Grant Thornton-Data Foundation Survey: 82% of Govt, Industry Leaders Cite Progress in Data Standardization

A new survey by Grant Thornton and Data Foundation has found that approximately 82 percent of government and industry leaders said the standardization of information to facilitate open data adoption had improved in the previous year.

Data Foundation and Grant Thornton said Thursday they interviewed at least 20 government and private sector executives and respondents said the move to open data has made information a resource to build up external transparency and internal management functions.

“Government data leaders are telling us that once they standardize and publish their information as open data, they create new decision-making tools,” said Hudson Hollister, president of the Data Foundation.

“The DATA Act of 2014 mandated this transformation for the federal government’s spending information,” Hollister added.

Respondents across the government, compliance and private sectors said the benefits of open data that include automatic reporting, internal management and external transparency are interrelated.

“Even as open data starts to become the default approach in both government and the private sector, there are still many opportunities for leaders to embrace open data approaches to improve efficiencies and outcomes – particularly in the management of federal programs,” said Adam Hughes, director of marketing and government affairs at Grant Thornton’s public sector business.

Click here to view the full list of interviewees for the second edition of The State of the Union of Open Data.