InPublishing: How to unlock the full value of your data

Lots of publishers, especially in the B2B information space are currently making good money from large and valuable data sets. Yet, many are also struggling to grow revenues and develop new data products because of the unstructured way in which their data is held. The way many publishers manage their data assets is no longer fit for purpose.

Companies like Infopro Digital are therefore embarking down the data transformation path, merging their data assets into a single repository, granularising it, automating and standardising all inputs and adding intuitive query and extraction tools.

Broadly speaking, there are five elements to a data transformation project.

Audit and understand your existing data assets and workflows.
Establish a single data repository along with a set of data management standards.
Convert all existing data assets and archives into the new repository.
Create standardised, efficient and automated processes that will ensure that all future data inputs to the new repository conform to your new standards.
Set up easy-to-use, AI-enabled query and extraction tools to handle all outputs, both for internal teams and customers.

Tom Lake, product and technology director at Infopro Digital, decided to initially focus the data transformation work on one division of the company, Chartis, before rolling it out to the rest of the company. He commissioned 67 Bricks, a technology consultancy and product development team, to design, manage and deliver the project.

With the first phase of the project now nearing completion, I spoke with Tom and Will Bailey, head of partnerships at 67 Bricks, to discuss the whys and wherefores of the project, their key learnings to date and to see what advice they had for other publishers.

For Tom, the ‘why’ was twofold: efficiency savings and commercial growth.

Efficiency savings

“Our researchers are senior level analysts who are currently spending a lot of their time manipulating data rather than being out in the market providing their advisory services or just learning about the market and growing their expertise. So, there’s a huge efficiency saving in taking that menial work away from them and repurposing them for more important matters,” he said.

Will agreed: “If your analysts are doing less data wrangling, they’re spending more time with customers; they’re spending more time working with the data rather than trying to get hold of the data.”

Revenue opportunities

“The other opportunity is a revenue one,” said Tom: “Right now, our information products only appeal to certain roles in certain types of financial institutions, but we want to expand that. We know that there are many other people at these organisations, in different roles, who would find subsets of our data extremely valuable, if only we could surface it for them.”

Once the data has been made fully granular and accessible, his product development teams will have the flexibility to segment the data and serve it up at different price points. The plan is to expand the client base “horizontally and vertically, by building better products for users, more targeted, more interactive, more in-depth, more queryable.”

The fast-evolving world of AI added extra urgency: “We see what competitors are doing and we see how customer expectations are changing,” said Tom: “Offering AI chatbots and natural language interfaces is becoming a staple for any kind of information provider.”

Will Bailey, head of partnerships at 67 Bricks.

The way they held their data previously was typical of many B2B data businesses. Data was held in many different places across the business in a variety of formats (spreadsheets, databases, text documents, audio & video files et al) with little commonality in terms of data organisation. Processes were manual and there was little standardisation.

According to Will, “if your data assets aren’t easily accessible, easily interrogatable, easily re-packageable, then you are only scratching the surface of your revenue potential. If your data is dispersed and unstructured, then you need to embark on a data transformation journey, like the one Infopro Digital has been on.”

In light of their experience, what advice would they give other publishers on how to successfully navigate a large data transformation project?

They had five bits of advice:

1. Don’t go it alone – bring in help.

Publisher technology teams are busy and are unlikely to have the capacity or skillsets to manage such a project. You will need to get expert help.

“It’s a significant undertaking,” said Tom: “The benefit of using an agency like 67 Bricks is the focus that they’re able to apply to the project. We needed their focus and expertise to do the business analysis work and understand the requirements, understand the phasing on how the project will be delivered, understand the right technologies to use and development frameworks. It was just something that was much more suited for external specialists than for us internally with our existing skill set.”

In a testimonial on 67 Bricks’ website, another of their clients, Julie Harris, CEO of IWSR, explained their reasoning for using an agency: “For us it was an obvious choice to source the expertise and capability externally. Working with an agency dedicated to the broader publishing space brings benefits – their familiarity with the process and the possible pitfalls and the lessons they’ve learned from other clients. We knew we would benefit from that experience of ‘been there, done that’.”

2. Brief them, but not too tightly.

Tom advised: “Have a clear brief and a clear expectation of what you’re hoping to achieve from the project but at the same time, don’t come with too many preconceived ideas about what might be possible and how it might be achieved; let the experts come in and use their freshness and experience as an advantage. They come with a fresh pair of eyes and can review objectively.”

3. Don’t sit in your silo.

“Whoever is tasked with delivering the project,” said Will, “should sit with the teams who actually work with the data. Find out what they do, why they do it, how they do it, what they would like to do and what they currently struggle with.”

“If you have a technology team, make sure they are heavily involved and work in tandem with the third-party team,” said Tom: “That way, the tech stack, programming languages and frameworks can all be aligned. Not doing so has caused problems in the past when someone’s gone off and worked in a silo and then we’ve had to essentially rewrite the whole thing because it wasn’t compatible with our way of working.”

4. Make the solution AI-enabled.

We live in an AI world and customer expectations are changing. When embarking on any data transformation project, AI has to be front and centre.

According to Will Bailey “The solution will need to use AI in the process itself but it’s also about building products that offer AI interfaces for the customer. It’s about preparing for whatever the future might look like by ensuring things are managed very flexibly and data can be sliced and diced and served up and delivered to customers in the way they want it.”

5. Realise value early; avoid the big unveil.

Don’t beaver away in the corner, creating a big monolithic structure that won’t see the light of day until the go-live date. Show progress early, get people working on it and seeing the benefits. “It’s important to iterate and stay agile. Keep calibrating against different stakeholders in the business and keep speaking the same language,” advised Will.

Horses for courses

When embarking on a data transformation project for a client, how does 67 Bricks typically operate, I ask Will.

“Ultimately, it depends on the client. Tom had an existing tech team, so we became an extension of that team, to expand capacity. The Chartis job was a standalone project that fits into a wider program of changes he had planned across the business. So, we came in to give the project direction, working very closely with Tom and his team, reporting back in and aligning, and moving it forward as part of that wider piece. When clients don’t have the sort of tech team that Tom has, we effectively become their tech team. So, the level of involvement very much depends on the needs and resources of the client.”

Other B2B information providers that 67 Bricks has helped include The Economist Intelligence Unit, IWSR and Enhesa. A full list of clients can be found on their website.

Analysis paralysis

It’s not uncommon to find publishers who are painfully aware that their data is not held optimally, that they are passing up on revenue opportunities and are losing ground to competitors but who simply don’t know which way to turn, bamboozled by the seeming complexity of the situation they find themselves in.

What, I ask Tom, would he advise: “It’s worth having a conversation with someone like 67 Bricks who have the expertise and the methodology to help you figure out what it is you’re after. You don’t have to have all the answers before you engage with a partner. That partner can often help you figure out how to unlock the value.”

So, added Will, “if you’re currently struggling to see the wood for the trees, why not give me a call. It’s never too early to start a conversation.”