Data is growing faster than ever before, with Data and Analytics skills being the talk of the town. Digital Senior explores why this growth sector, and why deepening your data and analytics capabilities, shouldn’t be overlooked.
1) Data is quickly becoming the new global currency
Considered the oil of today’s digital era, data is an asset that, when leveraged, drives decision-making and creates opportunities for businesses.
Consumers today demand higher personalized user experiences, and insights extracted from data have helped businesses in this effort. Marketers especially, take heed: during the Digital Marketing Asia 2018 conference, Sirilaksana Kantha (managing director of performance marketing agency Digital Jedi), shared how “…each marketer and sales person should at least be able to understand and master data analytics, because they are the one working actively with the consumers and have control of the direction the brand is heading towards”.
| How big is data getting?
In 2018, 73,249 transactions were made online, 400 hours of video were uploaded onto YouTube, and the internet received over 3 million gigabytes of traffic—all within a minute! |
2) Singapore is poised to become SEA’s leading big data hub
Singapore’s data analytics industry is currently worth a cool billion, and with major players—this includes Cambridge-based big data analytics company GeoSpock and global insights consultancy, Kantar— choosing to set up regional offices here due to Singapore’s thriving business economy, high connectivity speeds and strong government support, this figure can only continue to rise!
Singapore’s digital transformation plans also aid this growth: As part of the Smart Nation Initiative, the Singapore Data Science Consortium helps “industries adopt the latest cutting-edge data science and analytics technologies to address real-world challenges, and train a local pipeline of talents with deep data science capabilities”[i].
3) The Data and Analytics field holds plenty of undiscovered potential
Although big data adoption has been on the rise, only 59% of companies were found to have embraced it in 2018[ii]. With so many interesting solutions arising from this alone, such as environmentally-friendly credit-cards that let users calculate and offset their carbon footprints with every transaction, imagine what we can look forward to when more organisations get on board!
Today, 95% of companies need to manage unstructured data in some form. With 80% of a company’s data falling under this catergory, there is a market for database applications that can remove noise and make crucial information easily accessible—as well as experts who know how to develop and use them
| What is unstructured data?
Big data can be organized into 3 different categories—structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. Unstructured data, particularly, is data without a recognizable structure that cannot be stored in a typical relational database. This includes emails, word documents and presentations. |
4) More data experts are wanted: you could be next!
Data Scientists are some of the most sought after people today: in Singapore, the role tops LinkedIn’s list of emerging jobs[iii], experiencing a 17x growth from 2013-2017! Data scientists stand to earn SGD$85k-300k yearly in 2019, with data analysts earning between SGD$60k-96k[iv].
As automation and artificial intelligence become more widespread, skills in data and analytics are quickly becoming a must-have across various industries. According to global specialist professional recruitment consultancy, Robert Walters, there will be an increasing demand for sales and marketing professionals with big data, digital, e-commerce and transformation experience.
5) Data and Analytics help you stay ahead of the competition
The truth is: there simply isn’t enough data-savvy talent in the workforce right now.
Case in point: With finance taking on more of a strategic business partnership role, it is crucial that finance professionals invest in data and analytics related skills to add value and stay relevant. A survey involving close to 500 financial managers and execs in 2015 found a noticeable talent gap in the financial sector. Many leaders viewed big data and data-related skills as important to success, but their accounting and finance teams either faced a skill gap or did not possess them entirely.
(Screenshot credits: Building a Team to Capitalize on the Promise of Big Data)
6. There is strong support for Data and Analytics talent development
Today, more organizations here are seeing the necessity of employees with basic data literacy; in 2018, Singapore was the most data literate nation globally[v].
For those interested in data science and analytics, there’s no better time than now to take advantage of courses and resources like Massey University’s Master of Analytics (offered at PSB Academy), the Smart Nation Scholarship, the A*Star Computing and Information Science Scholarship, and the Tech Immersion and Placement Programme (TIPP) under IMDA!
| Feel compelled to plunge deeper into the world of data and analytics?
If you’re a marketing or finance professional, here is an event just for you! The PSB Academy CollabX Data Symposium 2019 brings together renowned keynote speakers to share with you their insights on data science in their respective fields, and how data is shaping the expectations and responsibilities of marketing and finance professionals today. You’ll also get a chance to network with fellow peers!
Get to hear, and pose questions, to industry heavyweights like Prantik Mazumdar and Chia Hock Lai! Sign up for the event here! |
[i] https://www2.imda.gov.sg/-/media/Imda/Files/About/Media-Releases/2017/Annex-E–Press-Release-Data-Science-Consortium.pdf
[ii] Dresner Advisory Services’ 2018 Big Data Analytics Market Study
[iii] LinkedIn’s Emerging Jobs Report Singapore (2018)
[iv] Robert Walters, Salary Survey 2019
[v] Qlik, The Data Literacy Index (2018)