Richer insights with cross-industry collaboration

As the digital revolution spreads further across the globe, businesses no longer have to (or should!) stick to operating within their industry alone. In fact, when companies break down data silos and question traditional ways of working with data, they can evolve their approach and commence internal data sharing and collaboration to start sharing insights with external stakeholders.

Taken a step further, this collaboration across industries often leads to major breakthroughs. For example, in the technology sector, the innovation of fiber optic cable resulted from a collaboration between glass, fiber, and electronics manufacturers.

To explore how your business can elevate its products and services by nurturing this kind of valuable relationship, read on.

What is cross-industry data collaboration?

Cross-industry data collaboration means sharing data with companies in other industries. For example, when healthcare and retail collaborate to improve safety protocols. The results of such large-scale collaboration are that stakeholders gather more diverse data, which produces richer insights and, in turn, stimulates innovation.

This collaboration is a win for businesses, so long as they have the right processes and technology in place to make it work.

Tips for collaborating seamlessly across industries

1. Utilize a single source of truth for your cross-industry data ecosystem. Since businesses all have different data formats and types, all your data should be stored in one central location, such as a cloud platform, so data is secure, relevant, and trusted.
2. Ensure you’re able to share data securely. Since you’ll often be sharing personal data like customer finance details or other sensitive information, privacy is essential. And solutions must meet compliance and data protection standards. Cloud platforms offer built-in security measures such as data masking and row-level security, in the case of Snowflake.
3. Reduce data management costs with a consumption-based usage model, which most modern solutions offer.
4. Open up access to all data users – expert or otherwise – to ensure maximum results and avoid missed opportunities or points of view.
5. Support and maintain a data-sharing culture to encourage a positive attitude towards data sharing.

With these pointers in mind, you’ll be able to start identifying opportunities to build powerful insights across industries.

Cross-industry use cases

There are many current examples of cross-industry data collaboration.

In healthcare, providers seek to get a 360-degree view of their patients to deliver personalized care. When stakeholders can securely share data across the patient lifecycle and industries such as Life Sciences and Manufacturing, personalized care becomes a more attainable goal. And on an even larger scale, collaboration between healthcare, criminal justice, education, and housing, for instance, can help the social sector provide whole-person care.

In financial services, there’s often a close collaboration between insurers and banks when it comes to fraud detection. With the data they collate, they can better understand the profile of fraudsters and predict and prevent fraudulent transactions. This type of cross-sector data ecosystem can also help personalize the customer experience. And with Open Banking, which also leverages this new data-sharing infrastructure, providers can develop a broader range of service offerings.

For manufacturers, sharing insights with other industries presents an opportunity to better manage supply chain disruptions, better predict future outcomes, and even enable “self-optimizing systems,” per the World Economic Forum (WEF). Collaborators can build a 360-degree view by incorporating data from weather, civil unrest, and retail trends, for instance. What’s more, the WEF also conveys that the value of data sharing in manufacturing – focusing on process optimization – could potentially reach over $100 billion.

When it comes to energy and utilities, streamlined data collaboration is hardly new, with stakeholders ranging from financial institutions and construction firms to energy equipment manufacturers and tech companies. They know the value (and necessity) of innovating fast!

Accelerate innovation with cloud solutions

Effectively managing such a complex data environment requires a modern data infrastructure, like the Snowflake Data Cloud. With your data in the cloud, there is no data movement or replication, so collaborators have access to the right data at the right time. And the data is safe and secure!

Cloud-native analytics solutions, like Astrato, further enable safe, fast decision-making with data. Astrato streamlines data sharing across teams, organizations, and throughout the cross-industry collaboration with capabilities such as Astrato Embeds – for sharing live insights across your line of business applications. And the ability to write, edit and comment on data in real-time with writeback to speed up the time to insight for all stakeholders.

 

Broadening your data sharing network can accelerate your organization’s time to value, innovation and differentiation. What’s your next step to amplifying the power of your data?