Partner Spotlight - Harbr

Written by Aboitiz Data Innovation | Dec 12, 2023 10:53:00 AM

Prepare for an exhilarating journey with our fresh Partner Spotlight series. We’re delighted to share insights into the remarkable collaborations between ADI and our partners, marked by innovation and success. Today, we’re pleased to have our data platform partner Harbr as our inaugural participant in this series.

Cain Christoforou from Harbr is already with us, ready to dive deep into the valuable partnership between Harbr and ADI. Together, we'll uncover the synergies propelling our collective success.

1. ADI: Can you tell us about your experience and background at Harbr?

Cain: I come from a business and technology background and initially joined Harbr as part of the Customer Success team in 2020. Yes, time flies! My role has transitioned into a combination of Account Management (which I lead with ADI) and Pre Sales. In my Pre Sales role, I engage with organizations to understand how we can help them. This gives me a great understanding of the innovative things our current clients are doing with their Harbr platforms and what the market is asking for.

2. ADI: In 2022, ADI rolled out Parlay, the platform for sharing data and insights. Can you tell us about how Harbr powers Parlay’s data sharing capabilities?

Cain: Parlay is the name given by ADI to their Harbr-powered platform, used by the Aboitiz conglomerate for two core purposes:

Data sharing across the business units within the conglomerate.
Data sharing between Aboitiz business units and third parties.

In both of these use cases, Harbr provides the ability for data producers to securely govern access when sharing data. It will also enable data consumers to drive value by easily accessing data — whether for running a query, building a model, or creating a dashboard.

3. ADI: What makes Harbr unique in its industry?

Cain: We focus on how data consumers can benefit from accessing data, which is a perennial problem, particularly in large enterprises. Harbr offers a private data-sharing platform that includes:

A marketplace for sharing and discovering data products.
On-demand workspaces that enable collaboration amongst a range of personas
A number of flexible distribution mechanisms.

A number of other companies target specific parts of our offering as their core product and tend to be tied into a particular technology. We are designed to sit as a layer above an enterprise’s diverse technology stack. This setup allows them to connect their data wherever it might be stored, without getting locked into one provider or technology. Harbr is cloud agnostic, built to seamlessly integrate with any cloud provider or data lake/warehouse.

4. ADI: Can you share a real-world use case that Harbr is helping ADI solve?

Cain: A truly impactful real-world use case that really gave me a lot of satisfaction involved two major business units within the Aboitiz conglomerate: Union Bank sharing data with Aboitiz Power.

Aboitiz Power faced payment defaults from several customers in rural areas of the Philippines who were being targeted by loan sharks charging extortionate interest rates. Aboitiz Power was required to shut off the electricity to those customers, which was a costly and painful process.

By sharing this data with Union Bank (in an encrypted format to protect PII sensitivities), Union Bank was able to offer more affordable loan options to these targeted customers. This benefited three parties: customers paying bills without high interest rates, Union Bank gaining new customers, and Aboitiz Power maintaining uninterrupted electricity access for their customers — truly a win-win-win!

5. ADI: If you had one piece of advice for organizations wishing to scale their ability to share data and insights, what would it be?

Cain: Focus on the value and use cases that your data can unlock and work backward from there. Organizations often prioritize “perfecting” data assets through processes and technologies, neglecting the collaboration with end data consumers. These consumers are the ultimate beneficiaries, deriving value from the data and insights. When you understand the needs of your data consumers, you can center any upstream activities on driving toward them.

Closing out our initial Partner Spotlight series, Cain's final response above brings this chapter to an end. A huge shout-out and a warm thank you to Cain from Harbr for being the powerhouse behind our collaboration success.

We will continue to showcase extraordinary collaborations between ADI and our partners that shape the future! Stay tuned for more inspiring stories!

About Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI)

Aboitiz Data Innovation (ADI) stands as a pioneering leader in the data science and AI landscape. We provide transformative AI consulting and data-driven IoT solutions, catering to a diverse range of sectors including banking & financial services, power, and smart cities. With numerous real-time data solutions across various industries, our network includes some of the world's most innovative companies and experts in data science and AI.

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