The idea of data as a business asset has been central to much of the thinking and writing about big data that’s emerged over the last few years. But what value does big data really hold for business? Data in and of itself is really of no value at all. Its value comes in being part of a process that collects, stores, analyzes and transforms into insights and action that drive business improvement. In that sense, data is just one component in a process, much like raw material is just one component in a traditional supply chain. The challenge we face today is actually linking and efficiently feeding that supply chain.

I’m not the first to posit the notion of a data supply chain. Business consultants at companies like Accenture and Cognizant have written about the concept, and Venture Capitalist and Former General Manager of IBM Watson, Manoj Saxena, talks about it during this SXSW panel presented by Umbel, the company that I run. What interests me most is how we will solve the customer data supply chain problem for marketers.

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