Quality public sector information at the service of companies

The 8th edition of the Aporta Meeting was held on 28 November 2018, this year with the slogan “Innovation with public data”.  I took part in the round table on Public Data and Business Development; this experience gave me the opportunity to reflect on the role of public sector information in the business ecosystem, particularly how it links with commercial information.

It sometimes seems that commercial information comes from dark, unauthorised sources rather than a transparent process. In fact, since I have been working in this sector, I have often had to explain what I do to those in my personal sphere. Most are surprised by the great quantity of public sector information handled by a company like mine when preparing its reports.

They are also amazed when I explain that this commercial activity has been going on since the 18th century; the first trade almanacs or merchant guides in Spain were published around 1795. Information was later organised in reports until INFORMA, in 1992, offered a novel way of collecting and processing trade information in Spain. Its thorough, systematic and structured method allowed it to create the country’s largest business database.

4 benefits of commercial information

Commercial information improves how the market operates in four aspects: it helps business development, lowers delinquency, reduces asymmetric information, and minimises fraud.

Firstly, complete and updated information allows companies to find new markets, seek better positioning in their sector, and understand their suppliers and customers.

Secondly, according to the European Commission, one in four companies that go bankrupt do so due to customer delinquency. Having reliable information therefore prevents non-payments. This is essential in any credit sales process as it generates trust between companies and increases profitability. Greater information and transparency leads to more secure commercial operations.

Thirdly, quality information reduces asymmetric information. Information is asymmetric when one of the parties does not have the same information as the other on the product, service or asset being sold. For example, if a company requests credit from a bank, whether the banks grants the credit or not depends on the availability of information. Whereas, if there is public and reliable commercial information available, the company can obtain financing in better conditions.

Finally, commercial information affords transparency in transactions, which is fundamental for fighting against fraud and money laundering.

The revision of the PSI directive: the first challenge

Public sector information is important for preparing commercial information as it is official. Therefore, its upcoming challenges fully affect our sector.

The first challenge faced by the public sector: changes the European Union will establish in the new PSI Directive, which is still under the process of approval. This Directive will set the framework of disseminating public data and thus its significance is evident.

The Directive proposes that high value dataset be freely available. Accessing data related to state budgets, geography —IGN maps, cadastre data, etc.—, businesses —registers, shareholder and executive details, identification number, etc.—, legislation or statistics could generate new businesses.

If this proposal is really developed in full, we must not forget that these data must be quality data. According to the European Data Portal, the main technical barriers for open data are data quality and availability. We could add to these two characteristics data standardisation and relevance. All public data must meet minimum quality requirements.

These lists of high value data must be homogeneous throughout Europe as we can observe significant differences between Members States; there are even territorial differences within Spain.

Lastly, although the proposed revision indicates that information must be free by default, this may put information quality at risk and payment may be more appropriate, at least the cost of generating information.

Seeking the usefulness and relevance of public sector information

The second challenge for public data dissemination must go beyond making data “available to”. For it to become a business requires not only making data available to the public. They must be analysed, defined, interpreted and their formats established.

Neither citizens nor companies are interested in data itself, rather what service it can become and the solutions it can contribute. In the case of business information, data must help make increasingly quicker decisions.

Content prepared by Nathalie Gianese, Director of Studies and Quality at Informa D&B, and speaker at the 2018 Aporta Meeting.

The content and opinions shown in this publication are the exclusive responsibility of the author.