As the open data movement continues to grow, more and more businesses are choosing to make their own data freely available. Although this may seem counterintuitive, providing access to your company's information actually comes with a number of potential benefits; there's a reason market leaders like Google and ASOS are joining the bandwagon. If you're interested in learning why open data is increasing amongst businesses, read on to find out...
Why Open Up?
The chart below from the Open Data Institute shows how UK companies are currently using open data. As you can see, of those businesses surveyed state they are publishing data; not just accessing and re-using.
So, what are the potential reasons that these companies have made the decision to do so? Here are the main advantages of making company data available for the world to find and use:
Increase Trust. There will be much to be said for company transparency in the future, as the opening of data becomes more commonplace in the business world as well as in government. With this will come a growing expectation from consumers that businesses should open their data, with those that do being seen as more trustworthy.
Inform Leads. Given that the majority of the sales journey is now self-guided, the majority of buyers are much more likely to seek out information on your company themselves before contacting your sales team. Allowing them to access your company's data could give them the insight that they need in order to move further along the sales funnel.
Drive Traffic. Opening your data can also help to bring more traffic to your site, increasing ad revenue and/or potential for sales. Providing the information that you're offering is interesting enough, it could even see you becoming something of a go-to resource, ensuring that visitors keep coming back to your site.
Opportunities for Collaboration. By allowing other businesses to see you company data you open up the possibility for new chances for collaboration. This could see your supply chain being made more efficient or better results in your marketing campaigns.
Attract Talent. Data professionals are notoriously in demand right now, so by opening your data you show that you're a forward-thinking company and give them a taste of what to expect. You could even run a contest using the data so they’re able to show off their skills as part of the selection process.
Open Data Case Studies
You don't have to look too far to find companies that have opened their data (or some of it at least). Here are three examples of well-known organisations benefiting from doing just that.
The online retailer opened its API (application programming interface) in 2012, allowing third parties to access its product database. The reasoning behind it? It's allowed developers to build apps based on this data that will then lead potential customers back to the ASOS site, extending their online presence even further.
Over £200 million worth of annual savings was identified thanks to the NHS opening their data - and that's just from one class of prescription drugs alone. The revelation came from big data startup Mastodon C, who teamed up with health technology startup Open Health Care UK, to uncover the huge savings in just eight weeks after looking at prescribing patterns in GP practices.
The chairman of the gold production company made a potentially risky decision in 2001 after a disappointing mine saw limited results. He opened up the company's geological data (which went back as far as 1948) and announced that he was offering $575,000 in prizes to anyone who could find a lucrative site.
The challenge took off and 110 sites were identified; 50% of which were not previously known to the company. 80% of these new spots provided significant gold reserves. The end result? Gold worth over $6 billion and, as is shown in the chart below, fantastic stock growth.
Image source: http://cavqm.blogspot.it
To find out about other companies and organisations that provide open data, take a look at 10 of the Best Open Data Sources on the Web.
Which Data to Open?
Though you may think that none of your data would be of interest to anyone outside of your company, you'd be surprised at the potential it could hold. While administrative data such as receipts from customers and website access logs can be tricky to open up due to the fact it will often include personal data. However, other forms of data such as product information or data that shows trends in time periods or geographical location are fine.
Keep in mind that you don't need to open everything at once; if you'd like to go for a more trial and error approach and offer certain datasets to see how it affects your business, that's totally fine. Just make sure that the data you're providing is fully yours, i.e. it was gathered and is maintained by your company.
What’s Already Out There?
If you're anxious to find out what information about your company is already freely available online, you could, first of all, try Companies House. The site contains limited information such as business address and date of establishment, current and previous officers and mortgage charge data. If you find that the information about your company is no longer correct, you can go through the process on the Companies House website to change it.
The best place to get a detailed overview of what others can find out about your company is the business intelligence platform from Global Database. It holds records of over four million UK companies, all of which can be accessed free of charge. Data is taken from a variety of sources, so it offers a good insight into what's out there, including things like profit and loss accounts, technology insights, employee details, corporate ownership, group structure, mortgages and charges and more.
While accessing open data from other companies and organisations can prove very useful to a business, so too can opening up your own. If you'd like to find out what information customers and competitors can already see, a free search on Global Database is the quickest and easiest option.
