Socrata Leads Global Revolution in Data-Driven Government with Accelerating Customer Growth, Product Engagement, and Worldwide Adoption

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Socrata

Jan 21, 2015, 06:00 ET

Seattle, WA (PRWEB) January 21, 2015 -- Socrata (http://www.socrata.com), the world leader in cloud solutions for open data and data-driven government, today announced robust results for 2014, including a rapidly expanding customer roster; surging platform adoption, data consumption and developer engagement; and a fast-growing employee base to support its customers.

The measurable success of Socrata’s customers open data, open performance and financial transparency initiatives over the past 12 months has fueled its ability to lead the global revolution in data-driven government. The company, in turn, has been able to demonstrate significant advancements on virtually every level, including:

Customer Growth

  • Socrata increased its customer count by 119% in 2014 and finished the year strong by adding more customers in the fourth quarter of 2014 than it did in all of 2013.
  • Some of Socrata’s newest customers include: US Department of Commerce, US Department of the Treasury, US Internal Revenue Service, State of South Dakota, State of Iowa, State of Utah, Miami-Dade County (FL), City of Tucson (AZ), City of Little Rock (AR), City of Winston-Salem (NC), and City of Henderson (NV).
  • Socrata has expanded its global reach, adding customers in multiple cities in Spain and the United Kingdom, a large country in South America, and its first Federal Government client in Australia.
  • These new customers join established Socrata customers like the cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Eindhoven; the states of New York, Illinois and Texas; US Health and Human Services; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; the United Nations, the European Commission, and the World Bank.
  • Over 200 current and prospective customers attended Socrata’s first-ever Customer Summit in Washington DC during October.

Platform Adoption / Data Consumption / Developer Engagement

  • Third-party developer engagement, measured in tokenized API requests, grew over 316% during 2014, which highlights the rapid growth of the open data economy.
  • Consumption of data on Socrata's network grew by 167% when measured in total data served across all distribution channels (Open Data Portal, Financial Transparency Apps, Open Performance Dashboards, and through ecosystem interfaces).
  • The volume of data uploaded to Socrata’s platform increased 66% in 2014 versus 2013.

Employee Growth

  • Socrata continues to add employees across all areas of it business to accelerate product innovation and help support its rapidly expanding customer base. The total number of employees at the company – now more than 140 – has increased 90% since the end of 2013.

2015 – The Year of Data-Driven Government

“Our suite of easy-to-use, fast-to-implement and cost-effective cloud-based products, anchored by our industry-leading open data platform, power data-driven breakthroughs for governments throughout the world,” says Kevin Merritt, Socrata’s Founder and CEO. “And the future is extremely bright, because data-driven government is exploding globally. In fact, we believe that 2015 will be the year of data-driven government."

Adds Socrata Board member Robert Runge: “Our goal is to help governments use one of the most valuable and new natural resources – open data – to drive outcomes and impact with their constituents. Ultimately, fact-based and data-driven government will become the fundamental basis for all critical and strategic decisions made in the public sector everywhere.”

Providing Financial Transparency Solutions For Government in Easy-to-Use Apps

One of the best examples of Socrata’s growth, momentum and leadership is the significant adoption rates for its new suite of Financial Transparency applications, which currently includes Socrata Open Budget™ and Socrata Open Expenditures™.

Designed for quick deployment and citizen empowerment, the Financial Transparency suite of applications is a first, because it helps governments of all sizes to publish budget and spending data quickly, economically and in a consumer-friendly way.

On the market for nine months, Socrata’s suite of Financial Transparency applications has been adopted by over 50 customers – both large and small governments.

Looking ahead, Socrata’s suite of Financial Transparency apps is expected to expand in 2015. New apps in the suite may allow governments to put their contracts, payroll and capital projects online.

Deploying New Funding to Help Spread Data-Driven Government Everywhere

Marketplace successes like Socrata’s new suite of Financial Transparency apps helped the company close a $30 million Series C round of financing in November. The financing was led by Sapphire Ventures (formerly SAP Ventures), with participation from all existing investors – OpenView Venture Partners, Morgenthaler Ventures and Frazier Technology Partners.

Socrata, which has raised a total of $55 million to date, will use the new funds to bring data-driven government to thousands more public-sector organizations, big and small, around the globe.

Governments Are Spending More on Data-Driven Initiatives

This latest investment reinforces the fact that data-driven government Is proliferating all over the world. Indeed, Socrata’s recently released 2014 Open Data Benchmark Report bolsters the company’s major market opportunity, with 80% of respondents saying that their investment and spending on open data initiatives will be consistent or increase in the next six months.

The Atlantic’s Government Executive magazine recently cited Socrata’s Benchmark Report in its new e-book on state and local government innovation.

Partnerships and Product Innovation that Are Spurring Data-Driven Government

Socrata’s strong 2014 was also a year in which the company formed a series of substantive partnerships with SunGard Public Sector, Yelp, Zillow, the National League of Cities, and the European Commission (EU), among others.

In addition, Socrata unleashed the full potential of data-driven government in 2014 with the launch of the Open Data Network™ (ODN). Bringing together a vast and interwoven ecosystem of participants – governments that are open data publishers and consumers; businesses that incorporate and use government data; citizens; and civic developers and entrepreneurs who use open data to build service delivery apps – the Open Data Network will encompass 25-30 industries, each with its own unique and valuable datasets.

Socrata introduced two additional key technology breakthroughs in 2014 – The Socrata Apps Marketplace™ and Socrata Service Connect™.

The Socrata Apps Marketplace unlocks the full potential of the Open Data Network. It helps government buyers access the latest civic app innovations to increase constituent engagement; helps improve the quality of life for citizens with apps that are easy to find and easy to use; and helps civic app developers access the technical infrastructure and business models they need to successfully monetize their applications.

Built on the Socrata platform and delivered as a turnkey cloud service, Socrata Service Connect enables government organizations to make their constituent services data more transparent, accessible and understandable to tax payers and other key stakeholders, including staff, business owners and members of the media.

“The conventional view right now is that the public sector trails the private sector when it comes to innovation in the 21st century,” says Safouen Rabah, Vice President of Product at Socrata. “But we believe that government is leading, not lagging, the new economy – and one of the reasons is its adoption and distribution of breakthrough open data technology that makes data-driven governance possible and successful.

ABOUT SOCRATA

Socrata is the world leader in cloud solutions for open data and data-driven governments. Its innovative customers include the cities of New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Eindhoven; the states of New York, Illinois and Texas; US Health and Human Services; Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; the UN, the European Commission, and the World Bank. Socrata’s solutions – including the recently launched Open Data Network™ which unleashes the full potential of government data to help drive connected communities around the world – assist government leaders in improving transparency, modernizing citizen access to information and bringing data into every decision, all with unprecedented speed and cost savings. Delivered as turnkey services, Socrata’s technologies unlock data trapped in enterprise silos, mobilize and transform it into useful information that everyone can easily access, visualize, share and reuse. To learn more about Socrata, visit http://www.socrata.com.

For more information, please contact:

Steven Gottlieb
s.gottlieb(at)greenc3(dot)com
206-427-9591

Steven Gottlieb, Socrata, http://www.socrata.com, +1 (206) 427-9591, [email protected]