“A Good Understanding of Human-Machine Interaction, a Key Component of a Business Technologist”– Interview with Wael Elrifai, Pentaho

This blog post is part of the Big Data Week Speaker interviews series. Wael shares his thoughts about the impact of big data in the business landscape, also offering a sneak peek into his talk at the “Big Data in Use” Conference.

1. Why is it important for businesses to be more data-driven nowadays?

Everything still begins with the synthesis and analysis of data.  So let’s start by asking, “What kind of business challenges are data challenges?” The short and unsurprising answer is that they’re all data challenges. There may also be matters of operational change, business process, compliance, and so on – it still begins by knowing where you are, knowing the state of the world around you and sourcing the ever-richer set of data within your organisation, like IoT, to make predictions, improve your operations, and design new products for your customers.

2. What are the main challenges a company encounters when trying to leverage their data?

Gone are the days when it was conceivable to use pen and paper to glean insights from data.  Modern computing and communications technology have given us access to enormous amounts of new information, and have eliminated a lot of the drudgery and arithmetic of analysis.  However the modern scale of data and the subsystems underlying the technology require specialists to work on them.  Organisations often face challenges either finding these experts or in selecting appropriate tools to abstract the complexities of the underlying system, offering a familiar interface regardless of rapid software and hardware advancement.

3. How do you see the impact of big data in the business landscape?

Big Data tools permit organisations to access an increasingly diverse set of data and rapidly dwindling costs of storage and computational power.  Business are finding that they can better understand their customers and thus tailor products to personal tastes, improve their supply chains and production lines, and evolve their business models to focus on outcomes and services rather than products.

4. What do you foresee as being the growing big data challenge you will face in your role over the coming 3 years, and how are you preparing to face it?

For me personally, it will be a challenge to maintain functional literacy in the myriad of new platforms that are part of the Big Data ecosystem.  10 years ago there were perhaps 2-3 systems one had to understand, now there are at least 20, with multiple brands and variations on each.  On one hand, this maturing of the ecosystem may signal some convergence of technical topics – and this is good (for me and for the wider Big Data community).  On the other hand, we will have the challenge of keeping our mathematical and statistical skills up to par in order to understand the ever-evolving applied mathematics of machine learning and which models make sense where.  Finally, I believe that a good understanding of Human-Machine Interaction will be a key component of a business technologist.  As systems become more “conscious”, they will also need to “know” how to work with human beings.  More succinctly, my biggest challenge is going to be finding the time to keep my own skills on the bleeding edge!

5. Can you give us a sneak peek into your talk at the “Big Data in Use” Conference | Big Data Week London 2016?

I’ll be discussing Big Data, R&D and the Process of Data-Driven Innovation.  It won’t be a highly technical talk, it will be suitable for a business audience.

6. Who do you think should attend your talk at Big Data Week? Why?

Attendees should be business oriented and be interested in understanding more about outcomes of Big Data analysis techniques, rather than just the technology.  I’ll focus on the kinds of process improvements they can make to reduce time to ROI, and the skills they should focus on both within business and technology functions.

Attend Wael’s presentation at the “Big Data in Use” Conference | Big Data Week London 2016. Book now and grab the one-time 25% discount on top of the Early Bird price, using the code: BDW25.

BIO

Wael Elrifai is an avid technologist and management strategist, bridging the divide between IT and business as Pentaho’s EMEA Director of Enterprise Solutions.  He’s been working in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data for the past decade.  Wael has served clients across North America, EMEA, and APAC and has presented at conferences worldwide as well as having been quoted in the Financial Times and Forbes, among others.

With graduate degrees in both electrical engineering and economics, Wael is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, the Special Interest Group for Artificial Intelligence, the Royal Economic Society, and Chatham House.

Wael also serves on the boards of two charitable organisations and enjoys tinkering with “bleeding-edge” technology, private aviation, and adventure travel.