Week 2 - BALT 4361 - Data Skills & Power

Chapters 1 & 2:

Data & Roles

Data skills are vital and growing in demand in the workplace. Making sense of large sets of data is essential for accurate analysis, allowing companies to maximize their value and gain a competitive edge through optimized forecasting. Decision-making, market analysis, customer segmentation, risk management, and performance measurement are all ways we analyze data. This can make companies more efficient overall when it comes to synthesizing real-time data for necessary changes.

Major data roles have been emerging over the past couple of decades, however, they are more important than ever as so much of what companies do on a daily basis revolves around data analysis. Data Analysts for example are the ones who collect, process, and analyze data for decision-making purposes. Data scientists possess advanced skills and technical knowledge of machine learning algorithms to analyze and model complex data sets. This is especially useful for predictive models that can help businesses in forecast modeling that is more precise than they otherwise would be.

On the other hand, Data Engineers design, build, and maintain infrastructure where these large sets of data are stored. Being able to access your data whenever you need it is more important than anything as data that is lost is useless. Another role as a Business Intelligence Analyst transforms raw data into usable data for use in decision-making processes. When data comes in initially, it's often unorganized and difficult to read, Intelligence Analysts organize this data so that someone who isn't in a data-centric role can easily read and make use of it.

Data plays a powerful role in business as it provides valuable insight into customer trends, operations, and their efficiencies, and predictive analysis as well. Companies can also use this data to innovate and prepare for the future, however, there are also ethical issues that come into play with security and privacy.