successful digital transformation allows companies to achieve remarkable benefits, such as increased capabilities, improved processes, and better customer experiences and engagement. although there is a growing acknowledgement of the need for digital transformation, many companies are slow at adopting it, due to its complexity and immense changes to the business. besides the adoption of innovative technologies, improving the use of data is a key strategy for digital transformation. these days, each company, large or small, possesses rich amounts of data. although data on its own has value, they have not been well exploited to create a higher value for the business. this situation generates the main research question: how can small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) act more competitively by exploiting data to create more value? dr. shengyun (annie) yang is professor of applied science in digital business of research centre business innovation at the rotterdam university of applied sciences. her research focuses on the digital transformation of (rotterdam) smes. she will further discuss the advantages and challenges of turning data into strategic assets in her public lecture.