Leveraging open data for stakeholder benefits

Abstract

This master's thesis explores the specific benefits that a company's stakeholders, such as customers, investors, and employees, can derive from open data-driven outputs in the context of commercial real estate consulting. To address this research question, a custom data gathering tool is developed to generate valuable data and insights from an open data API, enabling data analysis and the integration of new technologies to facilitate corporate operations.

The thesis research is conducted in collaboration with JLL (Jones Lang Lasalle Finland), a world-leading international commercial real estate advisory firm. Existing operational challenges, including the manual collection of data from numerous sources, created a demand for the new software. The development of this new tool not only streamlines previous processes but also strengthens the company's data foothold in the modern digital economy.

In addition to software development, a literature review is conducted to investigate how open data has been used for the benefit of businesses in the past. After the software's development, several end tools for business use are built using the data collected by the software. These end tools aim to simplify day-to-day business processes, generate market insights and reports, and save employees' time.

The findings suggest that open data-driven outputs have the potential to significantly benefit the company's stakeholders. This includes acquiring a greater understanding of the market, optimizing business processes, and improving investor materials with new market insights. Furthermore, the completed tools and findings demonstrate that leveraging open data in a commercial real estate environment is a viable way to enhance the company's competitive advantage.