IDG Contributor Network: Profiting from free and underused data

Data is rightly seen as a valuable asset that companies should guard carefully. Having access to unique data sets and possessing the ability to use advanced analytics techniques to process them can separate winners from losers in the 21st century – just ask Google or Facebook about how profitable that can be.However, many firms are sitting on data assets that are not being utilized effectively or even used at all. There is also an abundance of freely accessible data made available by publ