TECHNOLOGY
“ And the beauty for companies is that it ’ s revenue which drops right onto the bottom line . You have the data just sitting there in the database ”
– Tammer Kamel , CEO and founder of Quandl
construction industry and the companies involved within it .
“ We have customers who lust for construction insights ,” he continues . “ They call us looking for new kinds of information about the construction industry and the state of the construction industry , because it ’ s so important to the economy and the health of so many companies in that sector .
“ If you ’ re talking about a lumber company , again , with access to certain data , investors might detect , for example , a sudden spike or a trend upwards in lumber orders compared to last year . Well , that ’ s the kind of early warning the construction industry is picking up momentum with , which would allow an investor to preposition in a certain way as they ’ re seeing this trend before the rest of the market . Then they can profit from it .”
Building profits from data A company like Quandl takes away the stress for clients who wish to monetise data , but Kamel does say that it is possible , with some investment , for a firm to put together a team which allows it do so internally . The process involves firstly identifying whether the data provides any new insight to the market , and then organising it in a way that is useful to Wall Street .
After that , some technical expertise is required to put the data into a database where it can be accessed , overcoming any computer science problems . Then , a company must ensure that data is legally compliant with strict Wall Street guidelines , before some sort of sales and marketing mechanism is put in place to ensure that the data reaches the right people who are willing to pay for it . Kamel is sure , though , that it ’ s worth looking into for any company
22 October 2017