In the modern information economy, data has become a key driver of enterprise value and the great equalizer, enabling smaller and leaner business models to compete with large companies.
Competition is possible because small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have access to the same IT resources as large companies but, due to their nimbler operating footprints, are able to function at a fraction of the costs incurred by large incumbents.
Thus, it’s no coincidence that the rise of data-driven value creation dovetails with the emergence of collaborative business models, where light-footed and mobile-first SMEs like Lyft, AirBnB and LendingClub are rapidly unseating legacy operators in their respective markets.
On a more elemental level, a 2016 Accenture report makes the bold claim that data is the all-encompassing fuel of SME growth. But more specifically, it is open data — “publicly available data that can be universally and readily accessed, used and redistributed” and shared in ways that protect proprietary information — that is most useful to SME’s according to a 2015 New York University study.
The NYU study highlights government data, science data and shared corporate data as the focal points of the SME data economy. But out of the three, it is shared corporate data, where “companies release privately held information with other individuals or entities,” that represents the most compelling trend. The study also identified technology, finance, business and legal services and healthcare as the top sectors for SME analytics commerce.
According to NYU researchers, this data is most frequently used to service business-to-business (B2B) markets, followed by business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-government (B2G) verticals. And while SME data strategies are typically tailored to address the needs of a specific sector, small businesses are increasingly targeting two and even three markets simultaneously.
With market intelligence firm International Data Corporation (IDC) projecting 2016 big data and business analytics revenues of $130.1 billion to reach $203 billion by 2020, SMEs are leveraging these insights to create new business lines and monetization models.
For example, this ecosystem has birthed platforms that derive more insightful analysis from data, helping both enterprises and customers make better decisions. Other data-sharing innovations have produced the following:
- More accurate risk-scoring mechanisms that improve SME access to credit and insurance products
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning programs designed to solve specific business problems
- Peer marketplaces that enable SMEs to monetise their anonymised business data
Powered by distributed-ledger Blockchain technology, RepuX adds another dimension to SME data-sharing economies: Decentralised applications (dApps) that enable trusted users to exchange data directly.
Built on the Ethereum Blockchain, a hybrid consensus ledger and smart-contract programming language, the RepuX protocol offers SMEs a cryptographically secure platform to share, consume and monetise data within a trusted network of verified users.
Because it is an Ethereum-based protocol, third-party Blockchain developers are able to create bespoke dApps for SME clients on the RepuX network. For instance, developers can use RepuX’s inherent reputation system, hard-coded by immutable Blockchain transaction records, to deploy platform credit-scoring apps that could improve SME access to financing via micro-loans.
This infrastructure could, in fact, be a growth-catalyst for the micro-loan industry, which is valued at over $40 billion per year. Beyond more efficient small business credit, some SMEs might identify integration use-cases for RepuX’s Blockchain architecture with their point-of-sale devices, thus mitigating fraud risk and other inefficiencies.
RepuX’s technology can also be applied to cross-border ecommerce, an ecosystem hampered by low counter-party visibility and long transaction settlement periods. But with RepuX’s transparent reputation oracle, sellers can better determine users on their network that are most likely to default, enabling them to make better business decisions. RepuX’s protocol even facilitates the development of an escrow system to reverse fraudulent transactions.
As data become the leading growth driver for global markets, SMEs need a secure platform to share and monetise open information with an emerging class of AI and Blockchain-developer entrepreneurs. Still, a 2015 Economist Intelligence Unit Study found that 81 percent of business executives are unwilling to make the fundamental changes needed to realize the full potential of the digital economy.
But with RepuX’s cryptographically secure and scalable data-exchange platform, SMEs will have an easier time incorporating and navigating disruptive digital models continually reshaped by a proliferating data economy.
