Too much data, too little exploits

If I had the resources, backing and opportunity, I would advocate for a new breed of specialist data managers (in addition to existing data managers) whose role is simply to extract data and generate reports ... call them Reporting Specialists, BI Specialists, Report Generators, Data Extractors, or whatever you may like - but title is a trivia, so let's move on.

Through the times, I have learnt that many organizations own so much data which sits in some electronic database, but never gets the chance to see the light of the day. This really beats the purpose, and until we harness that data, we would be allocating resources to doing something that does not ultimately benefit the organization. To be specific, what I mean is that we would be spending a lot of money managing a lot of data for no ultimate use. Think about the resources spent on managing data - from human resources to software and hardware infrastructure ... the list is long. And I can assure you that this is the reality in many environments.

In my view, an average sized organization would do much better with a couple of Reporting Specialists whose role is purely writing SQL queries to extract data and format the output in some reporting format that can be used for research, M&E, management (strategic, tactical or operational) or other purposes. I can nearly guarantee that the Return On Investment (ROI) for spending on Reporting Specialists would be significant. We might all be amazed at how much positive impact such a move will have on the worrying HIV/AIDS rates in some countries.

Most organizations use electronic systems that were acquired off-the-shelf; a few build their systems in-house. Either way, the need for the Reporting Specialist is growing by the day. Without a paradigm shift, the concept of data-information-knowledge is grossly undermined because data will remain data, yet in the ideal world, data is meant to be transformed into information and ultimately knowledge. This is the real essence of data.

This is my take, even though insignificant as it may sound.