[March 17, 2015] |
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Big Data Spending on the Rise; Leaders Adopting External Approaches to Addressing Skills Shortage
TEKsystems (News - Alert)®, a leading provider of IT
staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise and IT services,
today released research focused specifically on Big Data initiatives.
The survey results highlight significant expectations for spending
increases, yet tempered confidence in IT departments' ability to meet
Big Data business demands. Additionally it uncovers that organizations
are turning externally to address Big Data skills shortages through
training and contingent hires. More than 200 IT leaders (CIOs, IT VPs,
IT directors, IT hiring managers) were polled in February 2015. The
complete survey results are available in TEKsystems' online
research library.
Key highlights from the survey include:
Nearly Six out of 10 Expect Spending for Big Data Initiatives to
Increase and Express Optimism in Meeting Demands; Spending Higher but
Confidence Lower as Compared to General IT Initiatives
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Sixty-one percent of IT leaders expect spending on Big Data to
increase, while a mere 5 percent expect decreases. In terms of
confidence to satisfy Big Data demands, 59 percent express confidence
while 14 percent are unconfident.
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When compared to findings from TEKsystems'
annual IT forecast for 2015, the number of IT leaders
expecting Big Data spending increases far exceeds those who
expected general IT spending increases (61 percent vs. 45
percent), while their confidence to satisfy Big Data demands is
actually lower (59 percent vs. 71 percent).
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TEKsystems' Take: The data indicates current expectations of
Big Data are still somewhat unrealistic due to market hype. Despite IT
leaders expecting spending to increase, the confidence level in their
department's ability to meet Big Data demands in comparison to broader
IT initiatives is lower. Four out of ten IT leaders are either neutral
or unconfident in their team's ability to satisfy Big Data demands. As
a result, companies that made initial investments into Big Data may
take a more measured approach to see if they can now extract a return.
Strategic Big Data Roles More Difficult toSecure; Architects,
Scientists and Modelers Chosen as Top Three
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Sixty-five percent of IT leaders rank Big Data architects as the most
difficult role to fill. Data scientists (48 percent) and data modelers
(43 percent) round out the top three most difficult to fill positions
and are the only other positions securing more than 40 percent of
responses.
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More technical Big Data positions are ranked less difficult to fill
and secured 40 percent or less of selections. Positions ranked in the
following order, in decreasing difficulty to fill: Big Data developers
(40 percent), Big Data analysts (31 percent), Big Data engineers (29
percent), database developers (27 percent) and database administrators
(26 percent).
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TEKsystems' Take: The data analysis, data wrangling and
algorithm expertise that Big Data architects and data scientists
possess represent a very scarce skill set as compared to the more
mainstream Big Data developers and administrators. Considering the
challenges organizations face in dealing with the volume, velocity and
variety of data, there is no surprise that these strategic roles are
in high demand as they are critical to identifying the data with the
highest business value that ultimately enables end-users to make
better decisions more efficiently and effectively.
Data Variety Ranked as Greatest Big Data Challenge; Benefits of Big
Data Sought in All Areas
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Variety, the dimension of Big Data dealing with the different forms of
data, hinders organizations from deriving value from Big Data the
most, according to 45 percent of IT leaders. Velocity (speed of data)
is next at 31 percent, followed by Volume (amount of data) at 24
percent.
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The application of Big Data is happening in a number of business
areas. Eighty-one percent of leaders view operations and fulfillment
as priority areas within the next 12 months. This was followed by
customer satisfaction (53 percent), business strategy (52 percent),
governance/risk/compliance (51 percent) and sales/marketing (49
percent).
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TEKsystems' Take: The variety of data presents the greatest
area of struggle for IT leaders. For any organization to effectively
use data to influence their business decisions, they first have to
determine how to mine their data for actionable insight. Data alone is
not enough; it's the ability to leverage that data that makes it
valuable. Additionally, it appears that the vast majority of IT
leaders are looking to apply the benefits of Big Data to near-term and
internally focused impact areas, such as operations and fulfillment
and customer satisfaction. While still important, fewer IT leaders
identify longer-term and externally focused aspects of business
strategy and sales and marketing as priorities over the next 12 months.
People, Not Technology, Key to Successful Big Data Investments;
Companies Seeking to Fill Big Data Skills Gaps Leverage External
Solutions to Train Existing IT Staff or Hire Contingent IT Staff
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IT leaders cite training/development and realignment of existing staff
as their leading approach (42 percent) to address Big Data skills
gaps. This was followed by hiring contingent staff (35 percent),
hiring full-time staff (29 percent) and outsourcing (20 percent).
Surprisingly, 18 percent indicated they had no workforce strategy for
addressing Big Data skills gaps.
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Overall, 44 percent of IT leaders expect hiring for Big Data positions
to increase, 52 percent expect it to stay the same and a mere 4
percent expect it to decrease.
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TEKsystems' Take: The importance of people in the success of
Big Data initiatives is evident, with 96 percent of IT leaders
expecting hiring to increase or stay the same. Furthering this belief
is how organizations are going to address their IT department's skill
gaps as it relates to Big Data. Effective workforce management
strategies that incorporate training and mixed hiring models
(full-time and contingent) are critical to Big Data success.
"While Big Data is growing in maturity, organizations are still
struggling with the main aspects that are required for Big Data success.
The first thing to tackle is focusing on asking the right questions to
understand what business value you actually want to extract from Big
Data. Organizations should consult with Big Data experts from the very
beginning to help flesh out these questions. The second is building IT
teams made up of great people that possess the required experience and
skill sets to solve the complex business challenges that Big Data
presents," says David Spires, TEKsystems director, applications
division. "There is certainly immense value in Big Data, but without
great people and a focus on the workforce, the prospects that Big Data
can deliver will unfortunately rarely be realized. Too often
organizations delay their workforce needs until it is too late. When the
focus is building a team of great people, organizations will always
yield better results than when they rely only on the technology."
TEKsystems' David Spires is available for additional commentary. For
more information about the survey or to schedule an interview, please
contact Rick McLaughlin at [email protected].
About TEKsystems®
People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At
TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT
professionals at 6,000 client sites across North America, Europe and
Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to
help our clients achieve their business goals-while optimizing their IT
workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent
management expertise and IT services to help our clients plan, build and
run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of
quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are, and
take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there.
TEKsystems. Our people make IT possible.
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