March 27, 2012, 3:00 PM —
Just as historical reports alone aren't sufficient for making corporate decisionsexecutives want business intelligence to identify current and future trendsIT staffers need to know more about BI than how to run a data warehouse or build a dashboard. That puts CIOs in a bind, according to industry experts, who have raised alarms about a data analytics skills deficit.
For example, a report released last spring by the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that by 2018, the United States could lack 140,000 to 190,000 workers with deep analytical skills and another 1.5 million managers and analysts who know how to use analysis of large data sets to make effective decisions.
"We see our BI leader as being the catalyst to drive our organization away from pure historical reporting to true inferential analysis," says Greg Meyers, vice president of global IT at Biogen Idec, a $5 billion biotech company. "This is both a technical and change management challenge."
Yet despite continued high U.S. unemployment rates, there's a BI talent shortage says Boris Evelson, analyst at Forrester Research. "Every single client I talk to tells me they are struggling with finding and retaining BI talent."
