Open data can be defined simply as information that has been made available for anyone to access, use, and share. It encompasses a wide range of types of data; everything from train timetables to figures for government spending, and as a result, it creates many opportunities across practically every industry.
A growing number of companies and organisations are realising the value that open data holds - research by McKinsey estimates that a global market built on open data could be worth $3 trillion to $5 trillion a year. While the movement is still largely in its infancy, there are some impressive cases of open data being used to great effect. Here are five of the best examples, along with some ideas for how your business can benefit from the phenomenon.
Before we delve into the success stories, let's take a look at how that success can be measured in the first place. While this is clearly very easy for those projects that are built on open data, it can be a bit trickier for other organisations to ascertain just how valuable the use of open data has been.
Firstly, there's the fact that the impacts of open data can fall under three possible options; social, commercial and economic, and then divided further into specific effects such as increased efficiency, more sales, or better user experience. In terms of assessing its monetary value, for example in a marketing campaign, return on investment (ROI) is the easiest option. There's no exact science here; it involved some trial and error. You can compare the results of your campaign that included the use of open data with previous campaigns that relied on paid data, or even implement split testing to measure the ROI for both simultaneously.
When it comes to assessing the data itself, it's important to look at quality. Very little value can be derived from information that is inaccurate or incomplete, and it may also be necessary to hire a data professional to extract and analyse the right information in the case of particularly large and/or complex datasets. The amount of influence and authority, i.e. how much the dataset is being used and how trusted it is, can also be a good indicator of value.
These examples illustrate the wealth of opportunity that exists within the open data movement. Whether using the data to compliment an existing service or marketing strategy, or building a new project entirely, as these businesses and organisations prove, the potential rewards can be fantastic.
Most people will have heard of the online real estate company Zillow, but what you may not have realised is that the site is largely built on open data. The marketplace uses local government data such as tax assessments, mortgages and deeds and presents it in an easy-to-read way for consumers. It's also set to include more open data in due course, making more government data such as crime statistics and housing permits available.
With tens of millions of homes listed on its network, Zillow has around 160 million monthly visitors and now accounts for 64% of the online real estate market share.
Twitter's data and APIs are used by numerous businesses and organisations who are looking to gain helpful customer insights; even hedge funds turn to the site to help with trading decisions.
While this example is obviously on a much larger scale than the majority of businesses, it illustrates how opening up your own data can prove extremely beneficial; you can keep people coming back your site whilst building a sense of authority in your industry.
One of the most impressive examples of an open data-powered project achieving huge financial success is insurance underwriting company The Climate Corporation. The company uses weather forecasts and geological survey data from the National Weather Service to underwrite weather insurance for farmers.
Agriculture giant Monsanto decided that The Climate Corporation would enable them to drive more sales to those who already buy seed and chemicals from them, so bought the company in 2013 for around $930 million.
Transport for London, or TfL, was one of the earliest adopters of the open data movement; they've been releasing information such as timetables, service status and disruption information for over a decade. The value of all of this accessible data? Around £130 million to London's economy every year, according to research by Deloitte. The opening of this data has not only made people's journeys easier, it has also created jobs and provided opportunities for innovation - the popular public transport app Citymapper being a prime example.
Data startup Mastodon C teamed up with Open Health Care UK in order to identify potential cost savings for the NHS, focusing their search on statin drugs and looking at prescriptions data from the NHS. After just eight weeks the team had found a total of £200 million worth of savings.
Open data can be extremely beneficial to your business. As is shown in the chart below from Jaywing's 2017 Data-Driven Marketing Report, having access to data is the most important factor for marketers.
No matter what industry you're in, you are likely to find a dataset relevant to the interests and operations of your company. If you're a pharmaceuticals company you can look at prescription data and estate agents can look at data from the Land Registry, to name just a couple of examples.
Open data can be used to gain insights into your customers and the market as a whole, to increase efficiency and raise productivity, to improve the customer journey or even to identify gaps in the market and form a new project or company based off of this information.
Business intelligence provider Global Database has recently opened up the majority of their data for UK companies, allowing you to access information such as a number of employees, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, employee names and job titles, and more. The information can be used for a wide variety of uses, including due diligence checks and credit scoring, lead qualification, or simply double-checking the accuracy of the data you already have.
The database comes with good pedigree given that the company's paid subscription service is used by market-leading brands such as Cisco, Nissan, Avaya, and DHL, and all of the information is presented in a clear and easy-to-read way. It’s a great place to start whenever you need information on a specific company.
Open data may still be a relatively new phenomenon in the grand scheme of things, but as these examples prove, it is already reaping plenty of rewards for those who have sought out datasets relevant to their niche. Even if your business has no need for the wide range of data being released by government departments and organisations, company intelligence such as that offered by Global Database is always useful for sales and marketing purposes - and even more so when it's free!
