Web-Based Data Analytics Tool Empowers Dynamic Competiveness Benchmarking and Data-Driven Policy Formulation
The Massachusetts High Tech Council (MHTC) today launched the Massachusetts’ Technology, Talent and Economic Reporting System (MATTERS), a web-based data analytics tool designed to measure and evaluate Massachusetts’ talent and business competitiveness, while providing policy makers, advocates and technology leaders with dynamic, searchable data to inform public policy decisions. The launch of MATTERS was announced at the MHTC’s 2015 Annual Meeting, which featured a keynote address from Governor Charlie Baker.
“Maintaining Massachusetts’ competitive position in the 21st century will require ongoing and incisive assessment of the health of our economic environment” said Governor Baker. “Our administration is committed to using data to identify and advance pro-growth economic policies and we are excited about using MATTERS as a primary tool in those efforts.”
MATTERS consolidates key cost, economic and talent metrics along with independent national rankings into a single source that is freely available to the public. MATTERS empowers users to measure the health of the technology environment in any state and allows easy and meaningful comparisons among a group of states, with a particular focus on Massachusetts 14 “peer” states whose economies are similarly “tech-centric”.
MATTERS’ data analytics technology was developed over the past year by data science faculty and students from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI).
“This project exemplifies the commitment of WPI’s faculty and students to solve important problems through understanding and leveraging technology,” said Stephen P. Flavin, WPI vice president and dean for academic and corporate engagement. “Our partnership with the MHTC provided a unique opportunity to challenge our students, while also making a positive impact on addressing an important economic issue.”
In addition to WPI, a team of subject matter experts from other Mass. High Tech Council members and partner organizations contributed to the selection and aggregation of relevant metrics and data. MATTERS’ lead sponsor is EMD Millipore and the development team included important contributions from Bentley University, Ernst & Young, KPMG, The MITRE Corporation, Monster Government Solutions, The New England Board of Higher Education, and The US Army Soldier Systems Center.
Gary Beach, a MATTERS project team member and Editor Emeritus of CIO Magazine, provided Annual Meeting attendees with a live demonstration of the MATTERS tool. “Until MATTERS, enormously valuable data resided in disparate places - and in static form- effectively locked away from those who might leverage it the most to make informed decisions” Beach said. “By aggregating and injecting dynamism into those key data sets, MATTERS will equip policymakers, business leaders, advocates and researchers with a real-time data analytics tool that will help shape our public policy agenda, our debates and the outcomes of key decisions to be made in Massachusetts for years to come.”
Newly elected Council Chairman Bill Achtmeyer, Founder of Parthenon and Senior Managing Director of Parthenon-EY, emphasized MATTERS’ potential to fill a key gap for the Council and the Commonwealth. “The Massachusetts High Technology Council’s mission is to make Massachusetts the world’s most attractive place in which to create and grow a high technology business”, said Achtmeyer. “We developed MATTERS as a mission-critical, but previously missing, tool to inform the efforts of the Council and like-minded organizations and individuals.”
Council President Christopher Anderson noted that the driving force behind the development of MATTERS and the Council’s sponsorship of New England Tech Vets—a national employer solution launched in 2014 that connects area employers with the largest database of US Veterans in the nation— was outgoing Council Chairman Pete Nicholas, Co-Founder and Chairman of Boston Scientific. “Pete’s vision and determination has been a catalyst for positive change for decades. During his two years as Council Chairman, Pete has reenergized the technology community in Massachusetts around the Council’s competiveness mission.”
In addition to electing Bill Achtmeyer and Aron Ain (CEO, Kronos) as Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively, Council members relected Ellen Lord, President, Textron Systems; Jim Boyer, Executive Professor, D’Amore-McKimm School of Business, Northeastern University; and Mike Kendall, Partner, Goodwin Procter as Council officers. Members also elected 8 new Board members at the Annual Meeting:
Udit Batra, President & CEO, EMD Millipore Corp.
John Corcoran, President, Trinity Partners
Ken Gabriel, President & CEO, Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc. Jonathan A. Kraft, President, The Kraft Group
Gloria Larson, President Bentley University
Robert Maginn, Jr., Chairman & CEO, Jenzabar
Mark Stoever, Chief Operating Officer, Monster Worldwide
Robert Ward, President & CEO, Radius Health Inc.
About the Massachusetts High Technology Council – www.mhtc.org
The Massachusetts High Technology Council is the oldest and only cross-sector association of technology, professional services, and higher education CEOs and senior executives in Massachusetts. As advocates for public policies and programs that create and maintain a healthy and competitive business climate, the Council has lead winning strategies for 38 years. In addition to its mission focus on cost competitiveness and talent development, the Council also works to preserve and strengthen federal defense assets in Massachusetts and support a robust and productive interaction among those assets and the public and private technology sectors across New England.