Businesses can leverage the power of big data, internet of things and blockchain to improve the monetization of their data.
Multiple organizations can monetize their data to increase their revenue. In data monetization, blockchain can be a major contributor due to its advanced applications and decentralized nature.
The fourth industrial revolution has led to the rise of data-driven business models. Organizations collect large volumes of data from every department using modern technologies such as big data and IoT. Every organization has realized that data is an asset and utilizes crucial data in multiple applications. However, numerous start-ups and small businesses don't have access to infrastructure and resources for collecting and analyzing crucial data. To address this issue, well-established organizations can implement data monetization to sell relevant data to upcoming businesses. With this approach, data sellers can generate new revenue streams for their business. Several sources suggest that data monetization is a necessity for businesses. Using data monetization, multiple organizations can help create a marketplace for sharing critical data. Such marketplaces can democratize the collection and analysis of data. Hence, small and medium businesses and startups can easily tackle the cold start problem. Besides, big players can also benefit from data monetization as their data collection and analysis tasks will be simplified while expanding their business in different sectors.
To speed up collection and analysis of data, organizations can deploy modern technologies such as big data and IoT. Such technologies can help collect and analyze data in the following manner:
Every online activity and business procedure generates a large volume of data. Organizations can collect various types of historical and real-time data like customer data, social media data, employee data, and operational data. Businesses can analyze such data to draw insights into their customer demographics, employee performance, and business operations. Big data can process large volumes of data at a great velocity to generate accurate results. Hence, big data can be utilized across various industry sectors such as healthcare, retail, finance, manufacturing, and many more. For instance, in retail, organizations can collect customer details and social media feedback to generate personalized marketing campaigns for specific customer demographics. With the help of big data, organizations can analyze large data sets from different sources to generate complex data models. Using these data models, business leaders can predict upcoming market trends and develop strategies for adapting to these trends. Such strategies include actionable steps to address inventory requirements, production, marketing, and sales. Also, organizations utilize big data analytics to make decisions about product launch and pricing.
Several organizations and smart cities have deployed IoT devices for multiple applications. For example, manufacturing organizations can install IoT sensors to monitor production flow, from the refining process to final procedures such as packaging, in real-time. Such advanced applications have led to the increasing adoption of IoT devices. In addition to big data, organizations can utilize IoT data for more accurate results. Analysis of such data helps organizations measure and understand various business procedures. For example, in retail stores, IoT sensors can be installed in shelves to notify the store owner when products are running out. The sensors can collect data that can help the store owner understand which product is in high demand, at what time the shelves go empty, and which days customers buy the most products. Using such insights, the store owner can make key decisions about inventory management, product orders, and discounts.
To implement data monetization and increase revenue, business leaders need to create an effective strategy. Business leaders can consider the following steps in their strategy:
Organizations can collect various types of data from different sources such as social media, IoT devices, cloud, and the web. Every organization specializes in collecting specific types of data. For instance, healthcare organizations collect data regarding patients, doctors, disorders, treatments, medicines, and hospitals. To sum up, business leaders have to ask important questions such as
What type of data does the organization gather?
What kind of insights can be drawn from the collected data?
With the help of such questions, business leaders can identify innovative use cases for the collected data. Using the above example, data collected by healthcare organizations can be used by pharmaceutical companies to understand which medicines are in demand and plan for the production and inventory requirements. Business leaders have to identify all possible use cases of their data to maximize their data monetization revenue. Also, organizations need to ensure that they are sharing anonymized data to avoid privacy violations.
After recognizing all possible use cases for accumulated data, organizations have to segment their collected data based on various use cases. Based on the use cases, organizations can identify prospective buyers for their data. These buyers can be start-ups or other well-established organizations. For instance, retailers gather extensive customer data that can be beneficial for other organizations in the manufacturing sector for use cases like improving product quality by analyzing customer demographics and their purchase patterns.
Interested buyers can also be big players that are planning to expand their business into different sectors. Such organizations may want to simplify data collection and analysis tasks and focus more on mergers and acquisitions in their target market. For example, if an electronics manufacturer is planning to enter the telecom market, then the organization may buy critical data from a telecom company to speed up their expansion. Hence, organizations need to be mindful about use cases of their data and how the data can benefit multiple organizations. Once business leaders have identified their prospective buyers, they have a key decision to make. Business leaders have to decide whether they would sell data via a blockchain-based data monetization company or independently.
Blockchain has the potential to democratize data monetization and sharing. Looking at this potential, several entrepreneurs established blockchain companies that specialize in data monetization. These companies enable organizations to buy and sell data collected using IoT sensors, big data, and VR/AR. Hence, business leaders have to identify what type of data they can provide. To select the most suitable blockchain-based data monetization company, business leaders need to research various companies, the type of data they monetize, the services they offer, and their costs. After finding the most appropriate blockchain-based data monetization firms, business leaders can decide which company they want to do business with, based on their budget.
Organizations can also monetize their data independently. For this purpose, business leaders need to hire professionals with niche skills. Then, organizations must adopt blockchain networks for data exchange and storage. Decentralized blockchain networks will record every instance of data exchange and encrypt all the data.
For blockchain-based storage, organizations can deploy various secure blockchain wallets. Organizations can store different types of data from several sources in different wallets to segregate large volumes of data. Such blockchain wallets are encrypted and employ a secure authentication mechanism to restrict data access. Using these wallets, organizations can share data with prospective buyers. Also, organizations can utilize smart contracts to verify the credentials and documents of their buyers, receive payments, and automatically share relevant data. With this approach, organizations can implement an autonomous data monetization process.
With the help of blockchain, data monetization will be accessible to consumers soon. Using blockchain-based data monetization, consumers can monetize and negotiate the value of their data. Also, consumers can control which data can be collected by organizations to ensure data security and privacy.