Data Integration Blog -

With the growing interest in the potential business value to be gleaned from “Big Data” or Extreme Information analytics, a new role has been gaining interest: the Data Scientist. The data scientist is a hybrid role encompassing computer science, advanced statistics/mathematics, forensics analytics and other advanced skills, as well as business savvy. The data scientist is searching for less obvious intelligence in masses of data but also must relate the search to business problems, goals and desired outcomes.

While the data scientist is a very promising role, not all companies will have data scientists, but they do have, or need to have, other roles related to data and analytics. These roles include new versions of business analysts and LOB users who are more deeply involved in data integration, data quality, data mining, and many kinds of analytics. These roles may better connect to the concerns of upper management in many enterprises (rather than the Data Scientist). The evolution of these roles related to data and analytics is becoming a means to better connect technology to business needs and outcomes where many of these roles are strategic and straddle both business and technology activities. Companies gain great value from such hybrid roles to better transform their organizations into analytical enterprises.

Another new role in many enterprises that is connected to Extreme Analytics is the marketing technologist – the technology-savvy marketer, again a hybrid role that integrates business and tech. Marketing has made Analytics sexy and timely for many enterprises and has shown the payoff that the right analytics can bring to the enterprise. Marketing groups also have a strong interest in the benefits of “big data” analytics regarding customer behavior and mindset. In some companies, the Chief Marketing Technologist is a role that is not meant to replace either the CMO or CIO but instead focuses on the increasing cross-over between business (marketing) and technology, to help connect overall business strategy to marketing initiatives, many of which are data-nurtured.

McKinsey and other firms have called out the alarming shortage of a wide variety of data “entrepreneurs” who are essential to help businesses take advantage of advanced analytics that help drive timely and better decisions, and agile processes for innovation. This lack of qualified people underscores the need for agile new technologies to help current data entrepreneurs in their quests to help businesses thrive and survive.