Media release 6/6/2023
The increasing use of data and especially artificial intelligence in companies' products and services raises important questions about the value and responsibility of data. At the same time, it should also arouse interest in digital services and the value of data collected from networked devices for companies and their stakeholders.
Collecting and utilizing data involves opportunities to improve current operations and create new business, but also risks and costs. The regulation is not yet sufficient for data-related business or responsibility reporting, but the pioneers are already on the move and will gain a strategic advantage from it," says Mikko Merisaari, partner responsible for Integrated Data Balance Sheet. From Functos.
OP Ryhmä and Kesko are pioneers in understanding the value of data and increasing transparency. Both companies have published their integrated data balance sheet statements, which describe data-related value creation and data management and data security processes related to the business utilization of data.
Kesko is the herald of listed companies
Kesko is the first company in the trade sector to start publishing an Integrated Data Balance Sheet. At the same time, Kesko is the first listed company that has seen the value of data in its investor communication. With a new kind of reporting transparency, Kesko builds trust in its stakeholders.
Kesko's report naturally emphasized the perspectives of its own industry, one of which is the digitalization of trade and customer relations. In fact, value creation with the help of data is a much broader strategic entity. From a business perspective, it is crucial how the accumulated data is analyzed and used responsibly and safely in all of Kesko's operations," says Minna Vakkilainen, Kesko's director of analytics and customer information.
OP Group came up with the idea of describing the value of data
OP Financial Group has already published its fifth Integrated Data Balance Sheet. OP was the first operator in the private sector to start new-style reporting in 2019.
Five years ago, we started with the idea of then chief information officer Sameli Mäenpää to design a value creation model based on the utilization of data. We ended up producing Finland's first and very rare Integrated Data Balance Sheet in the world, which includes a balance sheet that describes the value creation model," says OP Financial Group's Chief Information Officer Antti Myllymäki.
Accounting is a dynamic process
Functos has acted as a partner in the production of Integrated Data Balance Sheet for both companies. Functos has developed a reporting model suitable for companies in different industries.
The Integrated Data Balance Sheet is serves the company's stakeholder and responsibility communication. At the same time, the process gives the organization itself the opportunity to internally outline strategic goals related to data. In a listed company, the report also serves as a tool for investor communication in defining and communicating the opportunities and risks of value creation," states Mikko Merisaari of Functos.
According to Merisaari, the Integrated Data Balance Sheet is not just a new report among the old ones, but the preparation process itself produces a strategic competitive advantage for the company's management. Investors are also interested in a more detailed picture of the business value of the company's data reserve.
Integrated Data Balance Sheets are a very good tool for better opening up a strategically significant theme to the investor target group. The report speaks the investor's language in the investor's terms. The report brilliantly opens up themes related to the value of data with examples and brings a new concrete perspective to digital reporting, which often only revolves around risks and costs," Kesko's Director of Investor Relations Hanna Jaakkola says.
Kesko and OP Financial Group's Integrated Data Balance Sheets were published as part of the companies' annual report package.
Get familiar with Kesko's and OP's Integrated Data Balance Sheets
Kesko: "Kesko's second data balance sheet broadens the perspective to cover all three business segments
OP Financial Group: Data balance sheet describes In Finland's largest financial group information management, management and utilization in an open and transparent manner.
Functos Oy