Big data comes of age for New Zealand businesses

Big data comes of age for New Zealand businesses

Resource capability still the biggest hurdle in understanding data collections

More than two-thirds (69%) of IT decision makers from New Zealand businesses believe that data analytics are important to their current business strategy, with a further (41%) already incorporating big data into everyday business decisions, a sponsored survey by EMC has found.

The survey of 200 CIO and senior IT professionals within small and mid-market businesses further reveals that over a third (41%) have upgraded their IT systems to allow for integrated analytics demonstrating that big data has finally started to move beyond the hype and into the very fabric of today’s enterprise.

However whilst this is a silver lining, (64%) of respondents agree that businesses need access to data lakes to help support ongoing business and consumer insights. Business data lakes are quickly becoming a popular way to store large data assets from multiple sources, ready to be mined and unlock the value of big data.

Arron Patterson, CTO, EMC New Zealand says: “Our research validates that big data is no longer only a concept and IT leaders are starting to fully appreciate the potential transformative value data analytics can bring to the enterprise. Already businesses are investing time and effort to include data insights into everyday corporate decisions and see how this information can be extended into the wider business.”

Ed Hyde, CEO, Qrious says: “The findings of this report correlate very closely with what we are seeing in the NZ market. Senior leaders intuitively understand the potential of data driven innovation but feel there is a gap between this potential and capability to deliver. Qrious in partnership with EMC is well placed to help kiwi businesses deliver value via our high performance platform, expert data science capability and valuable data sets”

Resource is still the biggest hurdle
The survey found the biggest barrier in analysing data is resource capability (39%) and not having the right expertise (31%) at hand. A further (64%) of respondents believe there is a skills gap in the market when it comes to big data with another (64%) believing the government needs to do more in educating young people about data analytics and its importance.

Already institutes such as the University of Otago and the University of Auckland offer programmes in data science, the first of its kind, to help lessen this gap. But is it enough?

“The rapid growth of unstructured data represents a significant challenge for many organisations today. Because of this there is growing need for people with the skills to manage large data streams and to turn them into tangible information.

“Now that businesses across the country have an appetite for big data, we need to educate the younger generation about the importance of data analytics and the value it can bring to New Zealand,” concludes Patterson.

ENDS

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