Analytical Skills, Tools & Attitudes 2013

Analytics capabilities needed now and in the future

Research conducted and written by:

Lavastorm Analytics a global analytics software company that enables a new, agile way to analyze, optimize, and control data and business processes.

October 2013

Table of Contents
I. Executive Summary.......................................................................................... 3

II. Methodology....................................................................................................... 3 III. IV. V. VI. Key Takeaways.................................................................................................... 4 Survey Results.......................................................................... 5 Description of Survey Respondents............................................................. 16 About Lavastorm Analytics.............................................................................. 22

Executive Summary
Organizations continue to invest more in analytics, but increasingly there is recognition that a shortage of analytic talent is holding back even greater investment. Lavastorm Analytics polled more than 425 people in the analytics community about whether their organization needs more analytic resources or skills and which skills are valued most and are most urgently needed. Survey respondents included business analysts, technologists, data analytics professionals, managers, and C-level executives across a broad variety of industries. The top findings were:
According to the survey respondents, a lack of skills/training/education is the biggest

factor holding back organizations from using analytics more.

Skills most urgently needed in their organizations are Statistics, math or other quantitative

skills; Analytic tool training; and Critical thinking.

Lack of funding or resources, however, also has a significant impact on adoption of

analytics to drive day-to-day decisions. Lesser factors also include inadequate support from executives and data that is not integrated.

Methodology
In order to gain the most accurate insight into the market, we conducted our research within major analytic communities, including LinkedIns Lavastorm Analytics Community Group, Data Science Central and KDNuggets. These communities have a global reach of over 100,000 analysts that offer a diverse membership of analytic professionals across a variety of vertical markets. This survey was conducted online using an electronic survey tool. More than 425 business analysts, technologists, data analytics professionals, managers and C-level professionals were polled across a broad variety of industriesincluding financial services, telecommunications, healthcare and software & internet. After the survey data was collected, the data was analyzed using the Lavastorm Analytics Engine to identify variances among different demographic groups. Every survey participant was encouraged to answer every question.

Key Takeaways:
1. Nearly 83% of respondents indicated that analytics is critical to their organizations and their organization uses analytics to drive day-to-day decisions more than past experiences, intuition and gut feel. 2. The biggest factors holding organizations from using analytics more are:
Lack of skills/training/education (18.75%) Lack of funding or resources (17.82%) Inadequate support from executives (9.7%) Data is not integrated (8.8%)

3. Skills most urgently needed in their organizations are:

Statistics, math or other quantitative skills (47.7%) Analytics tool training (40.3%) Critical thinking (28.2%)

4. Statistics, math or other quantitative skills and critical thinking/questioning were the skills mentioned most often as necessary for the respondent to be successful in their role. Database or query language, analytics tool training, and business/presentation skills were also highly valued skills. 5. The most common organizational structure related to analytics is that business departments and IT both have analytic resources and they function independently. 6. Requirements gathering continues to take a significant amount of time. People spend just as much time gathering requirements as they do in analysis/data mining. 7. Though education is needed, ongoing education for analytics is largely not tied to external, analyst-related organizations. The overwhelming majority of respondents, regardless of industry and population group, have no organization they rely on for ongoing education and networking. 8. Tool-related improvements, including improvement to self-service tools, the data warehouse, and BI platforms, were cited as the changes that would make respondents job easier and more valuable (23.3% of respondents). Other changes mentioned often included changes related to the following categories:
More resources and funding (13.3%) Increased awareness of the opportunities to apply analytics, including the use of Big Data (13%) Data integration improvements (12.6%)

Survey Results
Select the response that best describes your reaction to the following statement, Analytics is critical to my organizations business strategy and drives our day-to-day decisions more than past experiences, intuition, and gut feel.
Strongly Disagree 1.2% Disagree 6.0% Neither Agree nor Disagree 10.0% Strongly Agree 42.7%

Agree 40.1%

427 Survey Responses Demographic analysis: Overall, all industries and all groups have a positive outlook on their organizations use of analytics. Healthcare is
the most skeptical industry 12% either disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement.

People from the Software & Internet industry were the most optimistic 62% strongly agreed with the statement. Data Scientists and Executives/Managers disagree most with 17% and 9% respectively responding with either
strongly disagree and disagree.

Data scientists were the most skeptical population segment 17% either disagree or strongly disagree.

What is the biggest factor holding your organization back from using analytics to drive more day-to-day decisions?
None - no factor is holding us back 11.1% Other (please specify) 3.0% Insufficient data/information presented in reports 1.6% Software and tools are too complicated 2.1% Inadequate means to present analytic insights to executives in ways they can trust 3.0% Software and tools are under-powered 3.9% Inadequate support from IT 3.9% Inadequate access to data 5.1% Lack of funding or resources 17.6% Lack of skills/training/education (either for specific analytic techniques or specific tools) 18.8%

Inadequate support from the business organization 5.1%

427 Survey Responses

Poor data quality 6.0% Data is not integrated 8.8%

Inadequate support from executives 9.7%

Other includes: Time Politics/people afraid of redundancy Fast changing environment Demographic analysis:
By company size

Small Companies most often selected lack of funding or resources as a factor (26%). It was also the segment
that most often indicated Inadequate Support from Executives (12%).

Large (19%) and Medium Companies (24%) most often reported a lack of skills/training/education as a factor.
By industry

Lack of skills/training/education was the most often mentioned factor for both the Financial Services and
Software & Internet industry.

Lack of funding or resources was the most often mentioned factor for both the Business Services and
Telecommunications industry.

In the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industry, inadequate support from executives was the most often
mentioned factor. By population group

Twenty-three percent (23%) of Executives/Managers thought that lack of funding was a major factor. IT developers (35%) most commonly mention lack of skills/training as a major factor. Compared to Business Analysts, Data Scientists more often mentioned inadequate support from the business
(9% vs 3%) and software and tools are under-powered (9% vs 5%).

Business Analysts struggle with data integration more than Data Scientists (11% to 2%).
6

Select the response that best describes your organizational structure related to analytics.
Other (please specify) 3.3% Analytic resources are centralized within IT 14.9%

Business departments and IT both have analytic resources and they function independently 36.4%

Analytic resources are centralized outside of IT 19.5%

Business departments and IT both have analytic resources and they function collaboratively 26.0%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: We are a very small company wholly focused on analytics - 3 full time people Chaos Sporadic analytics resources in departments, none in IT Demographic analysis: More than 60% of respondents say their organizational structure for analytics places analytic resources in both
business departments and in IT.

Regardless of company size, the organizational structure used is most often one where business and IT groups
function independently. However, large Companies are more likely to have independently-functioning business and IT groups as their model (44%) than Small Companies (28%). In addition, Small Companies are most likely to have analytics centralized within IT (19% compared to 7% for Large Companies).

Do you agree with the following statement? My organization has a shortage of people with the skills to analyze and glean insights from data.
Strongly Disagree 3.5% Agree 39.2%

Disagree 13.7%

Neither Agree nor Disagree 17.4%

Strongly Agree 26.2%

427 Survey Responses Demographic analysis: While most people thought they are doing a good job of using analytics to drive decision making, 66% either agree
or strongly agree that they have a shortage of people with the skills to analyze and glean insights from the data. Financial Services and Healthcare (73% and 77%, respectively) had the highest percentage of people agreeing that there is a shortage of talent.

Telecommunications (24% either strongly disagree or disagree) and Business Services (21% either strongly disagree
or disagree) thought that they were in the best shape.

What analytic skills does your organization most urgently need to increase? Select no more than 3.
Statistics, math or other quantitative skills Analytics tool training Database or query language skills and experience Critical thinking Organizational/planning skills Business communication/presentation skills ETL skills and experience Industry experience Prior business analyst experience Industry certification in Business Analysis Excel skills and experience None - at the moment we do not need to increase the analytic skills of our organization Negotiation skills Other (please specify) 16.2% 15.5% 15.3% 11.6% 11.1% 10.2% 7.2% 5.1% 4.9% 3.3% 31.8% 28.1% 40.4% 47.8%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: Modern big data technologies Programming skills Requirement gathering and commercial orientation Suitable software - related skills Demographic analysis: The most urgently needed skills for Medium Companies were statistics, math or other quantitative skills,
database query, and tool training as needed skills.

Small Companies (23%) were more than twice as likely as Large Companies (10%) to need organizational/
planning skills.

Data scientists and Executives/Managers mentioned statistics, math or other quantitative skills as an urgent
need more than other groups (64% and 52%, respectively).

IT Developers were the only group to list analytic tool training as their top choice. Respondents in the Telecommunications industry (16%) mentioned Excel skills and experience more often than
other industries.

Respondents from the Healthcare (38%) and Software & Internet (40%) industries mentioned critical thinking
more often than other industries.

What are the 3 analytic skills or experiences that are most necessary for you to be successful in your current role? Select no more than 3.
Critical thinking/questioning Statistics, math or other quantitative skills Database or query language skills and experience Analytics tool training Business communication/presentation skills Industry experience ETL or data integration skills and experience Programming skills Excel skills and experience Organizational/planning skills Prior business analyst experience Negotiation skills Design skills for user interfaces and reports Other (please specify ) 1.2% 9.1% 8.9% 7.3% 20.8% 17.8% 17.3% 15.0% 13.8% 26.9% 32.3% 31.4% 43.6% 41.7%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: Conceptual modeling Lower level e.g. Unix scripting skills Experience of the business Time management Sales Demographic analysis: Large Companies (34%) were less likely than Small (47%) and Medium (42%) Companies to select statistics, math
or other quantitative skills as an important skill.

Large Companies (27%) value industry experience more than Small and Medium Companies (both 19%). Negotiation was twice as important in Small Companies (12%) than Large Companies (only 6%). Respondents from the Telecommunications and Business Services industries mentioned tool training more often
than other industries (39% and 36%, respectively).

Data scientists thought statistics, math or quantitative skills (74%) were their most important skills. Business analysts thought that database or query language skills (39%) and critical thinking/questioning (38%) were
their most important skills.

Executives/Managers thought critical thinking (52%) was the most important skill. IT thought statistics, math or quantitative skills (50%) as well as analytic tool training (50%) were their most
important skills. 10

How did you spend your time over the past year? Indicate the percentage of time you dedicated to the activities below. Your answers should add up to 100% and account for 100% of your time over the past year.
Data analysis/mining Requirements gathering Preparing or presenting results/reports Planning/strategy meetings with others Filtering and organizing data Data transformation and integration Data modeling Administrative activities Infrastructure design and implementation Making business decisions based on analytic insights Testing and tuning processes Training others to use results/reports Other (analysis related) Other (not analysis related) 3.0% 2.2% 5.2% 4.8% 4.3% 4.0% 7.4% 7.1% 6.5% 9.1% 8.3% 10.5% 13.4% 14.1%

427 Survey Responses Demographic analysis: Respondents from the Telecommunications, Financial Services, and Software & Internet industries spent more
time gathering requirements than any other task.

Respondents from the Business Services industry spend more of their time presenting results (16%). Respondents
from the Healthcare industry also spend a significant amount of time presenting results (14%).

Business analysts spend the highest percentage of their time on requirements gathering and data analysis (17%). Data scientists spend most of their time on data analysis/mining (19%), data modeling (14%), and data
transformations and integration (14%). They spend much less time on requirements gathering than Business Analysts, Executives/Managers, and IT.

As expected, Executives/Managers spend most of their time on planning/strategy meetings, requirements

gathering, and data analysis.

11

Related to data access, what do you believe hurts or prevents your access to data? (Check all that apply)
Inadequate self-service tools/reports Data governance policies by IT IT does not have the data in the data warehouse Incompatible formats/lack of data model Lack of skills/knowledge to use the tools/ reports that are available to me Lack of APIs from operational systems Other (please specify) 9.7% 23.7% 29.5% 38.3% 38.0% 35.3% 34.8%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: Business Analyst does not have access to DataWarehouse for mining Lack of integration Operational data systems not designed to retrieve/report/analyze information Poor data quality Lack of understanding the data No problems Demographic analysis:
By company size

Data governance policies by IT was more often mentioned as a factor in Large (44%) and Medium (40%)
Companies than Small Companies (30%).

Inadequate self-service tools/report was more often mentioned as a factor in Large (42%) and Medium (44%)
Companies than Small Companies (28%).

Lack of skills/knowledge was more often mentioned as a factor in Large (32%) and Medium (32%) Companies
than Small Companies (24%).

Lack of APIs was more often mentioned as a factor in Large (31%) Companies than in Medium (22%) and Small
Companies (19%). By industry

Respondents from the Business Services and Software & Internet industries report that incompatible formats/
lack of data model (42%) is the factor that most hinders data access.

Respondents from the Healthcare industry report that inadequate self-service tools/reports is the factor that
most hinders data access.

Respondents from the Financial Services and Telecom industries report that data governance policies by IT are
the things that most hinder data access. By population group

Business Analysts (45%) and Data Scientists (47%) said data governance is the major issue. Executives said lack of self-service tools/reports (44%) is the major issue related to data access. IT developers said data governance policies by IT (40%) is the factor that hurts or prevents data access.
12

Select the option that best describes your reaction to the following statement, Analyst related certifications/degrees have been very important to my initial education, ongoing education, and ultimate success in the field of analytics.
Strongly disagree 10.2% Somewhat agree 30.6%

Somewhat disagree 13.2%

Strongly agree 18.1%

Do not agree or disagree 27.8%

427 Survey Responses Demographic analysis: Respondents from the Software & Internet (51%), Financial Services (49%), Business Services (45%), and Telecom
(45%) agree most that analyst related certifications/degrees are important to their initial and ongoing education. But, many respondents werent sure whether they were a help or not.

IT Developers are the group that most agrees that certifications/degrees help them (70%) gain success in analytics.

13

What analyst related organizations, if any, do you rely on for ongoing education and networking to help you in your job? (select all that apply)
None - I do not rely on any organization for ongoing education and networking Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Certified Business Analyst TDWI Certified Business Intelligence Professional (CBIP) IIBA Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) IIBA Certification of Competency in Business Analysis (CCBA) BSC (formerly ISEB) Certificate in Business Analysis Practice Other (please specify) 7.2% 12.5%

63.6%

12.3%

11.8%

3.3%

9.7%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: SAS certificates American Statistical Association INFORMS Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Coursera University courses Project Management Institute (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) We educate our own people. Formal education is outdated. Demographic analysis: Financial Services has the least reliance on analyst-related organizations for education and networking (69%). Only 36% of Business Analysts carry a certification from the IIBA. But that is much greater than only 18% of Data
Scientists.

IIBA Certification was more likely in Large Companies (15%) compared to Small (4%) and Medium Companies (5%). More respondents from Small Companies (76%) than Large (58%) and Medium Companies (57%) said they did not
rely on analyst-related organizations for ongoing education and networking.

14

What is the biggest change you would like to see in your organization to make your job easier or more valuable?
Note - This survey question was open ended. Results were categorized by Lavastorm Analytics after the survey responses were collected.

Agility/Flexibility/More Time for Analysis 1.4% More Data Sources 2.3% Need More Analytics/BI Professionals 4.9% Data Quality 4.9% Data-based Decisions/Data Governance/ Data Ownership/Trusted Data 7.2% Data Access 7.4%

Other 10.5%

Better tools/Self-service Tools/Warehouse/ BI Tools/BI Platforms 23.3%

More Alignment of Resources and Funding 13.3%

Management/Executive Buy-in/ Culture 8.4%

Increased Awareness/ Opportunities of Analytics/ Big Data 13.0%

Need Change in Business Infrastructure 10.0% Collaboration/Communication/Process Flow/ Strategy/Project Issues 11.2%

Data Models/Data Integration/ Consistency in Data Across Systems 12.6% More Training 11.4%

427 Survey Responses

15

Description of Survey Respondents

Which of the following best describes your role within your organization?
Other (please specify) 14.2% Business Process Analyst 1.4% CIO or IT Executive 2.1% Corporate Executive (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.) 2.8% IT Developer 4.6% Business Analyst 22.0%

Business Systems Analyst 6.3%

VP or Director of BI/Analytics 8.6%

Department VP, Director or Manager 15.3%

Data Scientist 10.9% 427 Survey Responses Other includes: Owner Big data analyst Data analyst Market research

Consultant 11.8%

For demographic analysis, the following additional aggregations were used to analyze the survey responses: Executives/Managers = sum of responses from Corporate Executive (CEO, CFO, COO, etc.); CIO or IT Executive;
Department VP, Director or Manager; VP or Director of BI/Analytics

16

What education levels have you completed?

None of the above 4.4% 2-year college degree (Associates) 4.4% Doctoral degree (technical /quantitative major) 6.7% Masters degree (business or non-technical/quantitative major) 29.9% Doctoral degree (business or non-technical/quantitative major) 2.3%

4-year college degree (business or non-technical /quantitative major) 18.6%

4-year college degree (technical /quantitative major) 26.7% Masters degree (technical/ quantitative major) 23.9%

427 Survey Responses

17

In your organization, to which department do you report?

Other (please specify) 29.0% IT 29.9%

Sales 5.3%

Finance 8.6%

Marketing 10.4%

Operations 16.7%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: President Analytics Board Business unit Risk

18

How many total people work in your organization?

250 - 499 6.5% 100 249 8.8%

1,000 10,000 29.9%

500 999 11.4%

Fewer than 100 16.9%

10,000+ 26.5%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: For demographic analysis, the following additional aggregations were used to classify the survey responses: Small Companies = sum of responses from Fewer than 100; 100 249 and 250 499 Medium Companies = sum of responses from 500 999 and 1,000 10,000 Large Companies = 10,000 +

19

How many business analysts or data scientists work in your organization?

0 3.9% 1,000 + 6.5% 50 99 9.3% 500 1,000 3.7%

25 49 9.3%

19 38.8%

100 499 12.1% 10 24 16.5%

427 Survey Responses

What are the annual revenues of your organization?

Dont know 11.8% $1 billion+ 29.5%

Unable to disclose 18.6%

$50 million - $100 million 6.0%

$500 million - $1 billion 7.4% $100 million - $500 million 9.1%

Less than $50 million 17.6%

427 Survey Responses

20

How long have you worked in the field of business analysis?

Less than one year 6.0% I have never worked in the field of business analysis 8.6% 5 10 years 29.0%

1 2 years 8.1%

2 5 years 21.4% 10+ years 26.9%

427 Survey Responses

21

Which of the following best describes your companys primary industry?

Other (please specify) 8.8% Wholesale & Distribution 0.7% Travel, Recreation & Leisure 0.7% Real Estate & Construction 0.9% Agriculture & Mining 0.9% Consumer Services 1.2% Non-Profit 1.2% Transportation & Storage 1.4% Media & Entertainment 1.6% Energy & Utilities 2.1% Manufacturing 2.3% Retail 3.0% Computers & Electronics 3.0% Government 3.3% Software & Internet 10.4% Financial Services 14.4% Telecommunications 18.79% Other 2.1%

Education 6.5%

Business Services 7.7%

Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, & Biotech 9.1%

427 Survey Responses Other includes: Marketing Consulting Automotive IT

22

About Lavastorm Analytics

Lavastorm Analytics is a global analytics software company that enables a new, agile way to analyze, optimize, and control data and business processes. The companys products provide analysts with programming powers previously limited to IT to rapidly unify disparate data, easily construct complex analytics, and effectively deliver actionable insight and results. Analytics built in Lavastorm can easily be deployed as persistent solutions and applications, providing continuous analytic monitoring across multiple systems and complex, data-intensive processes. Lavastorms solutions have identified business improvements worth billions of dollars for some of the largest corporations in the world. For more information on Lavastorm Analytics or to download a desktop edition of the Lavastorm Analytics Engine, our data analytics software for business analysts, please visit www.lavastorm.com or www.lavastorm.com/resources/software-downloads-trials, respectively.

23

www.lavastorm.com
Lavastorm Analytics, 2013. All rights reserved.