Johannesburg, 30 Sep 2008
The critical shortage of business intelligence (BI) skills, particularly at senior levels, is a continually growing concern that poses a very real threat to the sustainability of BI in many South African companies.
So says Paul Morgan, managing director of Asyst Intelligence, a focused provider of strategic BI and data management solutions.
"There is a severe skills shortage in BI, especially at more senior levels, but also at a technical level. At the same time, interest and investment in BI is growing steadily so what we have is an ever-widening gap between the demand for appropriately skilled professionals to design, implement and manage BI projects, and the limited supply.
"This obviously presents challenges, not only in getting BI projects off the ground on time and according to spec, but also in terms of running, supporting and using BI in the long term. In essence, the lack of skills is a threat to the sustainability of BI and unfortunately there`s no quick or sure-fire solution to the dilemma," says Morgan.
He continues: "Filling the boots of a BI professional nowadays is no mean feat. Senior guys must have the relevant mix of both technical and business skills, as well as the experience, to see a BI project through from start to finish. That means understanding all areas of a business, understanding the business`s BI requirements and then having the ability to build the documentation/specs and systems around that. An all-rounder so to speak.
"It`s a tough act to find and because there are so few of them, and with adequately-trained BI support staff also in limited supply, their attention is typically spread across multiple BI projects for which they must manage almost every aspect.
"It takes time to get to this level of expertise and experience and, because transferring knowledge to junior BI people is not possible without this kind of background, it`s also usually up to these senior BI professionals to train and mentor those who are still moving up the ranks.
"However, hard-pressed to get BI projects deployed successfully on time, they don`t always have the time to spend mentoring and training up their subordinates. As a consequence of this, trainees aren`t always given opportunities to get meaningfully involved in BI projects so they aren`t getting the type of experience they need to get to the level of skill that is so desperately needed in the BI space.
Morgan says many BI consulting firms like Asyst and a number of vendors have learnership and apprenticeship programmes in place in an effort to build BI skills. He believes that these programmes have a valuable role to play in filling the skills-gap. However, he reminds that developing learners to the required skills level takes time and requires considerable investment, both from both a financial and resources point of view.
"There`s also a fair amount of poaching in BI and once a person has got the necessary skills and experience, they are quickly snapped-up or stolen by other companies. Once again, there`s just not enough of them to go around and of course, there is the allure of off-shore companies which may have more to offer these up-and-coming BI experts in terms of salary, scope of work and career opportunities.
"SA companies therefore need to focus on retaining good people and must ensure that they are structured such that their skills are best leveraged. If they feel that they are doing valuable work and are appropriately rewarded, they are less likely to move on.
"There needs to be increased emphasis on keeping BI skills in the country and, on coaxing those who`ve already left for greener pastures abroad back to the country," says Morgan.
He concludes: "There`s no magic bullet for this problem and for now, all we can do is our best to attract candidates to the BI field, ensure that they are given the best training and experiential training opportunities possible and then focus on retaining their valuable skills. For this to happen, companies need to be willing to invest the necessary time and resources it takes to develop appropriately-skilled BI staff."
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