BE PREPARED TO PAY

Technology isn’t cheap, so be prepared to pony up. It’s not just paper conversion, it’s data security, data architecture, data integrity, system access, and don’t forget the employees or third parties who manage all of it. Remember though, you do have options: “There has definitely been an acceleration in what I call ‘democratizing data information’ because the computer power has tremendously improved,” says Keihan Sedghi (EMBA’97), business process optimization and automation leader at Deloitte Consulting. “The cloud environment and cloud computing was a major contributor.”

FORE’s whole business model depends on open-source data. While they save on the data storage and access, they pay on the automation. It’s all worth it to Cole and her fellow co-founder, Ryan Gillis. “We’re breaking down the barrier to entry for data access,” says Gillis. “The automation is pushing out insights from our platform that enables decision-making in real time. It eliminates that barrier to entry, giving the information that people need in the moment.”

Keep Your Ethics In Check

If you pay the right price, you can gain access to incredible data, but it also could be data that the consumer may find a bit unsettling. Think about the time you researched charcoal toothpaste and suddenly ads for the stuff started showing up on your social media news feed—maybe that particular company is a little too entrenched in their consumers’ lives and search bars.

Be sure to establish early on how far you’re willing to go and build policy around your tech ethics— then make that policy public. You run the risk of losing customers if they find your ethics policy wanting, invasive, or nonexistent. “At FORE, we use opensource geolocation data, and we look at it en mass to identify patterns and outliers,” says Cole. FORE takes it one step further by using anonymous data and by passing all their own data-driven decisions through their in-house ethics committee.