Making data adoption easy for credit unions

by: Martin Webster

Google has a tool that allows you to export all of the information it has about you: websites visited, YouTube videos watched, photos, emails, profile information, and much more. I thought I’d try it to see how much information they have about me. When I clicked “Create Archive” to export my data, a message came back that said, “An archive is currently being processed. Please note that this may take a long time (hours or possibly days) to create.” DAYS??? How much data do they have on me?

My first thought was “that’s just creepy,” but then I wondered, if they have that much data about me, how will I make any sense of it? How would anyone? It seems to me that if you could harness all of that data, you could see things that most people don’t. That’s really the genesis behind “big data,” knowing things you didn’t know before. But all that data has the potential to be just so much noise without any usable takeaways unless managed properly.

This is the same challenge financial institutions face – how to leverage data to provide value to the organization and fuel to strategies. Here are a few thoughts on ways to ensure your institution is using data to your advantage.

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