If you’ve been doing your job as CIO you have been at least thinking about big data. Maybe you’ve already launched a big data project. One way or another, you have had to consider the problem of hiring that special person, the data scientist, who can conceive big data projects, guide them through execution and interpret the results.
There’s just one problem. There aren’t enough data scientists to go around and there probably won’t be. “By 2018,” according to a McKinsey report, “the United States alone could face a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 people with deep analytical skills as well as 1.5 million managers and analysts with the know-how to use the analysis of big data to make effective decisions.”
With this in mind, it might make more sense to consider a different strategy. Instead of exhausting yourself and your HR department beating the bushes to turn up an individual who might be as elusive as Bigfoot, why not embed analytics into all aspects of your business – then empower a broad spectrum of people with easy-to-use analytics tools?
This strategy emerged at the February meeting of the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s Big Data Seminar, “The Next Generation of Big Data: From Tools to Processes, What has Changed Over the Past Two Years.”
“Tools right now are too complex. We need simpler tools for self-service analytics,” said panelist Bob Zurek, senior vice president for products at Epsilon, a consumer data analytics company that handles customer loyalty programs for companies like Dunkin’ Donuts and Best Buy. Fellow-panelist Jon Pilkington, vice-president of products for Datawatch Corp., a provider of visual data discovery software, echoed the theme: “Provide tools that the non-technical person can use.”
The smart CIO will bake big data analytics into his or her company’s business operations – then serve up the results to employees across the company who have the authority to act on the analytical truths revealed.
Faced with a dearth of data scientist talent, is there any other viable approach?