• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 25, 2012

Joshua Koran, VP-product management-research and data at AT&T AdWorks, and moderator of “Organization” panel at OMMA Data and Targeting in Los Angeles, kicked the conversation off by asking how agencies were integrating data a year after the “year of the data scientist.”

By that, Koran meant that 2011 was the year that agencies and big data companies recruited a lot of hardcore data science geeks, but 2012 is more of the year of integrating all that high-powered thinking into real world application.

For Thomas Bosilevac, Director of Analytics, Digitaria, that has means “breaking away from the traditional agency models.”

When it comes to analytics, he says Digitaria basically divides its data process and integration into three key areas defined by specific skillsets: engineers, strategic thinkers and communicators.

“It’s not a jack of all trades” approach, he said, indicating that specialization is a natural outgrowth.

For Ivan Sucharski, data strategist at Medio Systems, it’s also about a shift toward defining better goals for processing and integrating data.

“You can write a million algorithms,” he said, “but they need to target specific outcomes. Defining the outcome is very important.”