Business Intelligence roles: Hottest in recession

Business Intelligence is a skill that is seeing a marked increase in demand here in Malta. We have noticed an increase in demand for these types of roles mainly from larger financial, telecoms and i-gaming companies.

Leading companies are using key parts of BI such as data analysis, risk analysis, quantitative analysis, data modelling, reporting and support to ensure all workers, managers and executives can make the right decisions in a given business situation. BI has traditionally been used for performance reporting from historical data, and as a planning and forecasting tool for a relatively small number of people in an organisation that relies on historical data to plan ahead, for example in financial initiations.

We are experiencing companies at a broader level seeing the value in BI roles and the instant benefits that can be gained. Modelling future scenarios permits examination of new business models, new market opportunities, new products thus creating a culture of opportunity. Using information to provide intelligent insight to improve business performance is a major challenge.

While recession worldwide has crippled many businesses and brought about many savage cuts, BI was made for economic slowdowns, and over the coming years it may get a chance to show its stuff. There are certainly no dips in the BI market for it is made for times like these. While those who manage by ‘gut’ slash methods, the smart ones enter the sterile field like surgeons. Those with BI know exactly which organs to repair and which to remove. At least that’s how it’s supposed to work. BI thought leaders are extremely confident about BI’s usefulness and the industry’s health.

Companies that understand their customers and their suppliers use that knowledge to negotiate skillfully, and use knowledge of their products to reduce service costs giving them a big advantage over their competitors. BI is better appreciated when its benefits are visible. It may then be easier to attract good people to BI projects and to keep them.

Where BI gets the attention it needs, it’s already preparing companies for the storm. Big strategic questions have taken the spotlight. Companies are reusing operational data to one-up the competition with better marketing and branding.

As this market increases the benefits to the local market can be seen. Companies across all industries benefit from BI and are paving the way to a very healthy economy in Malta.

Castille has seen an upsurge in demand for these key skills in the last few months from a broad spectrum of companies across all sectors like telecom, financial sector, IT and marketing. As the demand for these skills grow so do the salaries. Companies are really seeing the value in these skills and offering exciting opportunities to attract strong candidates, with competitive packages, interesting projects and career progression. Key skills required are data analysis, statistics, data mining, extraction, data modelling, data presentation, reporting, clustering, SQL, MySQL, Teradata data warehousing and Hyperion BI.

“I think that this is generally due to the fact that organisations in Malta are in their next phase of maturity,” according to iMovo, a local leader in BI-based technology.

“The first phase was when they computerised their operations and got systems to issue reports. These reports were typically very tactical in nature, showing lists of debtors, creditors, aged analysis reports etc. The realisation that systems locked away in the company server room can help forecasting, define marketing strategy, sales plans and other strategic aspects and providing management a strategic view of what’s happening in their business in some very visual way, has hit the executive class.

“You also have a generation change since the IT revolution in Malta started in the early 1990s. So there is a growing demand for BI systems across the board. Furthermore, like other countries across the world, the financial crisis of 2008/9 brought about major changes in several industries, amongst which increased scrutiny and regulation (e.g. in financial services) has triggered off a demand within the executive class for powerful analytics.”

We asked what skills iMovo look for from their BI and business analytics (BA) employees.

“Well, typically it’s always great if they have prior experience of some of the BI tools out there and have worked on a data warehouse project before. As a minimum I’d be looking for someone with good database, data modeling skills and potentially good general business and communication skills,” said a company representative.

And as for careers in the local BI/BA job market, iMovo thinks “It’s very vibrant and this is an area where young professionals can really thrive. There is a strong demand internationally for BI and for young people who want a hybrid international career with work abroad but living in Malta this is surely a space to be in. I think there is also a strong demand in the i-gaming sector which is a significant user of BI for “know your customer” type of applications - so I’d say that like cloud computing, BI is worth seriously looking into.”

(Castille Resources is a local ICT and finance recruitment specialist.)

www.castilleresources.com