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2026.09.24 | TB | Data | GlobalData Datasets & AI Monetisation

原标题：GlobalData – Creating Differentiated Datasets & AI Monetisation

#software

Third Bridge · 2026-09-24

Analyst-led • 15 Sep 2026

Companies: INF GB, IT US, CLVT US, IQV US, REL GB, DATA GB

Jamie O'Sullivan (JO) Independent Consultant

Philip Atkinson (PA) — Third Bridge Sector Analyst

Agenda

Key Insights

Introduction

PA [00:00:02]: Welcome to Third Bridge's Interview entitled GlobalData – Creating Differentiated Datasets & AI Monetisation. I'm Philip Atkinson, and I'm here with Jamie O'Sullivan, former COO at GlobalData. Welcome to the Interview, Jamie. It's good to have you here.

Before we get started, could you please state either I agree or I disagree to the following statement: You understand the definition of material non-public information and agree not to disclose any such information, or any other information which is confidential, during this Interview.

JO [00:00:39]: I agree.

PA [00:00:42]: Could you begin with a brief introduction to your background and what your time at GlobalData looked like?

JO [00:00:51]: Yes, obviously, my background is firmly originally in publishing, then moving into information services, a long career at Relx plc, originally in finance, largely as CFO for what was their Reed Business Publishing division, which then evolved into data services and part of the LexisNexis Risk division, where I expanded the role, became COO to the data services markets and then eventually became CEO/group MD for a collection of markets within that area spanning across real estate, agriculture, taxation and also talent management/HR employment law. Then obviously, more recently, COO for GlobalData, but also then taking on the role of effectively divisional MD for their Technology and Financial Services division within the business, so part of the board, was the group COO role and then more directly looking at the direct businesses in the tech and financial services. Probably, I'd say it was at the time I was there, very acquisitive, very much looking to change and evolve how the business operates. A lot moving forward, both structurally, acquisitions, internal processes and culture. Fairly a short period, but very hectic.

Questions

[00:02:40] GlobalData reported its H1 2026 earnings on 14 September 2026. The stock dropped about 20% due to low mid-single-digit growth overall, led by acquisitions, but importantly, flat underlying revenue growth and reduced operational cash flow, from interest expenses doubling in H1 2026 vs the prior period. What do you see as the primary drivers for that flat revenue performance? What are your thoughts on that?

JO [00:03:18]: I think you need to unpack it because I don't think there's one right answer. At a macro level, I think all information services are being challenged both from in terms of the value of the information they're providing. If you're not offering differentiated enough value and the customer understands that value, then they're challenging the use of that data, but then equally, I think it then boils down to an industry level from a cyclical perspective. Some markets at the moment, they crave information, but at a macro level, I think it's just there's more pressure to deliver customers understanding the value. It's a bit of an oxymoron because AI in one perspective helps people to get more value out of information services businesses like GlobalData, but equally, it also can create almost that black box where customers don't really understand it. This is definitely my opinion.

The businesses that succeed are the ones that really stay close to their customers, but also the market themselves, because they've got to be that trusted source of information. The quality of the data has got to be there, the ease of use has got to be there. They've got to have that relationship with the market and the end customer. Otherwise, they are just in a sea of competitiveness with other people. I think what you're seeing with GlobalData is that macro level where people are just challenging the value of information and the business is going through that change. The change is nothing that they don't highlight in their half-year report recently in terms of the journey that they're going on.

[00:05:28] Do you think GlobalData can be one of the players that do sit above the sea of competition, or do you see the company sinking beneath the waves and getting lost in the mix in the next 2-3 years?

JO [00:05:52]: At a headline level. Probably I was doing some notes to myself. The last comment I'm going to actually now try to use upfront. The pivotal thing on that, whether it's a success or not, one, in GlobalData's favour, a great wealth of assets in different markets. That mix of information in different sectors, all in one place, all structured well, a great central operations and particularly their India operation can provide differentiated value, but then the side of that is staying close to the customer and going on that journey. The success of GlobalData will come down, in my opinion, being able to make the cultural shift. It's done a brilliant job of building itself up as an information services, but that journey, a lot of the size of the organisation now has been built on fast growth, grabbing customers, serving up to them. Here's a lot of information on their front-end tools that they largely offer the information up on and let the customer get on with it.

They culturally need to get that, each market does need to get much closer. I think trying to do that, operating the business as a big monolithic kind of ship with everything being led largely quite centrally is going to be very difficult. I'm 50-50, there is an opportunity to be one of those players because of the breadth and actually the value of the data that I know they have and the operation they've had, but it has to come in hand with staying much closer to markets and customers. I'm sure you know, one size does not fit all and having that much deeper rooted understanding of how those markets operate, and key to that is the culture of how the business is run. Sorry, it was a very waffly answer for a headline answer.

[00:08:13] Do you think the cultural shift you mentioned is the crux of what GlobalData might be doing for the next couple of years, or are there other avenues that could lead to the same, almost more localised market approach?

JO [00:08:40]: The customer relationship will come from that more market-centric approach. The actual product offering, I think they can tailor and offer some fairly unique insights and solutions from their central operations team and their research teams, which I think the research teams are very well established and obviously very market-centric. The data teams, they've got a great operation in Hyderabad, some incredible talent. I'd say, probably less connected to, in my opinion, to the market. The sales journey, probably that's in reform and it has been for a while. It needs all three of those to work together in unison. Throughout when I've run these businesses, and I'm going back to pre-GlobalData, so many times, the missing component is all different functions of the business operating in unison. That comes back to why I say it's so important having those more divisional structures, having clear goals, clear accountability so that they can deliver and adapt to what the customers and the market need. That's going to be the key to success. They've got all the ingredients, but it's kind of like is somebody now making sure that they know what they're doing with them.

[00:10:25] In the earnings, we saw increased interest payments and financing activities on the non-healthcare side. How costly do you see GlobalData's growth and restructuring and changes we're seeing going forwards vs how it has been historically?

JO [00:10:50]: From an operational cost perspective, if you look at the last definitely two years, so if you look at last year and the previous year, yes, the last 18 months, definitely, their operating costs definitely, I'd say, there's no big change that I think that will cause in terms of going forward. I'm trying to think how I give this the context. Obviously, I've moved on from that role. I'm not cheap, and this is not meant to sound arrogant, I'm not cheap. I was there to lead and focus on a division. My cost has been replaced by somewhere else. If you look in the short term, it's not that they've got a big step-up from what they were already trying to do over the last 18 months, two years. I think it's just about making some of those choices and that structure and that cost base work right.

[00:12:15] GlobalData continues to point to macroeconomic uncertainty as a headwind, leading to things such as an elongated sales cycle, which was industry-wide and resulted in that 1% underlying growth. How much of a necessity do you see GlobalData being to customers today, particularly during this time of uncertainty?

JO [00:12:50]: Again, I may sound like a politician, for those customers that really know how to use, understand the wealth of information that's available, they quite often in times of economic uncertainty, I'd say the value of information goes up. Now that changes for different markets. If you look at, say, the petrochemicals industry, that thrives on uncertainty because everybody wants to know what's going on, but even if you take the consumer division of GlobalData, economic uncertainty and particularly price volatility of commodities, again, that fuels the need to have the best information and the best insight in terms of what's happening in the future. Also, GlobalData is not just about looking at static data.

They have the capability of providing great insights in terms of the forms of signals, some of the tools that they've developed. Economic uncertainty, when people really understand and know what's there, I'd say it isn't the main driver. There's basic financial discipline that means every business squeezes costs and you'll have procurement departments increasingly, their job is, from suppliers' perspective, it just puts pressure on things, but it's not the primary driver of that. I think where people have perhaps, say, purchased information services or data and they've not fully embedded it or fully got to grips with the value of what they've got, and they're only scratching the surface in terms of how they're using it, that's where macroeconomic swings and uncertainty can really impact things. It can be one of the first things to go when you're having to cut costs back.

[00:15:09] What percentage of the revenue base does realise the value of GlobalData fully vs fall into that looser category?

JO [00:15:22]: Oh, I knew you were going to ask me this. I'd split it into three buckets and probably at the upper tier of customers, the larger customers, GlobalData can offer different data sources. Say you're in consumer, but you're also interested in manufacturing trends or you're in financial services, you might be interested in consumer trends, etc. Say you want data feeds in different formats and you want the data structured slightly differently. That's where I would say less worried, less worried because GlobalData has got the ability to really serve those customers well. I think at the top 25% tier, I'm not worried. The lower end of the market, and I'm talking the bottom 25%, say, where it's been a more commodity sale to a customer in the traditional sense rather than a real value-based sale, so we're talking the lower-value customers, that's where there is a risk because it only takes one key user to leave an organisation and you can easily lose that renewal. Then in the middle, I'd say in that middle chunk, and there'll be a range within there, but in that middle chunk, it's a real mix. From my understanding and experience, there were customers who were great super users of our information centres in that middle bucket.

Again, I would say they would fight tooth and nail to retain that service, but we have other people that don't. One of the things that does help that middle bucket extract more value is definitely some of the AI tooling because it just makes it easier for people to navigate a lot of data. In your traditional platform information centre, that a lot of information services, including GlobalData, offered, if you don't know where things are, you don't necessarily extract the value. Whereas if you've got AI embedded, and it doesn't have to be at a complex level, just AI embedded in terms of from a search perspective, it makes a lot easier for an end user to extract the value. In that middle bucket, it's a mix.

[00:18:29] Are GlobalData's AI tools or functionality up to customer demands, or do they meet the customer demands to assist with middle chunk usage and retention?

JO [00:18:55]: I'm going to comment based on probably from the point when I was still there and probably to help give it some context, I'll refer back to my previous employers. GlobalData from my perspective, wind the clock back 12 months ago, it was definitely doing the right things it should do in terms of helping that AI search capability to make ease of use of your information centre. It was also doing some great stuff with its team in India in terms of to extract signals from data and trends. If I then compare it to, say, some of my previous markets I've served, where I saw AI really driving potential value that you can actually charge as additional value to the end customer, comes back to being really close to the end market in terms of being able to work with that market to create new insights, work with your customers to bring in their data combined with your own proprietary data to drive deeper insights, using AI tools and the deep customer market knowledge to drive new insights, deeper insights, more complex insights.

This is definitely my personal opinion, how far GlobalData has come on that journey in terms of that embeddedness, I think that will be something that I think over the next 12-18 months will be quite interesting to explore to see how they really do that. As they move to this more divisional market customer focused, do they make sure they connect that to the strength of their back office and data operations in India to ensure that those two, kind of one plus one does equal three and not just two or 1.5.

[00:21:30] If we're looking over the next 12-18 months with that increased AI functionality and being more embedded, how could that translate over towards customer volume or value retention?

JO [00:21:50]: It has the potential to have a big impact, even at the base level. Even at the service they have. Most people don't have a great attention span. You give them a big information services, average people won't take the time to really explore and understand it. At its base level, I think AI just in terms of search and being able to prompt to ask the question that you want to solve, that will drive value. Then going up that value chain that I talked about, I think that's where it can drive real differentiated value because if you think about from a pricing perspective, and I hate the word pricing personally because I think it's all about the value. It's the value of the problem you're solving the customer. If you're using AI to drive deeper insights, if you're bringing in new fresh data sets like the customer data sets, your own data sets, potentially other third-party data sets and using AI to drive value, drive new insights, new products, etc, that's where customers will really see the value because you have the potential to make it even more bespoke to the problems that the customers are trying to solve, or you have the potential to give much more solid predictive insight to your customers. Therefore, they're going to be willing to pay for that.

[00:23:47] In H1 2026, we saw value renewal rates at 91%, and volume renewal rates were flat at 83%. If we hypothesise what that AI impact could be, how do you see those figures changing? Could we see that 91% value renewal go to 95%, or how should I think about that in terms of those renewal rates and underlying revenue performance?

JO [00:24:26]: No, I would say going back to those different buckets I talked about, so that top 25, that AI and being close to the customer, you should be looking to get much closer to 100-plus. That middle tier, you definitely got scope for circa mid-single-digit improvement. My view would be is that you're going to have probably to be more disciplined at the lower end in terms of is that the business you want to be in? Because, again, my view is that at the lower end, are they really going to extract the value from what you're delivering? Are they really going to appreciate that and hence, do you want to be servicing that lower tier? If you can do it relatively cheaply, then great, but I wouldn't be expecting any dramatic change in churn rates personally.

PA [00:25:49]: So less of an impact on the volume renewal, but potentially value renewal ticking up driven by that middle and top 25 customer base. Is that a fair summary?

JO [00:26:00]: Yes, and you should see new customer acquisition at the upper end, definitely.

PA [00:26:13]: That 1% or essentially flat underlying revenue growth you saw in H1 '26, given where AI could be taking GlobalData in the next 12-18 months, do you see that 1% as an outlier? Where would you see underlying revenue growth trending in that near- to mid-term?

JO [00:26:34]: If you're going to say 12-18 months, I'd probably be quite cautious just because you've got structural and cultural changes going on as well as overall just general global macro uncertainty. I would probably say my personal view is you're probably talking still low-single digits over 12-18 months. If you're talking more 18 months to three years horizon, then I think you've got the potential for that to start creeping up to mid-single to high-single digits over that 18-month to three-year time period.

[00:27:35] GlobalData is overhauling its non-healthcare business with a new operational structure, looking to pair the platform's agility and scalability with market-focused businesses led by dedicated management and go-to-market teams. What major changes do you expect to be ongoing, and might the company look different at the end of this transformation?

JO [00:28:10]: I'm just pausing to make sure I give it some thought. Look, what GlobalData wants to capitalise on is it has got an incredible operation in India in terms of data specialists, AI specialists, just technology capability. Generally, I was really impressed by it. That's what they're looking to capitalise on, that platform operation, which is, in my opinion, a great asset. The journey they're trying to go on is healthcare is more of a standalone obviously, because of the activities that went on a couple of years ago. It had clearer product teams. The overall management structure, it had a management structure. There was Mr or Ms Healthcare. There were clear owners of sales, clear owners of product, clear owners of consultancy, clear owners of research. They had more close ownership to their technology and product development teams. In that respect, what they're trying to achieve is that, coming back to, they've got more ability to drive a more cohesive approach to the market and the customers that they're serving.

My view that what they're saying now and what they've been saying for a couple of years is they want to do that for, say, consumer, tech, financial services, industrials, etc. They want to have that Mr or Ms Consumer, and that person has more control over their sales team, over their research team, their consultancy teams, their product teams. That's the journey that I think they're trying to go on with the other divisions, but that comes back to the point I said at the start. The success of that will be culture because if you want that model to succeed, you have to have accountability to each of those areas, but then if you want the accountability, you've got to pass down the responsibility and the authority as well. That's the cultural change that's got to go on to make that a success.

[00:31:34] Do you think the senior leadership team at GlobalData understand the cultural need for transformation and are likely to be pushing towards this, or do you see some bumps in the road?

JO [00:32:01]: They've got some skilled senior players there that know what needs to be done and have got the capability to execute on that. They might have a few, like any business has probably got some skills gaps, but essentially, they've got it there. They've just got to make sure that the overall oil lets all the cogs move in the right way. I'm treading on eggshells. I don't want to sound unprofessional or say something I shouldn't do.

[00:32:44] When could we see a similar transformation in the non-healthcare parts of GlobalData's business to mirror what the healthcare structure is today?

JO [00:33:13]: The timeline could be relatively quick, I think. Going back to all the caveats I've just said, it shouldn't be a too long a cycle if you put all the right things in place. In the half-year presentation, they mentioned, I just want to make sure that that was in the half, and I'm not saying something. They mentioned something about consumer, I think, in terms of the consumer division in terms of making progress in terms of some of the new talent and structures. I think going back to all the caveats in terms of what the key to success is, the timeline for that to start to show dividends could be give it another 18 months, coming back to my point in terms of why I think you're going to see a step change in my view, is more like an 18-month to three-year. That links back to the overall timeframe in terms of some of that structural benefit coming in as well.

PA [00:34:29]: That consumer piece you're mentioning – management mentioned having clear examples of where existing investment has worked well in the past 18 months, flagging the consumer division growing underlying 7% in H1. If we're looking at that consumer outcome there, do you take that as a positive sign on execution? Is that the point there?

JO [00:35:15]: Yes, yes, I do. Again, without delving too much into detail, it's one where, in my view, it's probably the division where it's more closely attached to the markets it serves, the big customers it serves. Therefore, that's why you can extract. Once you build that trust and respect with customers, that's where you're able to offer new services, expand data sets, etc, like that. I think that's a good example, but the other markets have got the potential. I'd say consumer in my view, is probably slightly further ahead in some of those structural changes that GlobalData is going on. Hence, you're seeing the benefits of them.

PA [00:36:23]: What did being consumer-focused mean in terms of being closer to those customers? What did that look like in the day-to-day operations?

JO [00:36:39]: Purely my opinion, leadership that had a focus on consumer. It sounds very hierarchical, it's not the right word I'm looking for. They had, yes, leadership able to collectively drive a strong agenda for that market and for those customers, bringing together the functions below to work cohesively to then effectively deliver the overall full package.

[00:37:28] When we think about that proximity to customers, how did customers feel about it? What is being researched? Is this the product, and how does that get embedded into consumer workflows? How should I think about it from the consumer touchpoint?

JO [00:37:45]: I think what it means is it's all, everything. If you set a clear strategy and clear goals for your business, you can ensure that your sales team sells the right thing to the right people at the right value. That sounds very basic, but so often, if you leave sales teams to just go off, they can go off, they can sell the wrong product to the wrong people at the wrong value. Clear leadership and with sales close to them, you're selling the right things, right value to the right customers that you want to focus on. Equally, you've got your research teams. You've got the agenda of that research team for the upcoming 12-18 months, you ensure that that's tailored to one single agenda that's going to maximise the value for the customers linked to the salesperson. If you've got that clear, you can then ensure that your technology and from your product development teams, you've got clear prioritisation in terms of what new value you want to deliver the customers.

If you've then got a strong marketing and customer service teams more aligned to support those customers in that market, that then helps oil the wheels. I don't want to sound like an MBA. It is about that alignment and ability to influence and have an element of autonomy to set the agendas for those so that you get that coordination, so everybody is pointing in the right direction. That's critical. In a business like GlobalData, in my view, that's the pivot, that's the journey that they're trying to go on. You want to capitalise on that underlying platform and operations and that technology resource that they have, but they need to be able to have some level of autonomy to drive that overall strategic journey and delivery.

[00:40:20] The transformation that we've been discussing, and GlobalData also discussed, do you see that impacting operating costs at all, given that mention of dedicated management and go-to-market teams?

JO [00:40:41]: Management, I don't think, it shouldn't be a significant one because they've obviously had some churn at a senior level and they've brought new players in and hopefully, that all works out. That goes back to what I said, in terms of that bucket of cost, no. In terms of sales, I think there may be some as they continue to mature the sales operation from perhaps as they move much more strongly to the customer, it requires a different type of salesperson, somebody who can really go in there and understand what the customer wants and avoid that temptation to sell straight away and actually just learn because that's where you get much bigger sales, which goes back to what they said, longer sales cycles. That's one of the key, as they go on that journey, sales cycles, if you want to extract more from a customer and you're offering them bigger and more complex solutions, your sales cycles will go up. The other areas, I think perhaps more the customer service end of things, I think some of the tooling they've put in place and also just use of AI, that could potentially offset some of the actual investment that's needed, so not a huge one. GlobalData has also got a wealth of assets to engage in markets, and you could make better use of those to avoid your marketing costs going up.

I'm going through my head. I'm being a bit like an ex-CFO, I'm going through the cost base. I think from a management level, I don't see an issue. Sales, potentially as they mature, but that's an ongoing change. I think customer service, marketing, potentially some increase, but technology could offset that. Potentially in terms of if you're trying to get your tech and product teams more closely aligned, maybe leveraging that great asset they've got, that may increase [some] costs as you get teams structured slightly differently to be more focused. Yes, potentially, but not hugely significant, but I think if it was my business, and I wasn't a public listed company, I'd probably make a step change investment to accelerate that cycle of change. Rather than, say, being a bit more of a three-year change, invest stronger in H2 this year and next year to really drive the change faster. Sorry, I've processed the answer. I think in answer, if you want to accelerate that change, a step change in investment, in my personal view, would be a good thing over the next 12-18 months because I think it would bring the benefits forward. If you wanted a slower burn to see the benefits more on that 3-4-year horizon, I think you could do it on a more piecemeal and less impactful way.

PA [00:45:19]: If we were to summarise the potential of a 12-18-month and 3-4-year horizon, how should I think of that maybe a yearly OPEX increase? Could we be looking at that as 3-4%? Would that be like a 1-5% increase YoY, vs if there's a 12-18-month scenario, that's slightly higher? How do you see that netting out?

JO [00:46:00]: Can I flip the answer slightly differently? I think if you took a choice to hold margins over the next 12-18 months, in my view, that would give you quite a bit of headroom. Don't strive for margin improvement over the next 12-18 months to enable yourself to fuel some of that growth.

[00:46:40] In 2025, non-healthcare saw under GBP 200m in revenue and adjusted EBITDA of GBP 50m, coming to about a 25% EBITDA margin. Comparatively, healthcare margins sat closer to 50%. What is your outlook over the next 2-3 years for that non-healthcare margin development, knowing GlobalData?

JO [00:47:11]: Healthcare margins, and this is a broad sweeping statement, in my view, in the information services tend to be higher anyway. The US market is one of the biggest healthcare markets. The US health market is incredibly high value and expensive. Therefore, again, I think the halo effect on the value that you extract from even the suppliers moving into that market, it makes a step change. I do think personally, that's a market that's quite unique just in terms of the overall structure. That said, healthcare, it's got bigger customers, it's got more established customers. They're probably on more of a journey in terms of refining the services. That's why they are ahead of the curve, but it's not to say that you shouldn't… A goal for a 10pp on non-healthcare margin improvement, getting up to mid-30s is not unreasonable at all. I think 25% is your baseline. I personally think you've got a 10pp improvement, but that is going to come from going up the value curve in terms of what you're offering customers and delivering them more value and probably, therefore, expanding the number of customers, the larger customers or expanding the price point in that middle bucket.

PA [00:49:33]: Is that dependent on organic revenue growth primarily?

JO [00:49:43]: There is a big opportunity for them from an acquisition perspective and to drive new synergies, there's a huge opportunity. Whether it's buying new capabilities, and again, I'm not saying anything that's not public here, like Ai Palette, great new capability, in my view, should drive growth. If you take, say, other things such as the LinkUp acquisition, again, great opportunity in terms of bringing either offering new data sets to the customer group and market that you've acquired or even great opportunity for bringing the data set that you've acquired from the acquired company. How you make a success of those comes back to a lot of those structural things that I talked about and ensuring that you really do integrate those acquisitions into those market-focused segments because that's the key to unlocking that value.

[00:51:22] Premium trusted proprietary data is at the core of GlobalData's business case, as the company itself says. Out of 10 customers, maybe segmented between healthcare and non-healthcare, how many would you expect to find differentiated data of value from GlobalData that they couldn't find elsewhere?

JO [00:52:06]: Right. I'll break it down. If I answer that question, looking at customers in tiers, yes, in terms of your big high-value customers, your mid-tier and your bottom tier.

PA [00:00:21]: Would that mirror the 25, 50, 25 that we were mentioning?

JO [00:00:25]: Yes, as a big bucket perspective. At the top end, that top end from looking at customer tiers, I think out of 10, 10 being really differentiated, you're talking an eight. At the bottom end, I'd say you're talking a 4-5. At that middle bit, you are talking a range between, I think, five to eight. If we come on to another lens, and I think these lenses aren't now in priority. They're just me trying to do that. If you then look at the type of customers in terms of are they expert users vs non-expert users, so the customers that have whereby they have engaged with our customer onboarding teams deeply. We've spent the time with them to make sure it's embedded. They've taken the time. Though that's a key lens because if they're what I call one of the expert users, particularly if we then look at that middle bucket of things, the expert users are going to be up there similar to the top tier, up in the eights, sevens and eights in terms of seeing differentiated value. Customers who haven't really embedded it, didn't get the onboarding right, then that's going to be the driver of that bucket being down at the bottom. That's a lens.

I think another lens that I look at is customers, do they have an interest in multiple markets rather than one single market? Going back to consumer. Consumer, they're interested in their own world, but they are interested in other datas, be it manufacturing, the plastic prices, they might be interested in, I don't know. Yes, financial services is another one. Your hedge funds, for instance, are interested in loads of different markets when they're trying to assess risk and etc. Customers that have got a multi-market interest, again, that lens would also shift that differentiation in my view, up to the top end of that eight level. Single market, probably less so, but the market lens isn't a driver of a big swing. I think they take it from a maybe, you talk 6-8 range. I mean it's all very subjective, me just picking numbers, but it's my gut feel in terms of the impact.

PA [00:56:19]: When I'm thinking of the differentiated data that we've been discussing, is this less a question of the data set quality and more about that proximity to customers, getting that embedded and getting customers to be able to leverage the data set?

JO [00:56:43]: There's two separate things. I think in terms of customers' perception of differentiation, it's going to be driven by how embedded they've got the product and understand the users, which can be driven by both what the customer does, how it rolls out as well as how we onboard customers, how we support customers. Differentiation also is driven, and this comes back to the closest to the market in terms of how you evolve and adapt your product and your data over time to meet those needs. That's where if you're running it more cohesively and more closer to the market and then running a business with a set of goals that are aligned to those needs across all those functions, by default, you will have a more differentiated and tailored offering for those customers. Therefore, in my opinion, will be more attractive and be perceived as more differentiated.

[00:57:51] Would GlobalData ideally be looking to prioritise operational alignment and customer proximity rather than simply a new data set acquisition outright as a simple end goal?

JO [00:58:08]: In isolation, a new data set acquisition, any new data is good, but unless it's clearly aligned to solving a unique customer problem that the customer is going to perceive value of having that solved, in itself, it's not the silver bullet. If as a result of setting your three-year plan, you understand that actually, look, customers are asking for this. They'd love to be able to get that. In order to drive an insight, you need a new data set and you either purchase that data set, licence that data set, etc, or even research it, then that will be different, but just going out and buying a new data set and think, right, here's another ingredient, what can we do with it, that's not a strategy.

PA [00:59:21]: Is there anything you want to quickly add on at the end, either a summary or something that we've not had a chance yet to discuss that you want to include for the call?

JO [00:59:45]: I think we've covered everything.

PA [00:59:49]: Fantastic. I do think we've had a lovely call then. I've had a great time. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.

JO [01:00:01]: All right. Excellent. Thank you very much. Great to talk to you.

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