The Irish Government recently announced an investment of 1 million euro in the field of data analytics, an area that many companies perceive to be the next big thing.
The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, believes that “Big Data” has the potential to grow at up to 40 per cent per annum. The Minister is quoted as saying the Government is “determined to target Ireland’s advantages in this area to create growth and jobs.”
Speaking at the announcement of 112 new high tech jobs by Zurich Insurance Group, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said, “the Government in recent times has been pushing very hard to promote the digital industry in Ireland, so we are fast becoming a digital capital of Europe with many global digital companies establishing their European headquarters in Ireland.”
The Taoiseach said the government and its jobs initiative has come a long way in a short time. He also took the opportunity to say that the Irish government is “one of the most open of any in Europe to ideas from business to proposals on jobs.”
Is the Job Potential over stated?
“Analytics and big data are the most promising developments in business for many decades,” says Mr Bernard Marr, founder and Chief Executive of The Advanced Performance Institute, who explains that today, we have the ability to collect and analyse data that no generation of business managers ever had before.
“Those companies such as Google and Cisco that are at the forefront of analytics are generating massive competitive advantages. A growth rate of 40 per cent a year is an understatement, and companies who use analytics well to answer their most strategic questions are generating enviable returns on investment and mouthwatering business results,” said Marr.
According to Marr, recent research by the Advanced Performance Institute found that only about 7 per cent of organisations use tools such as big data analytics, but that those who do outperform their competition. “Tomorrow’s companies will be competing on data and analytics rather than anything more tangible,” added Mr Marr.
Centre for Applied Data Analytics Research
Top-tier multinational and Irish companies will lead the research agenda at a proposed industry-led Technology Centre in Data Analytics called CeADAR, the Centre for Applied Data Analytics Research. Industry partners include eBay, Accenture, Dell, and Nathean Technologies. According to the Ministers office, “research will be focused on developing ways of generating business, profit and ultimately jobs from the high-growth area of data analytics.”
Data analytics is a process of inspecting, cleaning, transforming, and modeling data with the goal of highlighting useful information. Establishing the CeADAR to work on developing business tools in this emerging area is one of the actions contained in the Government’s plan aimed at making Ireland a world leader in this area. According to the Ministers office, in the US alone, it is estimated that there will be unmet demand in 5 to 10 years of 140,000 to 190,000 analysts, and 1.5 million data-savvy managers.
CeADAR will conduct initial research into technology challenges that have been identified by industry representatives. Led by University College Dublin, the research consortium, which includes University College Cork and Dublin Institute of Technology, will use the funding to work with a group of companies to accelerate the development, deployment and adoption of Data Analytics technology.
“Data is only as valuable as the information and insights we can extract from it,” says Gearoid Mooney of Enterprise Ireland (EI).
Deirdre Lambe, GCO EU Project & Programme Management at eBay, one of the participating companies, said, “We got involved in CeADAR because we have a network of analysts across eBay Inc who are dealing with big data challenges on a daily basis, and we recognise the need for a joined-up approach to strong data analytics solutions across the board in all types of industry for all user levels.”
The CeADAR project leverages the research clusters and technologies created by previous Science Foundation Ireland investments. CeADAR’s lead team will be based at NexusUCD, the Industry Partnership Centre at University College Dublin.
New Masters in Data Analytics
EMC Corporation, together with University College Cork (UCC), the Irish Management Institute (IMI), and analytics software giant SAS, have announced a new executive education programme designed to help business leaders in Ireland use “surging volumes of data to enable enterprise growth and the creation of new jobs.”
According to EMC, the Masters in Data Analytics is designed for business executives who want to navigate the technical environment in a data-driven business model, as well as for technology managers seeking a more strategic role in the development of their businesses. The programme is designed to facilitate executives working in full-time jobs.
Dr Simon Boucher, Chief Operating Officer at the Irish Management Institute (IMI), said: “This programme will bring together technical and non-technical managers to jointly analyse data business strategies and map new ways of doing business. The Government has clearly recognised the employment potential of Big Data in Ireland. We now need to advance the links between enterprise and academia to support the skills needed in our economy around data analytics.”
