Euler Hermes, the global leader in trade credit insurance, just released its open data platform (opendata.eulerhermes.com) for anyone to access, use and share its valuable data on international B2B trade and is committed to expanding it based on public request.
Data has always been at the core of Euler Hermes’ credit risk underwriting. It represents a powerful tool helping clients select the right prospects and do business with confidence. In recent years, Euler Hermes studied the development of open data portals, which often took the shape of government-led initiatives, for transparency or compliance purposes. As a key player in data intelligence, Euler Hermes seeks to set an example in the global data community by sharing its unique data on international B2B trade.
A platform that helps users make sense of international trade data
This public online data platform gives free access to a first dataset of around 1,800,000 data points collected by Euler Hermes over a three-year period (2016-2017-2018). Euler Hermes’ open data portal meets the highest standards: it is available via API or on the web with various options for manual processing and data vizualisation. The platform, hosted by OpenDataSoft, provides academics, journalists, data scientists and the like with the necessary data to carry out their analysis.
The Euler Hermes portal shares anonymized data both by country and by trade sector. It includes valuable insights such as the impact of a company’s country of incorporation on the likelihood to obtain payment: for example, companies legally registered in Russia and exporting to China will be able to compare how likely they are to get paid compared to firms also exporting to China but registered in Germany.
Tighter collaboration within the corporate world and beyond
From the early stages of the project, Euler Hermes sought to build bridges within and beyond the corporate world. The company collaborated with Professor Christophe Pérignon, Head of Research at the HEC Paris Business School to identify relevant data for academics, data scientists and economists:
Euler Hermes’ willingness to share data is of tremendous value to the academic community. It means we are now able to work on real-life data from a large number of countries, thanks to Euler Hermes’ international presence. It is the first time that a large corporation reaches out to us with an open-access data project. This action in itself shows a strong sense of corporate social responsibility, explains Christophe Pérignon.
By sharing their data with a larger audience, corporations like Euler Hermes can help drive the creation of innovative businesses and services. Our goal in making the unique Euler Hermes data available to all is to create a community around international B2B trade data. We want to turn this data into action and help solve business challenges across sectors. Ultimately, we hope to set an example and encourage other companies to open data to better serve society, explains Jennifer Baert, Global Head of Information & Credit Risk at Euler Hermes.
This open data portal is a first step towards creating a culture of data openness in the corporate world and Euler Hermes is hoping other companies will soon follow its example. In the meantime, Euler Hermes will seek ways to increase access to its data and help people better understand companies’ payment practices as well as how they trade and buy goods or services.