The rise of the data professional

The rise of the data professional

Moving towards a digital economy

There has no doubt been a cultural shift toward the importance of data and the professionals that power it. The EY 2022 Tech Horizon Survey identifies data and analytics as the number one area of tech investment for organizations in Asia-Pacific. This has grown significantly since 2020, and will only continue to expand, with 57% of respondents citing data and analytics as most likely to be their largest tech investment over the next two years.

Although there has been a shift toward the importance of data, few organizations are actually data-centric. Only 16% of respondents to the survey identify as a data-centric organization, where data is leveraged to drive innovation and improve every aspect of the business.

To succeed in becoming data-centric, organizations must invest in technology to unlock the power of data, meet and shape evolving customer demands and, perhaps most importantly, nurture new and existing talent.

More data equals more capabilities

Not too long ago, Chief Information Officers (CIO) were seen as a cost or operational “have-to-have”. Over the years however, as technology became more pervasive in organizational strategy, the CIO was given a seat at the table, and their role was to leverage existing and emerging technologies to drive business value.

This shift can be linked to data-centricity, and understanding the importance of data. Although data is not a new concept, we have more data than ever before and are continuing to move toward a digital economy. As we have evolved our data abilities and developed new capabilities – such as data science, AI and predictive analytics – this has resulted in a need for leadership to drive those solutions and applications.

From this grew more modern roles, such as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and the Chief Data Officer (CDO). More than ever, we are seeing opportunity and value in these roles. Organizations realized that understanding and leveraging data could drive tangible business value. To achieve this, they need different skillsets to what they required previously.

Data-centricity starts with the professional

To become a data professional, you need three things; to understand the value of data, the landscape of data solutions and options, and the ability to articulate its value through clear business cases.

There are a broad range of opportunities available for the data professional due to the vast number of organizations that need help making the most of their data. We now see professionals with commerce and marketing degrees for example, with deep data skills; not just in the tools, but in understanding (at least at a high level) the various platform and storage technologies as well as some understanding of data science and modelling.

Not so long ago we would review a CV and ask if they had experience with the Microsoft Suite – that meant Excel, Word and PowerPoint. We don’t ask that anymore, but we might ask if you’re familiar with NoSQL, Apache Hadoop or PowerBI. The knowledge worker of today not only knows how to use these tools but demands available data so they can do a better job.

The knowledge worker of tomorrow

An organization’s maturity level also impacts the data professional. Data at a very low level of maturity is vastly different to that of an organization with a high level of maturity. Modern organizations, created in the last five years, place data at the center of their operations. This has pushed older, more traditional businesses to examine how they use data, what they could do differently, and how they might maximize the data they do have to become a more mature and data-centric business. This has triggered the evolution of the modern knowledge worker.

Looking forward, we will see greater automation in data availability and even less work in the transformation of that data. Our reliance on those centralized teams that make data available will still be needed, but we will see those teams continuing to shrink due to increased automation and improved tools. As a result, data will be available in raw forms to more people in the business, and those professionals will start pushing into other business units as well.

Room to grow

There has been a genuine shift in what’s expected from an organization in terms of how many data professionals they should employ, where these data professionals sit in the business hierarchy and what kind of background and experience they should have. We still need greater diversity to grow, including more women in STEM, and leadership needs to drive this across more business sectors.

The modern knowledge worker has opportunities across multiple domains because a vast number of organizations, with varying levels of maturity, rely on these professionals to help them become data-centric. More data is available than ever before, the tools are more sophisticated and the data professional’s capabilities to manipulate and use them have developed.

We will continue to see the number of use cases increasing and the ways in which we can leverage data will develop and be much easier to implement within an organization. It will be the data professionals that are needed and relied upon to make this a reality.

The views reflected in this article are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the global EY organization or its member firms.