Our Story
Who We Are
Advocates, Authorities, Advisors.
The Smart Data & Technology Alliance (SDATA) is focused on bringing smart and open data frameworks to market. We advocate for the right policy. We are authorities on what it takes to deliver data-sharing frameworks, and advise our members on what they can do to access and create value within these frameworks.
SDATA was born from our deep experience in the design, delivery, and post-implementation monitoring of open banking and open finance developments across various jurisdictions as the Financial Data & Technology Association (FDATA). This has included active participation in data schemes and working groups, serving on advisory boards, contributing to various industry reports, and being recognised as leading authorities in fora and conferences across the globe.
While we are involved in open banking delivery developments, and the expansion into open finance, our mission - and our name - has expanded to encompass non-financial data access as well. Our intimate understanding and involvement in open banking and finance puts us in a unique position to advocate and advise for smart data sharing. Our familiarity and expertise in other sectors such as energy and telecommunications means we recognise the unique needs other sectors require, and we are bringing that wealth of experience to amplify smart data opportunities in the UK and Europe.
What We Do
We advocate for policy and regulation that enables innovation, new value creation, and end consumer benefits within a commercially competitive market landscape.
We advise alliance members on what they can strategically and tactically do to enhance their own value propositions by accessing cross-sector smart data. We recognise each member has unique opportunities when it comes to accessing data, yet still have common needs when it comes to legislative and regulatory frameworks.
Our case-by-case, advisory first approach allows SDATA to provide a more market-appropriate, bespoke consultative model for individual members, benefiting product roadmaps and other commercial interests, such as specific research, horizon scanning, and partnership identification. At the same time, our advocacy work focuses on the common enablers that create a healthy, innovative, and commercially rewarding ecosystem that delivers real value to end consumers.
How We Do It
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SDATA goes beyond traditional advocacy with our 1:1 alliance member engagement model. We deep dive with each alliance member to identify how they can best benefit from various cross-sector initiatives, from data access, data sets, potential partnerships, scheme participation, to pilot and early stakeholder opportunities. SDATA brings a strategic consultative approach, distilling our insights into actionable plans each member can leverage to expand their smart data offering. Our members cannot be in every corner of the smart data world while running their day-to-day business, but SDATA can be. We scout the ecosystem, bring back that intel, and ensure our members know what lies on the horizon.
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SDATA represents alliance members’ collective position in the various policy development and regulatory framework fora where decisions that shape their future business models and opportunities are made. This includes engaging with government, regulators, policy makers, and industry initiatives. Our cross-sector activity gives SDATA a unique view into how policy in one sector impacts our members’ ability to do business in their original industry, and their ability to evolve their business model and offerings across other smart data sectors. We bring the power of collective representation to influence, shape, and advocate for a robust, fair, proportionate regulatory framework where the whole of ecosystem can build robust value propositions that bring customers, communities, and end-consumers benefits.