The Star Late Edition

Infonomics is the next big thing – Gartner

- House of Cards

THIS week Gartner hosted its annual event in South Africa, in Cape Town, where future technology trends were presented and discussed. The event was attended by leaders in technology across industries.

One of the most powerful presentati­ons by Peter Havart-Simkin focused on the 10 emerging technologi­es and trends that will drive the next decade of the Internet of Things.

In this presentati­on, Havart-Simkin mentioned some of the already known technologi­es and trends.

He also highlighte­d something that is not yet mainstream, which is the field of infonomics. He mentioned it as the emerging trend that will have greater impact in businesses as economies adopt the Internet of Things.

What is infonomics and why does it matter? Infonomics is the emerging economic theory of informatio­n as a new asset class. It is a concept that was developed by Doug Laney, a Gartner researcher who researches the informatio­n economy. It is a discipline that includes accounting for managing and deploying informatio­n just as any other enterprise asset.

The infonomics discipline includes the process of commercial­ising data to create value. Almost all organisati­ons have data, but few are able to extract value from data.

Part of the reason why infonomics matters is related to the fact that it outlines how data can be turned into useful informatio­n of commercial value. A number of organisati­ons are hoarding valuable data that can become a treasure. Havart-Simkin said infonomics if taken seriously could make a difference between losers and winners in the informatio­n age.

Some companies are already getting value from treating data as an asset. Netflix is an organisati­on that treats informatio­n as an asset.

According to an infonomics book written by Laney, when Netflix decided to get into the content business, producing its own original content, it took a look at what informatio­n it had that other production houses did not.

At the time with 27 million subscriber­s in the US and 33 million worldwide, Netflix had informatio­n on 30 million viewer actions per day including when a viewer pauses, rewinds, fast-forwards, 3 million searches and million ratings.

It had informatio­n correlatin­g demographi­cs with the time of day that shows were watched and on the actors, action, genre and other descriptor­s, which gave Netflix a solid confidence that the US adaptation of the British version of would be a huge hit.

Netflix uses data to inform its business decisions such as which shows to produce, markets to serve and other critical business areas. This is the secret sauce that MultiChoic­e in South Africa has not understood about the Netflix success. Data treated as an asset allows Netflix to know the users and the same cannot be said about MultiChoic­e.

Businesses and organisati­ons should pay attention to the message from Gartner. Based on these insights there’s a need for businesses and organisati­ons to act now to prepare themselves for the future. Businesses will have to start appointing chief data officers (CDOs) to unlock data for economic value within their businesses.

There’s also a need for academic institutio­ns to start adopting infonomics as a field of study that can be taught in academia to prepare graduates for the future.

Now is the time for businesses and organisati­ons to look internally and externally for data that can ensure their future survival.

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