Louis Arias – Staff Writer
Since time immemorial, gold has been a highly sought commodity. Just a century ago, the most valuable commodity was oil. Recent articles in the New York Times, Forbes and the Economist claim that today’s most valuable commodity is data. But is it?
Hugely successful corporations like Google, Amazon, Facebook, Uber and Airbnb make collecting data a primary focus. They created ruthlessly efficient organizations using it. Gold and oil are commodities because they can be traded. Would any of these corporate giants sell the data that allows them to run their empires?
Data is the raw material for success in business but it is not a commodity. Nobody sells a goose that lays “golden eggs.”
In 2017, Daytona State College earned a grant from the National Science Foundation in Washington, D.C., to put together a program to address the growing need for data professionals. The college crafted an A. S. Degree in Database Technology that was finalized in 2018 and will be offered starting in the fall term. It will teach students how to design, develop and maintain databases, execute queries, present information through reports and visualization and craft business intelligence solutions.
Like the 1800s Gold Rush, the data rush is on. Thousands of organizations are looking for new and more efficient ways to collect, parse and analyze data to make their fortunes. The need for professionals with these skillsets is reflected in salary outlooks.
According to GEE Group’s 2019 National Salary Guide, the annual salaries for Business Analysts range between $82,000 to $126,000 in Jacksonville, $83,000 to $130,000 in Orlando, and $88,000 to $137,000 in Tampa. GEE Group, founded in 1962, is a multi-brand national staffing and recruiting firm serving the IT industry.
In the same guide, compensation for Database Managers fluctuates between $102,000 and $149,000 in Jacksonville, $105,000 and $153,000 in Orlando and $110,000 and $162,000 in Tampa.
Professor Anindya Paul, Department Chair for the college’s School of Computer Science, regarding the effectiveness of this program said, “Database technology can be used in marketing towards anything. For instance, a company may decide to target an audience of a certain age group within a specific geographic area that has listened to podcasts on the issue of gun control. This technology allows it to locate that segment easily.”
The need to safely manipulate data safely and extract from it the intelligence required to make wise business decisions is multidisciplinary. This became evident again in an announcement Dr. Max Nagiel, Academic Chair of DSC’s School of Business Administration, made at an advisory board meeting last month.
“We are in the process of putting together a 12-Hour Certificate Database and Business Intelligence Program in conjunction with the School of Computer Science, specifically designed to give our Accounting Degree students the skills they need to take advantage of today’s advanced data technologies,” he said.
Just as there is a difference between 14, 18 and 24 karat gold, there is a difference in data and in insights provided by that data. In recent years the term “Big Data” has been associated with an IT trend of mega-corporations. That is no longer the case.
A vast amount of data gathered through mobile networks includes demographic information, address data, product preferences, order history and the time spent looking at particular items. In addition, there is a massive amount of information from social media sitting out there, waiting to be accessed to gain business insights that will generate billions in profits for those in the know.
Successful companies and smart professionals realize that the time to lay their data infrastructure and gain the technological knowledge base is growing short. Professor Luke Sui, Assistant Chair to the School of Computer Science, was instrumental in the development of DSC’s database program. In a discussion about the program’s relevance, Sui commented about a student who, on her own, contacted him and enrolled for the fall term. She works at Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach and realized that to stay ahead of the game, she needs skills that will allow her to access, handle and draw conclusions from a growing number of datasets. Like competent professionals across different industries, she realizes in this day and age, professional success is not static but is a dynamic process.
Business Intelligence and analytics have come of age. Never before have so many variables coincided to enable the opportunity for data and insight driven businesses to flourish. There are more data sources, greater computing power, cheaper storage, better information management and more intuitive analytical technologies. In the way that technical know-how is required to extract oil from the ground, data technology is required to extract today’s “golden eggs,” strategic decisions made from analyzed data.