Though businesses value third-party data for AI and analytics, most have no strategy to acquire it, new research from Explorium finds
Redwood City, Calif, April 5, 2022 — Explorium, the External Data Platform that combines the world’s best data in a single platform for easy access, discovery, and integration of relevant enrichments, released today its 2022 State of External Data Acquisition report.
Two years into the pandemic, amid soaring inflation and geopolitical turmoil, companies struggle to get accurate, current, and relevant information to make business decisions. An increasing number of enterprises are relying on external sources to fill gaps in their internal data, Explorium found in its annual survey of data stakeholders. As a result, over 22% of businesses are spending over $500,000 annually to acquire data from third party providers, with nearly 60% of these spending upwards of $1 million to better navigate decisions and outcomes. The survey also reveals that access to external data and an organization’s ability to easily consume it continues to be a challenge.
Businesses rely on external data to power their predictive AI and analytics models, to understand customer buying behaviors, improve lead conversion rates, assess risk, estimate demand and detect fraud, among other uses. Over 40% purchased from five or more providers, and 25% admitted to acquiring data on an “ad hoc” basis. But respondents said they struggled to acquire the relevant data they need. Only 40% reported having an organized data acquisition strategy.
When they did manage to acquire data, internal obstacles kept them from making good use of it. Respondents cited struggles with data prep and integration (63%), worries about compliance and risk (34%) and a lack of a coherent process for putting data into use (32%) as common hindrances, along with regulatory constraints (34%) and the confusing profusion of data sources (29%).
“Businesses are desperate to get their hands on external data and struggle to use it properly,” said Maor Shlomo, co-founder and CEO of Explorium. “They don’t have the time and expertise to source, verify, format and integrate data and check it for regulatory compliance. It takes too much time, and too many resources. The need for a single platform that can deliver external data and automate complexity away, comes through loud and clear in these results.”
For more findings from the 2022 State of External Data Acquisition report, including the most popular types of external datasets companies purchased, download the full report.
About the Survey
The 2022 State of External Data Acquisition is an Explorium research survey conducted by Gatepoint Research. The research team surveyed more than 200+ data stakeholders inside US companies of 100+ people. 64% of respondents hold director or executive level positions, 39% work in analytics and business intelligence and 36% in data management. The companies surveyed range in industries including professional services, retail, finance, healthcare, utilities and more.
About Explorium
Explorium provides the first External Data Platform to improve Analytics and Machine Learning. Explorium enables organizations to automatically discover and use thousands of relevant data signals to improve predictions and ML model performance. Explorium External Data Platform empowers data scientists and analysts to acquire and integrate third-party data efficiently, cost-effectively and in compliance with regulations. With faster, better insights from their models, organizations across fintech, insurance, consumer goods, retail and e-commerce can increase revenue, streamline operations and reduce risks. Explorium works with global brands like GlassesUSA, BlueVine, OnDeck and Behalf to enhance AI models for use cases including lead scoring, identifying default risk and fraud, and upleveling analytics. Learn more at www.explorium.ai.
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