EMC: Only One-Third of Companies Use Data Effectively

EMC announced its findings from a global survey of the data science community, which showed that only one third of the companies polled are making effective use of data.

The EMC survey covers the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India and China, and it reveals and quantifies a rampant scarcity across the globe for the prerequisite skills necessary for a company to capitalize on the opportunities found at the intersection of Big Data and data analytics, EMC officials said. Indeed, only one-third of companies are able to effectively use new data to assist their business decision-making, gain competitive advantage, drive productivity growth, yield innovation and reveal customer insights, EMC said in a press release on the survey

The survey revealed that the explosion of digital data created by mobile sensors, social media, surveillance, medical imaging, smart grids and the like combined with new tools for analyzing it all has created a corresponding explosion in the opportunity to generate value and insights from the data. As such, the business demand for data scientists has quickly outpaced the supply of talent, EMC said

The EMC Data Science Study respondents included nearly 500 members of the data science community globally including: data scientists and professionals from related disciplines such as data analysts, data specialists, business intelligence analysts, information analysts and data engineers globally, all of whom have IT decision-making authority.

"The Big Data era has arrived in full force, bringing with it an unprecedented opportunity to transform business and the way we work and live,” said Jeremy Burton, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at EMC, in a statement. “Through the convergence of massive scale-out storage, next-generation analytics and visualization capability, the technology is in place. What’s needed to fully realize its value is a vibrant, interconnected, highly-skilled and empowered data science community to reveal relevant trend patterns and uncover new insights hidden within."

Key Findings include that 65 percent of data science professionals believe demand for data science talent will outpace the supply over the next five years.

"Neither tools nor people alone can solve the challenges of Big Data,” said Michael Driscoll, co-founder and CTO at MetaMarkets, in a statement. “They must work together and that is the promise of data science. Despite advances in software tools, the number of people with experience using these tools, and with real-life exposure to large-scale data sets, is small. Data science is a young field, and its growth will be fueled as much by technology as through the mentorship of new acolytes by leading practitioners."

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