Did you know that the Farmer’s Almanac has been treating data as a product since 1792 to provide weather, astronomical event, and record predictions? Consumer Reports has been using data as a product for almost 80 years and providing consumers with information they need to make an educated decision on products. Dow Jones has been using data as a product for businesses and investors. All three have recognized the monetary value of their data and have capitalized on it for decades and centuries.
Treating data as a product is not new, but it is becoming more challenging as big data continues to grow in magnitude. These organizations have learned how to take their big data, analyze it, segment it and continue selling it as a product. Many of them use data visualization in one form or another to present their data to their customers. Dow Jones’ Factiva is a perfect example. Their data visualization dashboard displays what’s most important without all the clutter, because they know what their customers wants and segment the right datasets.
Use Your Dataset as a Product
Customers are willing to pay for data as a product when the data benefits them in a tangible way from planning a camping trip, to buying a new car, investing in the stock market and the list goes on. The goal is to know your customer’s need, pull out the dataset from your big data that will solve the need and give your customer access to it. This can be done in different ways, depending on your customer and how they prefer to view data.
- Real-time Visual Dashboard – Develop a secure subscription-based and user-friendly dashboard that pulls data from different sources and customize the visualization according to your customer’s preference such as pie-charts vs line graphs. Provide them an added value with email or push notifications.
- Automated Reports – If you’re customer or stakeholder that relies heavily on detailed data, such as an investing firm, an automated report may be the best avenue. Automated reports can cut down on the time to gather, sift and layout the data. An automated report can be customized to keep your branding consistent.
- Customizable Infographics – If your customer needs the ability to take your data and create an infographic, give them the option to choose templated layouts to display and download your data as a PDF.
If you have been looking at your data as a bunch of numbers and statistics with no end in sight, it is time to change your mindset. Look at the value of datasets within your big data that will be problem-solvers and game-changers. Who knows what you will find when you start digging.