Data streaming, the future of education

Dreams of the future: Education & research

As a leading expert in the field of (big) data solutions, we help develop the technologies that are going to shape our future. In this blog we discuss the future of Education and research, which will allow research institutions to become more efficient, collaborative and student-friendly through data streaming technologies.

The Future of education

In the research and education institution of the future, collaboration is central. Collaboration between research institutions and the corporate world, between researchers from different research institutions and collaboration between students and researchers. Data-driven research is no longer largely limited to a single institution. Instead, each research institution has data collaboration solutions set up that allow researchers to easily combine data collected in their experiments with open source data and data by previous researchers from other institutions. The data collected and generated by their own research is subsequently shared with other research institutions upon request. This improves the data available to researchers in the network of research institutions, improving research outcomes and replicability.

The data-driven collaboration in the research institutions of the future also extends to students. As part of their studies, students are invited to participate in research projects from their own university or from external research organisations. This allows students to gain experience in working with real data, improving the level and practical applicability of their education. It also enables research institutions to conduct faster and more efficient research by tapping into the passion and skill of students learning about state-of-the-art analytics and research methods.

Enabled by data streaming

The future of education and research we envision will require research and education organisations to share (research) data with each other in a safe and secure manner. It will also require these organisations to be able to use data from other third-party sources and integrate it with their own in-house data easily and reliably. Platforms designed for data collaboration will enable organisations to do so seamlessly, providing a controlled and monitored, yet easily accessible, infrastructure for secure data sharing between organisations. These platforms will also allow researchers and students to easily integrate data from different sources for their research projects without requiring extensities technological skills.

The future is not here yet, but we’re moving towards it every day. Ready to move towards the future with us? Read more about how our Datastreams Platform can help education and research institutions here.

GDPR compliant solutions, Customer Journey 360 data

Solutions for 360 customer journey data under the GDPR

In 2016, Gartner recognised the market need for improved customer journey analytics. In that same year, the GDPR was adopted by the European Parliament, drastically limiting the data collection activities at the core of these analytics. Since the regulation went into effect last year, we have been keeping an eye on current discussions in data-driven organisations. We have noticed that many companies desire to implement a 360° customer journey data strategy but are not sure how to do this in an effective and GDPR-compliant manner. We discuss the current landscape of 360° customer journey analytics under the GDPR and examine what data-driven businesses look for in relevant solutions.

A challenge in data wrangling

360° customer journeys require the ability for organisations to handle the ever-increasing volume, variety, velocity and veracity of all the ‘Big Data’ present in their databases. Many organisations struggle to do so, often because their data is distributed across many silos and it is owned by different stakeholders and teams. This causes marketing analysts use many different tools to leverage this data. Web and mobile analytics, social analytics, media analytics, customer journey analytics and voice of the customer analytics are all performed on different datasets with different tools.

Using many different tools on different datasets is not only inefficient, but also hinders attempts to optimise customer journey analytics. The key downfall behind 360° customer journey analytics is, in the words of Gartner; “Today’s marketing analyst uses too many tools and all of these are looking at bits and pieces of what to a person is – whether called a target or audience or prospect or customer, it’s still a person, people – a single relationship”. Paramount in 360° customer journey analytics is therefore bringing together these different sources of information into an integrated customer profile. Therefore, 360° customer journey requires effective solutions for streaming the right data, in the right place, in the right format, at the right time and doing so any time, all the time.

A challenge in GDPR compliance

With the GDPR in effect, platforms capable of facilitating integrated data streaming are no longer enough to ensure complaint customer journey analytics. Platforms also need to incorporate the required functions and restrictions that allow customer journey analytics in a GDPR-compliant manner. This involves asking customers for informed consent before collecting their data, storing it securely according to GDPR-standards, processing it according to Privacy by Design principles and deleting all traces of a customer when they ask for it. To ensure this can be accomplished, a solution including a strong data governance layer is paramount.

Additional Industry demands

We have established that 360° customer journey analytics under the GDPR requires a solution that is capable of not only integrating data from a variety of sources in a variety of formats, but also of doing so in a fully GDPR-compliant manner. The industry places additional requirements and demands on solutions for 360° customer journey data management. We have observed the following main themes in what DPO’s and Chief Privacy, Revenue, Data and Marketing officers look for in solutions:

  • While some organisations are seeking complete end to end GDPR solutions from one solution provider, this isn’t always the case. Desires for solutions regarding specific areas within the legislative requirements are prevalent, especially universal consent management and data stream governance.
  • Organisations want enhanced data security, governance and auditing user access controls built in. Key users of GDPR solutions are going to be DPOs, who as part of their enhanced role under the GDPR, should be able to advise, view, take control and sign off on data streaming from one place to another. They also need to be able to report and audit this when it comes to fulfilling GDPR data subject rights.
  • We are seeing a lot of traction from enquiries which are about building collaborative partnerships combining smart, specialist technology from multiple suppliers.
  • The majority of enquiries we receive are cloud/SaaS based, but easy to deploy On-Premise implementation is also a requirement the market is asking solutions for.
  • Customers want to be able to quickly start (or improve) their GDPR data journey within one business area, data source and destination. This means that solution which is quickly scalable to multiple areas, sources and destinations is highly desirable.

We have combined the two-sided challenge of 360° customer journey management under the GDPR with the industry demands to create the Datastreams Platform. This platform allows companies to collect, integrate and process data from a variety of sources in a GDPR-compliant manner. Modules such as our Consent Management Solution can be included in the full infrastructure or implemented separately if desired. Additionally, the system can easily be linked with technologies by many other suppliers and can be implemented rapidly. On-site implementation is also available. Finally, the system is highly user-friendly, allowing DPO’s to take control of their data streams and easily create data-streaming reports when required. Interested in learning more? Request a personal demo.