Twelve Costs of Embedding Reports and Analytics in Business Applications
Many organizations compete on the quality and scope of data they provide to external customers. In many cases, information about products or customers may be more valuable than the products themselves.
Such organizations—particularly those in financial services, retail, telecommunications, high tech, and healthcare—sit on a wealth of customer data, including demographic, psychographic, behavioral, purchasing, propensity-to-buy, and profile data. If these organizations are data savvy, they may provide customers with data analytics tools to enhance existing products or services, or they may pool customer data and convert it into a commercial data product for sale to third parties.
For instance, an auto insurance company might use customer profile and premium data to develop new information-rich services such as a benchmarking tool that helps customers compare their coverage with other people just like them. Similarly, software manufacturers might use trouble ticket data to enhance customer support offerings such as providing automated alerts or recommendations that help customers optimize the configuration of their applications. Retailers might sell aggregated point-of-sale information to third parties who want to track consumer spending trends.