By now, I think it’s safe to say that Facebook has become something of a standard-bearer in several industries, especially media, advertising, and in the monetization of data. While not everyone is OK with how they
accomplished it—transforming massive amounts of user data into a product—we think there’s plenty for us to learn from pioneers of data monetization like Facebook, both good and bad.
According to a recent McKinsey Global Survey, more and more companies are finding new creative ways to leverage data and analytics to fuel growth. We’re still in the early days of these types of strategies and tactics, but some of the fastest-growing companies McKinsey talked to for the survey are the ones achieving early success with data monetization.
Your playbook for monetizing data should start with thinking critically about how your company currently uses data and imagining ways data might fit in to create value for you or your customers. This could translate to creating new products, services, or business models…or modifying existing ones. The best way to start, according to some of these companies already doing it, is to always be thinking about the data angle in all of your business processes and projects…and back that up with complementary organizational design and hiring practices.
Here are some of the business models companies are using to create success in these early days of data monetization:
Contributory Databases
With this model, a customer contributes their own data to an aggregated data set in exchange for receiving back that larger aggregated data set. This type of business model may also require some type of monetary payment, licensing, or subscription from the data-contributing customer.
Data Creation Platforms
This type of data business focuses on using data to solve problems for customers. The main goal for the proprietor of a data creation platform is to grow the data set in order to make it increasingly accurate and valuable.
In order to become a “dealer” in the data economy, you need to have the infrastructure in place to support such activities. That means going paperless and integrating data, analytics, and process automation into your own business model. In other words, you need to become the most efficient and data-centric version of yourself that you can be, using the latest cloud and digital transformation technologies. Those are the tools of this trade, and you need to familiarize yourself with them before you can wield them profitably.
Imaging Office Systems offers the expertise your organization needs to update your business systems and become a player in the data economy. Contact us today to start the conversation about how that might look for your company.