8CIOReview | | NOVEMBER 2021IN MY OPINIONJeremy Coughlin is the VP of Enterprise Analytics for Coast Capital Savings, where he is responsible for enabling the organization to leverage data effectively. He has a background in Psychology (BSc.) and business (MBA) and has been an analytics professional for over 20 years. Jeremy is also a board member for Technical Safety BC, as well as a volunteer board member for the Vancouver Analytics Board and the North Delta Sunfish swim club.How has the Data Analytics space evolved over the years?Business operations have long benefited from data analytics. However, today as the functions and methods to create, collect, and use data have all advanced significantly, data analytics is now seen as a tool that may help us stand out from the competition and give our consumers more value.For instance, I work for Coast Capital Savings, which is the largest credit union in Canada in terms of the number of members it serves. The biggest problem with credit unions is that people don't really know what a credit union is or why it is different than banks, and so that's why most people don't pay much attention.When credit unions first emerged on the scene, their primary mission was to serve underprivileged people who did not actually have stable sources of income and, as a result, banks did not enjoy doing business with them. Therefore, credit unions made it possible for these groups of people to gather together and purchase things like houses and other similar items. But now, the world has changed a lot, and now things like geographical isolation they're not the same. When people question why a credit union makes sense anymore, that's where data comes in. Banks use data to make profits for the shareholders and their owners, whereas the credit union's only goal is to make its members' financial lives better. And so we are looking to use data in the same way but only to make our members' lives better. That's why data's so important in my role and is the only driving force behind all the work I do. What are some of the challenges in the Data Analytics space, and how can you effectively mitigate those challenges?As our whole practice is now moving into the cloud, the biggest challenge we face today is finding people that have good experience people. Through my experience, I have seen that we have many open positions all the time but finding good talent to compete with our competitors is very difficult to find. So we are spending a lot of our energy recruiting and finding the right talent and are also spending more time creating training materials and documentation. So that we can hire more junior people and be a place where people can grow and learn. What are some of the technological trends that are influencing the Enterprise Analytics market today?Today, the technology landscape has grown very complex and is changing quickly. Due to this, one of the biggest challenges we encounter is that by the time we are even beginning a By Jeremy Coughlin, Vice President, Enterprise Analytics, Coast Capital SavingsTHE EVOLUTION OF DATA ANALYTICSJeremy Coughlin
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