#SFSW16: Location Solves Data Glut Says HERE Exec

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Nicholas Goubert HERE SFSW16

Fewer than one-third of all big data projects that have been launched in the last few years are successful, but as HERE’s Nicholas Goubert explained in a presentation at Street Fight Summit West 2016 on Tuesday, the problem has less to do with the data itself than the way it’s being stored.

“Right now data is very siloed,” he said. “There needs to be a platform that allows us to bring all of this data together [and] make sense of this data.”

Goubert says one of the biggest questions that comes up when people start talking about data is, is more always better? His answer flies in the face of what many industry professionals have heard.

“We all love data because we think data is the oil of the next industry,” he said. “We all want more.”

But collecting data for the sake of collecting data is a common mistake, and Goubert said the first step in solving most big data dilemmas is to add a location angle.

“If you use location to understand the data and bring intelligence to the data set, that is going to help you enhance the experience you’ve created and it is going to help you enhance your experience altogether,” he said.

Goubert and his team at HERE are working on ways to use their deep understanding of location to see how cities, services, and cars can be pooled into a single platform that links people, places, and things.

“What I’m trying to say here is that to make sense of the data, [we] need to get it from an angle that is relevant, and the angle that we are using is location.”

The most successful firms will be those that find ways to combine data in a filtering process that includes a location element. Goubert says there needs to be a platform that allows users to bring data together, make sense of the data, and that the technology should be applicable to a lot of different companies that can leverage the power to enhance their own services.

“Saving data for the sake of saving data makes no sense … It doesn’t come with value,” he said. “We need to combine data sets from other sources to enhance usefulness and make sense of it.”

Stephanie Miles is a senior editor at Street Fight.

Photo Credit: Shana Wittenwyler

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Stephanie Miles is a journalist who covers personal finance, technology, and real estate. As Street Fight’s senior editor, she is particularly interested in how local merchants and national brands are utilizing hyperlocal technology to reach consumers. She has written for FHM, the Daily News, Working World, Gawker, Cityfile, and Recessionwire.