Analytics has become an important enabler for businesses. The ability to collect relevant information and correctly interpret it is key to designing the right solutions for businesses.

In Singapore, we have identified the seven industries which would benefit most from the deployment of data analytics.

With an explosion of consumer data now at our fingertips, the consumer and retail industry is leveraging data analytics to paint a clearer picture of consumer behaviour and buying patterns.

In urban solutions and services, a world of backend data is ready for harvesting and can provide better traffic management systems and smarter energy, water and waste management solutions.

Security can benefit from early identification and prevention of digital fraud and cyber loss, particularly as consumers trend towards mobile platforms.

Analyzing the manufacturing processes and implementing real-time monitoring helps businesses efficiently organise, monitor and navigate logistics and the supply chains.

The healthcare sector too can benefit from data analytics solutions which bring about the more effective and efficient deployment of limited medical resources.

In the finance sector, with its 24/7 operations, global connectivity and hosting of sensitive client information, data analytics can allow financial institutions to quickly and efficiently analyze huge amount of data for patterns, identify risks and predict market expectations.

Big Data Hub
Singapore aims to become the Big Data hub in Asia. From Singapore, the potential of data analytics can be fully exploited to help businesses describe, predict, and prescribe business solutions that improve efficiency, optimise business decisions, grow revenue and introduce new business paradigms.

Singapore is building on the fundamentals already in place – infrastructure, global and regional connectivity and a good track record in providing a secure environment not just for data storage, but for data management.

Today, Singapore already hosts many projects in these sectors. Rakuten, Japan’s largest retailer, has established its Consumer Analytics Lab to enable customer profiling and targeted marketing.

Service providers such as Accenture and Deloitte have also established their analytics practices in Singapore, focusing on areas such as supply chain planning, risk management, business forecasting, and performance.

Rolls-Royce and the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) also established the Computational Engineering Laboratory in December 2011 to conduct joint research in intelligent data analysis.

Public Sector growth
In the public sector, Singapore is steaming ahead with many projects to improve public services through the deployment of analytics.  In the healthcare sector, for example, the government is working with Accenture to analyse the National Electronic Healthcare Record, with a view to developing healthcare protocols which will reduce healthcare costs and improve clinical outcomes.

The application of analytics requires not just technical know-how and industry knowledge. Cultural context helps businesses accurately interpret the results for insights that can solve business challenges.

Business acumen – an ability to translate the insights to ideas, is another skill-set that is key to making the insights meaningful to businesses. It is really the access to a pool of industry experts with experiences on how Asian consumers interact with products and services that makes Singapore an ideal data analytics hub.

Data Analytics jobs
By the end of 2017, the data analytics sector is expected to add SGDS$1bn in value-added to the Singapore economy.

It is projected that between 2010 and 2015, the average growth figures for analytics jobs across six key industries in Singapore - analytics services, banking, communications technology, insurance, oil and gas, and pharmaceuticals - will reach 3.8% per year, growing the total number of jobs to 7,700.

By 2017, Singapore is aiming to train a further 2,500 multidisciplinary professionals to join its data analytics workforce.