India holds the key in global talent pool for advanced analytics
India is set to account for the major share of the global talent pool in the domain of advanced analytics, according to a new report from global consultancy Bain & Company. Most of this talent is expected to gravitate towards sectors that already have high analytical competencies.
Data analytics is an integral part of the global Industry 4.0 revolution, and is capable of generating benefits for a wide variety of sectors. Alongside the high costs of integration, one primary obstacle to integrating data analytics within business operations is the requirement for talent that is well-versed in the domain.
Experts have been suggesting that one in ten jobs is expected to have entirely new skill requirements over the next half a decade, as working in collaboration with a variety of new technologies becomes an increasingly central part of business operations. As a result, countries are investing in developing digital talent.
Developed economies such as the US have been struggling with a shortage of such talent in recent years, and global management consultancy Bain & Company anticipates that this shortage will continue in the near future. Businesses in the US have been on the lookout for data engineers and other experts in the advanced analytics field.
According to Bain, these businesses are set to have a bigger global talent pool to choose from than ever before, as advanced analytics capabilities across the globe are on the verge of a boom. By next year, this global talent pool will consist of as many as 1 million professionals.
The sectors that most require advanced analytics capabilities include the retail, media, banking, consumer goods and industrial goods and services. The healthcare. Telecom and insurance sectors are also in need of analytics talent, although the available digital talent is unlikely to benefit these sectors.
Bain reports that sectors that are developed around digital capabilities are more challenging and attractive for analytics experts, and are more likely to draw these individuals. As a result, other sectors are likely to suffer from a shortage of talent, while digital natives will benefit from a boom.
Digital natives, among other sectors, are likely to develop dedicated advanced analytics teams in years to come, which will consist of certain essential roles. Data Architects are amongst the most central of these roles, alongside Data Scientists, Data Engineers and Machine Learning Engineers.
These four roles are likely to comprise 70% of data analytics teams, while other more peripheral roles will include Use Case Product Manager, Data Anlyst, UI Developer and DevOps Engineer. The last of these is becoming essential as digitalisation brings about a degree of uniformity across organisations.
In such a homogenised scenario, customer relationship management and delivery are increasingly crucial as differentiating factors, which is why DevOps Engineers will occupy a key role in most advanced analytics team. According to Bain, India will supply the majority of this talent pool.
“The outlook is especially bright in India, where two trends are simultaneously expanding the talent pool. First, STEM undergraduate and graduate degree holders, whose programs of study emphasise data and analytics skills, continue to join the workforce in increasing numbers,” states the report.
“Augmenting that is India’s deep existing ecosystem in information technology, especially in programming and systems integration. Outsourcing firms and the India IT centers of global corporations house many ideal candidates for learning new advanced analytics skills. These two sources have combined to make India a vital hub of analytics expertise and have fueled the growth of its analytics outsourcing industry,” the authors added.
