The Insight Economy: Data as an Asset—Not a Distraction

The Insight Economy: Data as an Asset—Not a Distraction
Recognizing that companies should be focusing less on data and more on the value derived from data, business analysts have begun promoting the idea of the Insight Economy. The word “insight” in this coined term refers to a crisp understanding of a complicated situation within an organization—an understanding derived from the analysis of large volumes of data. Creating, consuming, and distributing insight enables companies to achieve several important results. For example, organizations use insight to create new economic value. The bottom line is the top concern for all organizations. With insight gathered from extensive data, they can determine how to earn new customers, outperform competitors, and reach new markets. Simply put: insight increases profits.

The Insight Economy: Data as an Asset—Not a DistractionRecognizing that companies should be focusing less on data and more on the value derived from data, business analysts have begun promoting the idea of the Insight Economy. The word “insight” in this coined term refers to a crisp understanding of a complicated situation within an organization—an understanding derived from the analysis of large volumes of data. Creating, consuming, and distributing insight enables companies to achieve several important results. For example, organizations use insight to create new economic value. The bottom line is the top concern for all organizations. With insight gathered from extensive data, they can determine how to earn new customers, outperform competitors, and reach new markets. Simply put insight increases profits. Some organizations take this value-creation a step further, selling their insight as its own commodity. Consider, for example, how GPS applications give customers not only the location of their destination but the different paths they can take to get there. Fitness trackers similarly monetize insight, by selling customers personalized methods for improving their physical health, based on data from their own bodies.

Additionally, companies can reshape whole industry standards with insight. For instance, credit card companies are able to quickly generate insight about their customers to make decisions about their accounts. As a result, credit card customers now expect decisions about issuing a new card to be made within minutes, not days.