CEOs of the future will be data scientists: Telsyte

Currently, only around 38 percent of Australian large businesses with 200 plus employees are data driven -- this number is predicted to sky rocket up to more than 70 percent by 2019, according to technology analyst firm Telsyte.

A report produced by the firm shows that big data analytics is fast becoming the ultimate way to empower CEOs and boards to drive the innovation agenda. There is also a growing realisation that the information era is leaving traditional decision making methods behind.

In the next few years Australian organisations will have at least one executive in their team, if not the CEO, specialising in big data, according to Telsyte senior analyst Shayum Rahim.

"We are seeing a new generation CEO, who no longer relies on a hunch or gut feel to determine the future direction of their organisation. The data-driven CEO uses numerous sources of data to make decisions with precision, which is now essential in being able to report to the board and ultimately shareholders," Rahim says.

According to research, the big data journey has already begun for organisations by way of their e-commerce, CRM, and marketing data, and this is creating a more empowered CMO.

Earlier this year, Telsyte forecast that as businesses modernise the way employees communicate through unified communications, softphones, and mobile phones, cloud communications will exceed 30 percent penetration by 2020. With the predicted market value estimated at AU$650 million in the next five years, research shows that big data investments outside of the scope of are fuelling the growth of IT spending, stating that approximately 5 percent of organisations have Line of Business (LOB) spending on technology surpassing that of the IT department.

The analysts expect this trend to continue, driven by solutions that utilise data from the Internet of Things, social media, and digital marketing.