Further adoption of ‘critical’ analytics may be restricted by shortage of talent

Software company Lavastorm Analytics said that, based on its survey of 425 participants in the analytics industry, over 65% believe that organisations lack the numbers of people required to make the most of the data they have. According to Lavastorm, this could restrict the use of analytics in the future.

The survey found that the biggest factors holding organisations back from using analytics included: lack of skills/training/education ( 19%), lack of funding or resources ( 18%) and inadequate support from executives ( 10%).

Respondents felt that the skills most urgently needed in their organisations include statistics, math or quantitative skills ( 48%), analytics tools training ( 40%) and critical thinking ( 28%).

“Our latest survey points towards a major inflection point in the importance of analytics in building great businesses,” said Drew Rockwell, CEO of Lavastorm Analytics. “There is a supply and demand gap that, left unaddressed, will stall the obvious advantages of data-driven decision-making.”

The full report is online here.

• On a related note, the careers section of the latest edition of Impact – our sister magazine – looks at the looming maths skills shortage in the UK, and what this might mean for research and related industry. You can read the article online via Impact’s digital edition here.