Your Guide to the Alternative Data Revolution in Cloud-Based Data Marketplaces

Data may seem as common as dirt these days, but harvesting insights from data is not without its challenges.  According to Statista, for example, organizations across the globe report common problems with:

• 34% struggle with data discovery—where to find and access alternative data to enrich your analytics
• 35% face organizational silos make it difficult to cultivate and share meaningful insights
• 39% struggle with poor data quality including bad, inaccurate, or redundant data, eroding the value over time

The real value begins to appear when you collect comprehensive, timely data—both internal and alternative data—to nourish insights. With the right approach, data blossoms into a fertile ground for making informed decisions, empowering businesses to adapt strategically to market conditions, risks, and more.

Why are more organizations seeking out alternative data?

The last decade has seen massive growth in data generation, creating a host of less traditional data options. Concurrently, computing power has grown exponentially. As a result, organizations need a greater pool of relevant data to power Artificial Intelligence applications.

As organizations hunt for actionable insights, third-party data adds contextual dimensions you can harness for a competitive advantage. Alternative data fills in the gaps that conventional data leaves behind, providing a more holistic picture. Plus, you can choose the types of alternative data that best serve your unique requirements, making it a highly tailored resource for a wide range of needs.

MORE: The six types of datasets critical to your due diligence investigations

How a data marketplace provides the best access to alternative data

A data marketplace features a secure, organized, and searchable environment—a one-stop-shop for diverse datasets—which relieves the data discovery and acquisition challenge. A data marketplace also allows for quick acquisition, which is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment. It does this by:

• More efficient workflows: Ready-to-query data from a marketplace, eliminates manual data wrangling which saves you time and resources.
• Centralized data storage: A data marketplace streamlines data management, enabling seamless sharing and collaboration.

 MORE: The cost of low-quality data for Decision Intelligence

Flexible data meets your needs as your goals change

When you need data fast for decision-making, a marketplace delivers. Perhaps, more importantly, a data marketplace provides a flexible, scalable solution, allowing you to easily expand your data portfolio as your needs evolve. 

Access to unique, high-quality data via a data marketplace can give you a competitive edge. By leveraging a data marketplace, you can substantially augment your data analytics capabilities, make more informed decisions, and ultimately drive business success. Consider, for example, the benefits of premium, licensed news data from a data marketplace.

• Premium news data can offer near-real-time insights into market trends, consumer behavior, and geopolitical events. When coupled with regulatory data, for instance, you can better interpret market shifts in the context of evolving rules and guidelines. Or when paired with patents data, it can help in identifying areas of innovation and competition, offering an integrated outlook for long-term strategic planning.
• Premium news sources also often offer expert opinions, interviews, and exclusive scoops that can give companies a competitive advantage. This information becomes even more potent when combined with patents data, revealing not just what competitors are doing now, but what they might be planning.
• News data can also provide timely information about events that may affect your supply chain, like natural disasters or political unrest. It can also tip businesses off to emerging social or political trends that can lead to changing consumer expectations. And monitoring how your company is portrayed in the news is essential for brand management.

By synthesizing premium news data with additional insights from other types of alternative data—regulatory, legal sources, company & financial information, and more—you can create a more holistic, agile, and future-proof analytics strategy.

The rise of alternative data in the data marketplace has broadened the horizons for what businesses can achieve with analytics. As you embark on this journey, knowing what to look for in premium news data and in a data marketplace can greatly enhance the quality of your insights and, ultimately, the decisions you make.

Broaden your data horizons with Nexis® Data+ API or via the Snowflake Data Marketplace.

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