Now more than ever, companies and organizations have the ability to harness vast quantities of data that can help them improve products, better serve customers and enhance profitability. Retailers gain information about customer behavior through rewards programs. Websites monitor clickthroughs. Insurance companies analyze demographic data in order to calculate risk.
Being able to crunch the numbers is only one part of the process, however. Using it to make the right business decisions is another. While reports and surveys have highlighted the growing demand for data scientists, experts also point to the need for managers with analytics savvy.
“As much as Big Data promises to help automate and accelerate decisions by more effectively analyzing greater varieties and volumes of data, having the right people in place to guide this process will be necessary for success. To leverage the promise of Big Data, people must know what questions to ask, how to interpret the answers, and ultimately what to do with the results,”
management consultants Paul Barth and Randy Bean wrote in the Harvard Business Review.
Capitol’s newly-upgraded master’s program in Information Systems Management, unveiled in Fall 2014, is designed to provide students with exactly that blend of capabilities. The program will train students in managing data, identifying significant findings, and applying them to business problems.
“It gives you the quantitative background needed to make business decisions based on data, based on statistics, based on analyses,” says Director of Graduate Recruitment Xavier A. Richards. “If you’re dealing with numbers, if you’re dealing with a lot of quantitative information, if you’re having to analyze a lot of data, this is the program for you.”
Dr. Helen G. Barker, dean of the School of Business and Information Sciences, says the program helps fill a training gap and opens up potential managerial opportunities.
“We have an overwhelming amount of data that managers need to know how to manage,” she said. “They need to know how to get out of it information that’s going to help them make better decisions. Essentially the data is a core asset of an organization today. So we need to train people at higher levels to manage this information and treat this information as a core asset. That’s what this program does; it prepares leaders to better understand how to use and capture this data.”
“We’re not only talking Big Data computer science analytics,” Barker said. “We’re also talking basic business analytics, using databases for decision making .whether it’s Excel or Access or SQL.”
From ITSM to ISM
The degree program – which is offered 100% online – is a revamp of an existing Capitol program in Information and Telecommunications Systems Management (ITSM), with a new emphasis on statistics and data analytics.
“It’s still a solid program for telecommunications students, such as those at companies like Verizon,” Barker explained. “It’s taking the existing program and giving it another layer for the students who want to go into leadership. It’s for those who want to master decision science and take their skills into the leadership realm.”
“Business students will also make great candidates for the program,” she said. “It’s a great program in terms of being cross-disciplinary: whether your background is business, computers, engineering or technology, you can come in and take this program and prepare yourself for your next career step – or for a doctorate in management, leadership or decision sciences.”
Richards, the graduate recruitment director, agrees that the program has broad appeal.
“Right now we’re seeing a lot of individuals from the insurance, banking and finance industries, those who have to analyze a lot of data and make decisions based on data that they’re seeing,” she said. “But we also have a lot of MBAs – students who have gone to business schools and are looking for a very deep technical, analytical curriculum to complement their project management skills.”