responsibility is required to ensure that appropriate and defensible decisions can be made off the back of this data
WHAT DOES DATA DEMOCRATISATION MEAN IN A CONSUMER CONTEXT?
So far, the discussion has focussed on how organisations can benefit from making data available to all employees, but how does this impact our personal lives? Consumers are increasingly aware of the value of their data, and expect a return on the provision of personal information, whether that is:
An expectation that the data will be handled, stored and used in a secure and appropriate fashion;
Consent for and control over how that data is treated, and which third parties it is shared with;
A value exchange, whereby people share their data in order to receive a tangible reward.
GDPR has already started to put the power back in the hands of the individual, but there is still no way for people to know what information is held about them, who has access to that information, and what that information is being used for
GDPR, and other legislation that will invariably follow suit, has already started to put the power back in the hands of the individual, but there is still no way for people to know what information is held about them, who has access to that information, and what that information is being used for. In an op-ed for Time Magazine, Tim Cook recently called for a registry for data brokers that buy and sell data from third parties. Such a register would be incredibly challenging to implement, but it would be the first step towards data democratisation from a consumer perspective, with the next steps being to allow people to analyse their own data and make decisions based on that analysis.
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Notes on contributors
Louise Maynard-Atem
Louise Maynard-Atem is an innovation specialist in the Data Exchange team at Experian. She is the co-founder of the Corporate Innovation Forum and an active member of the OR Society. She is also an advocate for STEM activities, volunteering with the STEMettes and The Access Project.