How Companies Are Turning Data Exhaust Into Cash
Opportunities abound to sell customer data related to transactions and product usage, but companies must be sure that data is anonymous.
Most organizations collect enormous amounts of data these days, and many of them are implementing complex AI/cognitive computing-powered analytic tools in order to make better business decisions. Even then, many types of companies—telecoms, retailers, financial services companies, and utilities, among others—have an enormous opportunity to take advantage of, and monetize, their data exhaust.
Data exhaust is any information collected that isn’t core to a business and the decisions it needs to make, according to a new ebook from TDWI. Typically, this secondary data comes from web browsing habits or GPS data. Google is notorious for collecting this kind of data on its users, even without knowing how, exactly, it will take advantage of the details. Sometimes, that exhaust might not be taken advantage of for months or years, if ever.
Because 50 different web interactions can result in a single transaction, data exhaust often occupies much more storage space than the primary data that companies are actively analyzing. Given the enormous cost of big data storage, companies might be able to mitigate some or all of the cost of storing data exhaust by monetizing it. Others could build entire new business departments around that otherwise-unused data.
Monetization of data exhaust can take on a number of different forms.
Say an online clothing retailer is collecting transactions as its primary—or core—data. At the same time, they might also be collecting cookies, usage analytics, and other browsing habits of their users. They might have tools in place to analyze some of that information to offer personalized results, but other organizations might want that data even more. A fashion brand, for example, might be able to use the data to understand patterns and create new products that more precisely satisfy what consumers want. Similarly, insurance companies are clamoring for telematics data from vehicles to build better policies based on more precise risk determinations.
