During the past 12 months we’ve all become noticeably more reliant on data and technology in almost everything we do, with investments in data, technology and digital transformation estimated to top US$4 trillion within the past year alone.

But it’s the combination of data, insight and analytics that’s the cornerstone for the top performers, which rely on it to inform their decisions, shape their strategy and drive their speed to market and direction of travel.

In the space of a few years, data-driven disruptors like Uber, Deliveroo, Just Eat and Airbnb have grown into global blue-chips and market-changing players with a seemingly unassailable competitive advantage.

The challenge now is for the incumbents to quickly evolve and adopt a similarly disruptive mind-set to ensure they stay relevant to their customers – before it’s too late and they get left behind as consumer habits change for good.

Enriched Data Informs Insights

Critical data-driven insight is now informing every aspect of our lives. From banks and retailers selecting the optimum store locations and opening hours — based on traffic, footfall spikes, or critical demographic analysis — to ensuring insurers’ ability to assess and continually improve competitive risk-priced regional policies.

A mass of raw data on its own is almost meaningless. It needs an extra dimension added in the shape of enrichment through insight and context. Simply knowing the who or what are not enough. It’s the when, the where and the why that are crucial.

Take the pandemic. Across the globe, geolocation and proximity data have been critical in driving public health officials in the battle against the virus. Our global village has seen regional strains like the Brazilian variant of the disease pop up in as diverse spots as Scotland and Denmark, within a matter of days of it being recorded. Data, alongside fast, smart and scalable analytics, have been essential in tracking the movement of the contagion. Timely insights have also enabled officials to mitigate its spread while arming the population at large with information to protect themselves and others.

Integrity Is Critical

For business, the challenge comes in the analysis of data, while verifying its accuracy and quality, while avoiding a natural tendency towards broad generalisations if it’s incomplete. For companies looking to narrow large sets of relevant location context to uncover key insights, data integrity is critical. While location intelligence is not a new discipline, many sectors are now moving their respective markets forward with hyper-accurate pinpointing underpinned by additional context and insight that enable companies to optimise opportunities and increase resilience.

Dynamic Data

Plugging insight into dynamic and enriched data sets is a game changer when it comes to confidently informing businesses decisions and the commercial direction of travel.

Even challenges such as complex sports league scheduling for domestic and international leagues are plugging into sophisticated algorithms. The insight and analysis delivered paves the way for the most appropriate commercial decisions by assessing billions of alternatives via fast mathematical modelling.

At FICO, we’re helping our strategic clients transform the way they use advanced analytics and optimisation to make and apply informed, data-driven decisions, on a daily basis.