The Big Data Revolution Means Big Opportunity…
What are you planning to do about the Fourth
Industrial Revolution?
By Haluk Demirkan – Nov 23, 2016
Big Data and Analytics are no longer just buzzwords – they are essential business tools.
Every day, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created,[1] and IDC estimates that by 2019
the Big Data Analytics market is projected to grow to over $187 billion.[2] According to
research by Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson from MIT, “companies in the top third
of their industry in the use of data-driven decision making were, on average, 5% more
productive and 6% more profitable than their competitors.”[3] Even though 73 percent of
companies intend to increase spending on analytics and making data discovery a more
significant part of their architecture, 60 percent feel they don’t have the skills to make
the best use of their data[4]. Given an abundance of knowledge and experience,
combined with successful data and analytics-enabled decision support systems, big
data initiatives come with high expectations, and many of them are doomed to fail.
Research predicts that half of all big data projects will fail to deliver against their
expectations[5]. When Gartner asked what the biggest big data challenges were, the
responses suggest that while all the companies plan to move ahead with big data
projects, they still don’t have a good idea as to what they’re doing and why[6].
The Age of Big Data has transformed the tools and skills employees utilize, and workers
across job functions now require analytical aptitude. Although Big Data and analytics
have been an emerging phenomenon for a number of years, we now have technology
that can help humans quickly explore, discover and take action like no other time in
history. Digital solutions - and how we use them in our personal lives work, and society have changed the face of business and will continue to do so. The digital technologies
that underlie computers, smart phones, social media, Internet of Everything and robots
are changing rapidly, becoming more powerful, and transforming organizations much
faster than in the past (that is, the second machine age). We are in the Fourth Industrial
Revolution, the digital revolution of cyber-physical systems that has been unfolding
since the middle of the last century.[7] There is no doubt that computers are
increasingly capable of doing things that humans could once do exclusively. The
possibility of billions of people connected by mobile devices, in conjunction with
unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge via smart
machines, creates enormous opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovative managers
alike.
Research indicates that as a result of the automation (The Fourth Industrial Revolution),
the volume of data generated digital solutions will explode, more than 47 percent of the
US workforce is at high risk, including middle- and lower-skill-level jobs[8], and the
demand for digital savvy business analytics specialists is expected to reach 1.5 million
jobs by 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: what it means, how to respond[9]
Top 10 skills will be needed according to the World Economic Forum[10] as a result of Fourth
Industrial Revolution
The Milgard’s Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program is designed to
prepare you to thrive as an innovative leader in this data-driven digital era. The
proposed 9-month Hybrid MSBA Track is designed for professionals who want to
develop or sharpen their critical thinking, problem solving, information management,
analytical and decision making skills, and recent college graduates who are interested
in pursuing a career in the exciting and fast-growing field of business analytics and next
generation of analytics savvy business analysts and digital talents.
This work compatible program provides students with knowledge, tools and skills to
understand manage and make use of big data and smart digital solutions to make
effective and efficient business decisions that either solve existing business problems or
create new business opportunities, and improve the performance of organizations.
Graduates of the MSBA will enter the workforce as emerging leaders in the community,
industry, government, and not-for-profit organizations better prepared to tackle the
challenges and opportunities in the ever-changing landscape of the 21st century,
ultimately contributing to the continued economic development in our region. According
to research, Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington has been selected Top 4 Best Places
for Tech Jobs and STEM Graduates[11].
This program explores innovation as a creative problem solving capability that is applied
to a wide variety of market opportunities, and social and institutional challenges.
Students will have an opportunity to apply the concepts, principles, and methods
associated with business intelligence and analytics with smart digital solutions (e.g.
Apple Siri, IBM Watson, Microsoft Cortana, Google Now, and Amazon Echo) to real
opportunities and/or problems in an application domain associated with their area of
interest.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND
ANALYTICS?
Business intelligence and analytics represents the combination of skills, practices,
processes, applications and technologies used by organizations (for continuous iterative
exploration and investigation of past business performance) to gain actionable insights
for their business based on data, statistics, quantitative modeling and simulation and
optimization. It includes solutions for gathering, storing, accessing, reporting, modeling,
simulating, analyzing and visualizing data to support actionable decision-making and
innovation.
What does BA mean to professionals in every field?
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For marketing professionals, it means understanding not only what the customers want
to buy, but how much they are willing to pay, and what keeps them loyal.
For human capital managers, it means knowing how much personnel contribute to or
take away from the bottom line and how salary relates to their performance.
For finance professionals, it means being able to not only measure performance based
on accurate financial information, but also asses the value of intangible capabilities. It
also means having a balanced portfolio of metrics as a strategic management system.
For supply-chain managers, it means not just tracking inventories, but also anticipating
and preventing future problems and designing more responsive supply networks.
For engineers and production managers, it means maximizing yields, and predicting
equipment malfunction before breakdowns occur.
For healthcare personnel, it means saving patient lives by intervening at the first tell-tale
signs in real-time.
For IT professionals, it means reinvigorating the company’s CRM and ERP systems and
integrating information into a data warehouse. It means having an IT strategy and crossfunctional teams that support the above initiatives.
For insurance companies, it means profitably insuring customers traditionally in highrisk categories, detecting fraudulent behavior before it is too late, and optimizing rate
structures.
And many more…
[1] Zikopoulos, Paul, et al. “Harness the power of big data: The IBM big data platform.”
McGraw Hill Professional, 2012.
[2] International Data Corporation, Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics
Spending Guide (IDC, 2016). http://www.informationweek.com/big-data/big-dataanalytics/big-data-analytics-sales-will-reach-$187-billion-by-2019/d/d-id/1325631
[3] McAfee, Andrew, et al. "Big data." The management revolution. Harvard Bus Rev
90.10 (2012): 61-67.
[4] http://data-informed.com/gartner-researchers-predictive-analytics-to-gain-traction-inbusiness/
[5] http://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2015/03/17/where-big-data-projectsfail/#50ee6465264e
[6] http://readwrite.com/2013/09/18/gartner-on-big-data-everyones-doing-it-no-oneknows-why
[7] K. Schwab, “The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What It Means, How to Respond,”
World Economic Forum, 14 Jan. 2016;
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-itmeans-and-how-to-respond
[8] “Good Jobs in the Age of Automation: Challenges and Opportunities for the Private
Sector,” BSR, June
2015; https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Jobs_Automation_Inclusive_Economy_Brief_20
15.pdf
[9] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-itmeans-and-how-to-respond
[10] https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-10-skills-you-need-to-thrive-...
[11] https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/studies/best-places-stem-grads-2016/