Managing data: How data became the key tech driver

All the companies worked towards learning more about their users to better target them

As the digital age unfolds before our eyes, data has become the new currency with economic and societal value. The interplay of transmitted data and its spiralling growth is steadily affecting the world economy. Global businesses are disrupting age-old models to build products and services that can predict and preempt value.
 
2017 saw renewed disruption, as the number of firms exploiting the data network by tapping into new information reserves increased day by day. All worked towards learning more about their users to better target them. This held especially true for consumer-facing industries like banking and telecom.
 
Data and banking
 
In March 2017, Darryl West, chief information officer, HSBC Bank, said that apart from its $2.4 trillion assets, the core asset of the company is its data bank. He was not the only one to make such an assertion. This is true for most of the sector in the move towards becoming more data-centric.
 
As consumers demanded increased personalisation, banks undertook focused investments in understanding existing and future consumers. Data collection moved from just the “Age of the Individual” or “SEC” category to actual likes and dislikes, where they spend their money, when are they travelling etc.
 
Telecom: riding the big data wave
 
No one understands the importance of data more than the telecom industry, as it enjoys a unique benefit in the marketplace — an extreme reach into the consumer markets. They have more data than any other industry on customer behaviour, preferences and movements.
 
2017 saw a swell in companies using the surging data revenues for emergence of business models that best utilise consumer data and can drive differentiation. With a large customer base, ownership of key infrastructure and strong technology capabilities, the telecom industry is on its way to becoming complete digital services providers. Data is now the driving force behind revenue generation, as telecom players have begun monetising their data services in different ways.
 
All this is good, but these developments come at a cost. Businesses in 2017 grappled with the answer to the crucial question — How to balance the need to be data-driven with data privacy/security?
 
Today, access to digital products is based on agreements of tracking, analysing and marketing of individual’s digital footprint. Most of the data is shared freely on an assumption of personal data privacy.
 
An increasing number of cyber privacy breaches made the world realise that this new wave of data economy is decreasing individual control over their own information. Therefore, it became apparent that individuals as well as the enterprises needed to work towards creating an ecosystem that balances data-driven business with data security and privacy. Organisations realised the need to begin with a) articulating their purpose behind data collection, and b) translating it into action all the while being conscious of data privacy compliance with their customers.
 
The government, too, recognised the need for the right balance. India began drafting a data protection law framework that takes control of data and monitors vital information flow.

Anil Valluri is President, NetApp India and SAARC