Organizations can no longer follow conventional business cycles
A data-centric approach to the digital transformation of organizations and reskilling and upskilling of workforces is the focus of the HR Summit 2023 presented by CompTIA, the nonprofit association for the information technology (IT) industry and workforce, on Friday, Jan. 27.
Summit speakers include James Stanger, CompTIA’s chief technology evangelist, along with representatives from companies that are implementing human resource development with an eye to the future through reskilling and upskilling.
“Organizations can no longer follow conventional wisdom and typical business cycles,” Stanger said. “Instead, the organization of the future will be highly proficient at turning data into actionable information, creating a continuous feedback loop that helps them become truly data-driven.”
Examples of data-driven cultures include managed service providers that have turned their help desk managers into true data analysts; government agencies that have become more effective and efficient by understanding and employing data analytics principles; and cybersecurity professionals who are true threat hunters because they know how to mine data.
The transformation to becoming a data-driven organization requires a workforce that is digitally fluent, according to Stanger. In the area of cybersecurity, for example, organizations need to bring security analytics skills to various job roles, “even those that don’t have the words analytics, research or data in them.”
“Unfortunately, we don’t have enough analytics experts,” Stanger noted.
Companies feel the effects of poor data management or insufficient data analysis in many ways. Chief among these is wasted time, cited by 38 per cent of companies surveyed by CompTIA. Other shortcomings include the inability to reach new customer segments (29 per cent), inefficient decision making and a lack of agility (29 per cent) and reduced margins due to inefficiencies (27 per cent).
As the importance of data analytics grows, CompTIA is addressing the need for more data skills through its CompTIA Data+ certification. Introduced in 2022, CompTIA Data+ is an early-career data analytics certification that validates the skills required to facilitate data-driven business decisions. These skills include mining, manipulating, visualizing, reporting and safeguarding data in support of data-driven decision making.
