Mining the ‘known unknowns’ in WA

• The total amount of information available to organisations is growing at 58% p.a.

• Data is disaggregated and increasingly complex

• The wealth of data that organisations have can provide insights into organisational performance, including recovering misappropriated funds, optimising investments, saving money, increasing customer satisfaction, and improving safety and regulatory compliance.

15 February 2012: On the basis of facts such as these, the not-for-profit professional organisation for the analytics industry in Australia, The Institute of Analytics Professionals of Australia (IAPA), opened its doors today in Perth, emphasising the increasingly strategic role sought by the West Australian business arena.

IAPA incorporates business analytics and data mining across multiple disciplines and sectors, and has a membership of more than 1,500 professionals from in excess of 500 organisations.

IAPA WA Chapter Head and Deloitte Analytics Partner Coert du Plessis said: “In Western Australia we have already seen how analytic insights in the critical area of safety, has helped the mining and resources sector minimise health and safety risks.

“As the growth in mining leads to productivity pressures, so the workforce challenges continue to mount. Imagine if you could identify who in your workplace was most likely to get injured and be able to intervene before the risks became reality? The impact on workforce engagement, reduction in downtime, and process improvement would be tremendous. Let alone the human value of such powerful insights.

“Sophisticated use of the plethora of data available today and the capability to turn that into valuable insights, is the very business of members of IAPA,” Mr Du Plessis said.

“Data analytics can also be used to manage risk and beat fraud, build safety strategies and attract and retain a skilled workforce that matches the culture of the organisation.

“Using data intelligently by shifting from the current 95% descriptive use – reporting – to a predictive and even prescriptive use, is a real game changer for Australian business, and for the businesses of Western Australia in particular,” said Mr Du Plessis.

“Over the next five years, the amount of data available is set to double and with more powerful data available, the necessary skills will be required to interpret it. The analytics profession is still relatively new, so we are very excited to establish an analytics community and regular forum to Perth to gather like-minded people to discover the “known unknowns,” Mr Du Plessis said.

IAPA’s mission is to unite, inform, support and promote analytics professionals in Australia by providing numerous information sources, a virtual community, a networking hub, and a professional identity for the discipline. Membership is free of charge.

The first IAPA event in WA will be held on Wednesday 14 March, 5.30pm–7.30pm at Deloitte offices, Woodside Plaza, Level 14, 240 St Georges Terrace, Perth. vividwireless’ Richard Ivanov will present: ‘Managing and extracting value from the mobile data explosion’ and Paul Airoldi, RACWA will discuss his approach to Measurable Marketing Analytics. The event is free for those who either have a strong interest in data analytics or who work in the space.

For further information visit the IAPA website: www.iapa.org.au/Group/WAChapter