Europe’s data economies worth €550 billion by 2025
As data management becomes more advanced, the value of the data economy is spiralling upward – with a new study suggesting it could grow by €225 billion by 2025. The market could prove most important to the telecommunications space, with eight-in-ten operators planning to launch new data ecosystems initiatives in the near-future.
Across every sector, public and private organisations are leveraging data to strengthen value chains and forge new relationships with customers. This is manifesting in the creation of data ecosystems worth billions of euros.
A data ecosystem is a collection of infrastructure, analytics, and applications used to capture and analyse data. Data ecosystems provide companies with data that they rely on to understand their customers and to make better pricing, operations, and marketing decisions. According to research from Capgemini, the combined value of the data economies of the EU27 countries alone could grow from €325 billion in 2019 to over €550 billion by 2025 – or an estimated 4% of the EU’s overall GDP.
As data is being managed better and applied further than ever before, opportunities are emerging for companies which can facilitate the creation of data ecosystems. In particular, this represents a major opportunity for the telecommunications segment, Capgemini argues, which already provide the digital infrastructure that can help to facilitate the interconnection of data.
Frustratingly, however, telecommunications firms’ engagements with data ecosystems are among the least developed of any sector. Capgemini found that only 19% of the sector were currently strengthening existing initiatives in data ecosystems – behind industrial machinery on 25% and banking on 27%.
Current leaders were meanwhile found in the energy extraction market, where 49% of firms are strengthening existing initiatives. This was followed by utilities and insurance, both on 47%. This is set to change, however. Understanding the importance of collaborative data ecosystems as a way to move beyond basic monetisation of datasets, 81% of telecommunications firms are planning to launch new initiatives in the future – higher than any other sector.
Capgemini’s researchers stated, “Within collaborative data ecosystems, Telcos will potentially play an important role, leveraging their existing capabilities and data assets to create a powerful new future. After moving into this field with great caution, we believe it’s time for them to address this opportunity more vigorously.”
Doing so will be easier said than done, however. It will require the transformation of how such firms focus on data. The analysts suggest that while telecommunications firms have traditionally focused internally on leveraging data derived from their customer management systems – as this is a valid starting stage to of building data ecosystems – the real opportunity “lies in finding ways to use data to work with collaborators and create new intelligence and insights.”
Looking ahead, Capgemini concluded, “As Telcos embrace this ecosystem evolution, they can evolve from a place where managing data is perceived just as a business cost, up to a setup where data becomes part of the business model, if not the business itself.”