Snodgrass says key elements are still under wraps. But as an example, he says by putting Telecom's network and Wi-Fi data together with weather data it could help point the way to Auckland Transport to tell it where it should build roads.
The Digital Ventures initiative is one of the most disruptive to roll out of what insiders term Telecom's "skunkworks". But the ability of NZ firms to leverage data mining is impacted by a severe lack of available talent domestically.
Though the data scientists New Zealand has are "some of the very best", hiring more is proving to be a serious challenge for businesses.
Loyalty New Zealand CEO Stephen England-Hall says at the moment his firm is "throwing the net as wide as we can and seeing what we reel in.
"Domestically there's a very small number of people so we have to look everywhere."
This year, for the first time, the University of Otago will offer a Master of Business in Data Science. Programme director Michael Winikoff says the university feels data science is a promising area, both in terms of meeting a real need, and in terms of being an area "where we had sufficient critical mass of relevant expertise on staff".
The University of Auckland offered a Master of Professional Studies in Data Science for the first time last year, tailored for those already in the workplace. The initial programme ran with five students but interest for this year's intake is said to be "significantly higher" as the university looks to build a more flexible schedule to fit around people with professional commitments. There are suggestions it might also link with Telecom to launch a data academy.
"We have a lot of intelligent people in New Zealand, but they don't know the science behind going through the data process, so that formal education is necessary," says Chandan Ohri who leads KPMG's IT Advisory team. "The number of graduates who are coming to us with even a basic knowledge of data and analytics is miniscule. This could really be helped with the introduction of a full three-year programme."
Sam Daish, Kiwibank's Head of Enterprise Information, cautions that any approach needs to be carefully considered, given the rate at which the sector is evolving.
"It's more about educating people about the core principles about how this works and teaching transferable skills rather than expecting people to come out of university ready to operate a specific platform.
"What analytics demands is the ability to think clearly about problems, gather facts and group those in a methodically different way to try to uncover unusual and novel insights that you can act on," he says.
England-Hall echoes this, saying his ideal skillset would comprise undergraduate study in computer science, statistics and philosophy with post-graduate training in data science as that is "the combination of skills we need".
To meet the current shortfall in formally trained data scientists, New Zealand businesses are taking it upon themselves to educate and upskill staff so they are capable of working with data.
KMPG's Ohri says the firm does on-the-job training where it partners graduates with industry experts who impart the benefit of their 20 years of experience in three years, teaching them frameworks, technology and algorithms that KPMG uses.
This style of training data scientists has unique benefits when compared to a tertiary programme, enabling a plethora of disciplines to become adept with data.
"Data analytics is very much dependent on understanding the business and the future requirements of the business," says Ohri, and with such a broad array of uses for big data, having data scientists with expertise in a secondary field is an extremely attractive proposition.
"People of different talents have different ways of thinking, so having a broad range of backgrounds and disciplines means we are able to match the best talent to the client requirements."
Though getting the right programs in place to train domestic data scientists is a great first step, England-Hall says it is only one part of the equation.
"We need to attract talent to create talent, so we have to do a lot around creating an environment which is a political environment, an economic environment, a legislative environment and a business environment for that talent to want to be here.
"Create the right sandpit and the right kids will play. We need to create that drawcard."
• Additional reporting: Fran O'Sullivan.
For more on NZ business ambitions go to www.businessambition.co.nz
