Data sharing and collaboration: Trends for the future

The future of data sharing and collaboration – when reduced to the most basic principles – sounds simple: a world where data is more easily accessible and more easily shared is a world more capable of tackling challenges and solving problems.

As our economies and ecosystems become increasingly intertwined and interdependent, challenges that impact one line of business, sector or industry inevitably impact others. Thus, an organization’s ability to share data across its own lines of business or with vendors, customers, or partners is mission critical for its continued success and evolution.

With that in mind, it’s important to understand what the future holds for data sharing and collaboration, and what that might mean for your business or industry.

Here are the top data sharing and collaboration trends to expect in 2022 and beyond:

Data sharing and collaboration as a way to close the data science skills gap

Data silos cause problems. When information from different teams, departments, or everyday apps isn’t easily accessible, your organization moves slower and less efficiently than it needs to. But this issue doesn’t stop at the organizational level: when industries or communities can’t easily share and access critical information and insights, innovation can be stalled and opportunities can be missed.

And on a more micro level, a lack of data sharing and collaboration can mean that developers and data scientists simply don’t have the information and access they need to problem solve effectively. Among business users, this same issue is exacerbated by a lack of data literacy and poor (or nonexistent) training in how to properly collect and analyze data.

But with better initiatives and processes in place for data sharing and collaboration, including internal data communities or training programs, for example, these gaps in access and skills can be narrowed, and users of all levels can more meaningfully interact with the data they need.

Data sharing and collaboration as a way to tackle Big Questions

According to information published by the Global Technology Governance Summit, data sharing and collaboration can help to solve some of our biggest challenges as a global community.

With innovations in technology making it possible for us to collect and share data across borders and communities like never before, we have unprecedented access to a wealth of information that individuals and organizations can use for purposes ranging from rare disease research to solving food shortages.

And approaching Big Questions can be done without the need for additional tools or cost. According to Margi van Gogh, Head of Supply Chain and Transport, Shaping the Future of Mobility, World Economic Forum: by “[h]arnessing data and existing technology platforms to create open-source visibility tools,” we can engage “international bodies, industry partners, and broader ecosystem stakeholders together to inform the development of such ‘meta-layer’ visibility solutions, providing a unique opportunity to build systemic resilience that can lead to multiple benefits, not least protecting livelihoods and lives vulnerable to crisis.”

Data sharing and collaboration, therefore, isn’t just mission critical for users and organizations, it’s necessary for the creation and deployment of large-scale solutions to global challenges, and businesses – from industries like healthcare and finance, in particular – that invest in data sharing and collaboration in a meaningful way will have the opportunity to contribute to these solutions and make an unprecedented impact.

Data sharing and collaboration as solutions for sustainability

When we think of sustainability, we often think of the natural world: things like conserving natural resources or eliminating waste instantly come to mind. But sustainability means something much broader than that. Sustainability is defined as “the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time.”

Data sharing and collaboration is a modern driver of sustainability because it maximizes efficiency across processes (by eliminating data silos, for example) and enables better insight and more informed, reliable decision-making – that’s more future-proof, and sustainable.

Ultimately, data sharing and collaboration is a crucial enabler of sustainability within an organization because it empowers a business to quickly become more data-driven. With easier, more comprehensive access to information and insight from across teams and departments, leaders can more appropriately act on changes in their business data. And this, in turn, leads to better decisions, ways of working, and innovations that are all designed for the long term.

Data sharing and collaboration: where to start

To truly reap the benefits of data sharing and collaboration, a business must decide to invest in a modern approach to interacting with data in order to become more data-driven. This begins with an investment into a collaborative Business Intelligence solution built for the modern data cloud.

TechTarget shares that collaborative analytics “can bring diverse expertise to the process and grow a shared understanding of results,” along with the fact that it “facilitates faster speed to insight.”

 

Cloud-based BI, like Astrato, enables better and more effective collaboration and interaction with data because it’s a solution designed to engage anyone – from business users to data experts. And with capabilities like Writeback and Dynamic Embeds, Astrato offers the unprecedented ability to collaborate and share information and insight when it truly matters.

You could be up and running (and sharing!) with Astrato in no time flat. Try it out today.

Start a free Astrato trial now