• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 2, 2022

Email teams should keep a wary eye out for how data is used in their companies: Are they collaborating with outside firms to share data with them?

Most are, according to the State of Data Collaboration Report, a new study by Habu and Ascend2.  

Of the companies polled, 77.8% will share data and insights with other firms in the next 12 months. And in the last six months alone, 68% have done so. Meanwhile, 69.5% will increase their data collaboration with outside companies in the year to come. 

As the study notes, access to “new and differentiated data from key partners is critical to any data-driven organization’s growth strategy.” 

But there are barriers to data sharing, the biggest one being privacy. Next is the readiness of partners. These hurdles are followed by access to data, technology and legal.  

One way of ensuring privacy is clean rooms: a secure environment that enables the connection of distributed data across multiple platforms and parties. Habu happens to offer clean-room software. 

Clean rooms are used by 53%, while 47% say they do not use that technology  Brands in the CPG, retail, and media and entertainment verticals are most likely to use them, while those in financial services and healthcare are more regulated and show a “longer adoption horizon,” the study notes. 

The primary use cases for data collaboration are:

• Analytics & insights
• Secure access to data
• Enriching my existing data
• Data clean rooms 
• Marketing attribution 
• Improving consumer privacy
• Improving machine learning

Of those polled, 68% describe their companies as being data-rich as they pursue a first-party data strategy. Only 3% rate themselves as poor. And 59% say they have a high level of maturity and experience with data collaboration.

Habu and Ascend2 surveyed 266 individuals across industries. Of those polled, 52.6% work in data/technology, 22.2% in leadership roles, 12.8% in advertising/marketing, 7.1% in commercial/sales, 4.1% in other, and 1% in legal/privacy. Altogether, 93% say data collaboration is in their area of responsibility.