Big Data Creating Big Buzz in the IT Industry

By: Chelsea Babin

2014 is a big year for big data. Many companies with ambitions to stay relevant and profitable in the information technology sector are paying attention as big data’s presence, and value, grow exponentially. With this change in focus comes several adjustments in the IT workplace.

Business Analysts are becoming more prevalent and overtaking the responsibilities of BIs. Their technical and analytical backgrounds are essential with the use of big data so many companies are moving them out of traditional project teams and into more important roles. Numbers in a vacuum aren’t useful to corporations and BAs help to define information needs, identify which data is necessary and establish that it’s reliable. Their transition into important roles will see a salary increase of around 7.4%.

Big data has made existing roles more valuable and has created unique new roles that are imperative to improving outcomes of all BDA projects. A CDO or Chief Data Officer is a relatively new position that will gain more footing and normalcy within the industry throughout the year. Rather than a technical role like the CTO, the CDO is more of a business role that helps to create the link between numbers and their meaning. While there are a few common duties assigned such as coordinating, analyzing, marketing and developing the role of a CDO will vary enormously from company to company. According to Navesink Redman, “a company only needs a chief data officer when it is ready to fully consider how it wishes to compete with data over the long term and start to build the organizational capabilities it will need to do so”

Shake-ups due to big data reach outside of staffing and into technologies as well. Although the little known, generally isolated open source technology R is gaining popularity it may be a while before this trickles down into hiring in big businesses. However, small businesses and startups tend to prefer R because it’s an inexpensive yet effective tool that assists with statistical analysis. As the need for data tools increases there will likely be a steady increase in the need for R knowledge and expertise. Encourage your employees to tinker with it now and you’ll thank yourself down the road.

According to Nick Kolakowski, “A new report from research firm IDC suggests that ‘Big Data’ projects yield best results when a company’s IT, analytics and line of business units collaborate tightly together”. As its importance seeps into other areas of business, we may see higher levels of collaboration within corporations as a whole. While this big data affect won’t change much at smaller companies, larger ones will need to adjust their tendency towards a lack of cross-departmental interactions in order to get the most out of BDA projects. This collaboration will likely fall under the leadership of CDOs, yet another reason they’re important. One thing’s for sure, big data will shake up the information technology industry throughout the year and beyond. Help your company get ahead of the curve and start discussing some of these imperative changes today.