Is data the new enterprise currency?

 

The business world consists of many different practices and enterprise strategies, but at the end of the day, the success of one organisation compared to the next will typically be measured on their respective balance sheets.

Financial capital is, and will continue to be, king.

Data is money 

However, as more companies seek to unlock new revenue streams using vast pools of information and improved strategic management and business intelligence, is data becoming a currency in its own right?

Well, research collated by Oracle has provided the answer.

In its Enterprise Big Data Predictions 2015 report, the industry giant believes that this year will see more members of the C-suite and boardroom talk about data in a similar way to physical currency.

Why? Because data is now ingrained in how nearly every progressive organisation does business. From creating new products, services or even as a way to work financial capital itself, the information age in the enterprise space is reinforcing the old adage that knowledge really is power.

The changing role of the CIO

For IT departments and chief information officers (CIOs) in particular, the blending of data with physical capital will mean that their roles will morph to take in the broader aims of the organisation. They will have to provide the relevant data in a flexible way, while also doing so quickly and with reduced risk.

This is by no means easy, but it is likely to breed a new type of CIO who is more aware of how data integration and new ways of leveraging information can be implemented, all the while lining up their own practices with the thoughts and feelings of the rest of the – arguably less tech-literate – C-suite.

The rise of data as its own form of currency is gathering pace, and companies that look to treat information as they would physical finances will likely be the ones that produce the most success going forward.