Data and Finance: The Opportunity
T+O+M recently held a round-table discussion with Heads of Data and GMs of Finance to discuss the opportunities that exist with Data. We thought it would be useful to summarise the discoveries for those that could not attend.
When it comes to educating the c-suite on the data opportunity:
- The BEAR guidelines have put data squarely on the agenda for the Executives so they are already listening and investing
- However, apart from the regulatory requirements, only some organisations are thinking about the commercial benefits of harnessing this data
In order to upskill existing talent to become more data savvy:
- It pays to hire strong data talent who can integrate well with the team and subsequently upskill those around them.
- However, you need to have a team that is open and willing to learn new skills. Where there is a lack of interest, then managers need to hire accordingly.
In identifying the challenges in acquiring Business Intelligence talent
- The main challenge sits with finding technical talent who understand the business and its challenges, or the domains from a commercial perspective, and know how to tie this back to the underlying data
- This lack of understanding can make the lead time for a new hire to become effective longer
In knowing where to draw the Finance and data demarcation lines:
- Even in organisations with defined data structures, there can be considerable overlap in the production of reports generated by Finance, Analytics, Product and Strategy teams
- Interestingly self-serve reporting models can generate more queries for Finance so expected economies in Finance aren’t realised
To culturally integrate data science and finance people
- Emphasise the opportunity for people to appreciate each other’s experience and learn from each other.
- Educate Finance people who are going to be impacted by automation that a data skill set provides a great opportunity (provided that they are passionate about data!). And remember that some Finance people have independently done data studies, so these make great prospects.
If you work in the worlds of Data or Finance (or both!) and would like to be involved in future discussions, please get in touch.
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