“We sit on a gold mine of data,” Federico Marchetti, chief executive of Yoox Net-a-Porter, said recently, as he explained his strategic focus on the better use of data in business processes and delivering “more personal, relevant experiences for shoppers”.
The other side of the data coin, though, is the record £183m fine the UK’s information commissioner is imposing on British Airways over a breach of data security rules. The benefits of the data that companies are accumulating may potentially be large indeed, but the costs of storing those hoards securely are rising too.
What’s more, it is not clear how to think about the value of data in general. While the quantity of data is clearly rocketing, and every organisation is being urged to be data driven, how to do that effectively and create value for users is far from obvious.