Teryl @ Work

Is 2016 the year of mainstreaming Business Intelligence and Analytics? In IT circles, IoT and Analytics are mainstream!   In the real business world, there appears to be an appetite and a genuine need, but the question is “Is it really happening?” I have rather belatedly read Ajeet Singh’s article – 2016 Anti-Predictions for Analytics, and found it very interesting.   Some of the statistics mentioned were a surprise eg 99% of data still being on premise. Business technology trends do take multiple paths.   I remember when we first started selling biometric solutions at Accsys over ten years ago,  we would get in the door with biometrics, but the majority of clients still felt safer with cards.   It is the same with Employee Self Service, the take up is happening, but it is still largely at the early adopter stage in the SME market, in spite of overwhelmingly strong ROI indicators. So for the majority of businesses, Analyt...

This topic has been on my mind for the whole month of March based on the LinkedIn brief of the hottest positions in my industry. It has to be a role in Analytics and Business Intelligence. Security is a serious contender, too.  What else? Web development is still in demand. According to Robert Half, the positions with the most potential salary growth are : Big Data Engineers Mobile App Developers The one thing we know in IT is that you need to constantly keep current with trends. Are there IT jobs you should be fleeing from?  I don’t think so - there are legacy products in use keeping traditional IT skills busy - as long as you are enjoying what you are doing and keep your skill set relevant.   A career in IT is not industry specific, and companies are on the look out for IT specialists who combine deep IT skills with the ability to translate that into strategic, business development wisdom. A favourite (and I think relevant) TS Eliot Quote...

I have been in Payroll a long time, as a developer, a supplier of software and a user, and this is only the second (as far as I know) National Payroll Week we have had in South Africa, so there are definitely thoughts arising: Will holding a National  Payroll Week raise awareness? Should we do it again next year, and how should it be publicised? The discussions over the past week have shown some main areas of interest: Formal qualifications Security of data in payroll departments Data Analytics / Business Intelligence Employee Self Service and Mobile Formal Qualifications Not everybody I spoke to realised that Recognition for Prior Learning (RPL) is available for payroll administrators who have deep experience. There were also concerns expressed by people who have never studied at a tertiary level whether they would cope with the material.   Years of adult training have shown that people undervalue the level of knowledge they have gained in the workpla...

The Daily Beast published a story last year with statistics that showed women being quoted 1 in 5 times on woman's issues.   The article continued with stats on news shows showing a very similar picture.     The Daily Beast I haven't been able to find similar statistics for South Africa, but am not convinced it would be very different. Are we just not being asked?  Or don't the media know who to ask?  Are the women with expertise not high profile enough or is it simply that with less than 20% of corporate top jobs in the hands of women, the statistics are aligned with the reality? How does it change?   Social media has to be one of the ways forward.   With the ability to put opinions out into the ether, surely the media (and the world at large) will note that women have a point of view on matters beyond celebrities, beauty and fashion.   And may I add that enjoying the aforementioned does not drive business, economics and politics out of you...

And, like Superman,  its all in the Cloud! One of my favourite quotations is by the extraordinary poet, TS Eliot "Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" The sheer size and volume of the data we are dealing with every day, is forcing us to find new ways to make sense of it all.   So Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics joined Cloud and Big Data as key to understanding business in the 21st Century. As an avid reader, my experience in dealing with Amazon and choosing a book, compared to going to my local book store, throws me right into the 21st Century and new sales technologies.  Not only do Amazon have my buying patterns from the books they have sold me, they bought Goodreads, my on-line book club, so they now have access to books I have read, and personal preferences.   Every time, I go onto Amazon a list of recommended books is waiting for me. ...