B-BANA321LC – BUSINESS ANALYTICS 1

Module 1: Introduction to Business Analytics

MODULE I
INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Module Author
JUDE CAPONPON, CPA, MBA, CTT

Accountancy Department
College of Business Administration and Accountancy
De La Salle University – Dasmarinas

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Module 1: Introduction to Business Analytics

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Psalm 23:1-6
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me
beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s
sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your
rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my
enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will
follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

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Task
Write a brief reflection about the Gospel. (5 pts)

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Module 1: Introduction to Business Analytics

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
While going through the module, the students are expected to:
1. Write a brief reflection about the Gospel;
2. Answer the motivation question;
3. Explain the basic principles and concepts Business Analytics and its importance in
making economic business decision making;
4. Understand the different job roles in Business Analytics
5. Understand what is Big Data and its use in an organization

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Module 1: Introduction to Business Analytics

Lesson 3: Big Data

Objectives:
1. Describe the history of big data analytics.
2. Identity the four Vs of Big Data
3. Understand the Big Data analytics tools

Introduction:
Big data analytics has transformed the way industries perceived data. Big data is any set of data
that is too large or too complex to be handled by standard data-processing techniques and typical
desktop software.

Traditionally, companies made use of statistical tools and surveying to gather data and perform
analysis on the limited amount of information. Most of the times, the deductions and inferences
that were produced based on the information were not adequate and did not lead to positive
results. Because of this, companies had to incur losses.
However, with the advancements in technology and a massive increase in the computational
capabilities contributed by High-Performance Computing, industries are able to expand their
domain of knowledge. What comprised of a few gigabytes in the past is now in the size of
quintillions. This is contributed by the massive expanse in mobile phones, IoT devices and other
internet services. To make sense of this, industries have resorted to Big Data Analytics.
Activating Prior Knowledge
In the previous lesson you were given a glimpse of what is analytics, how it evolved and how
does it affect decision making compared to using the traditional strategies? Is using analytics for
decision making yield better results? How?
Analysis
Business Analytics used data as the basis for decision making which is often seen as more
objective. Data are being processed scientifically to convert them to insight that can be used for
better planning, quantifying risk and lastly choosing the best course of action from the developed
alternatives.

This lesson will help us to further understand the nature of concepts of analytics that makes it
better alternatives for the traditional decision making strategies.

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Acquiring New Knowledge

PART I: BRIEF HISTORY OF BIG DATA IN ANALYTICS

Source: https://www.omnisci.com/learn/big-data-analytics

The advent of big data analytics was in response to the rise of big data, which began in the
1990s. Long before the term “big data” was coined, the concept was applied at the dawn of the
computer age when businesses used large spread sheets to analyze numbers and look for trends.

The sheer amount of data generated in the late 1990s and early 2000s was fueled by new sources
of data. The popularity of search engines and mobile devices created more data than any
company knew what to do with. Speed was another factor. The faster data was created, the more
that had to be handled. A recent study by International Data Corporation (IDC) projected that
data creation would grow tenfold globally by 2020.
Whoever could tame the massive amounts of raw, unstructured information would open a
treasure chest of insights about consumer behavior, business operations, natural phenomena and
population changes never seen before.
Traditional data warehouses and relational databases could not handle the task. Innovation was
needed. In 2006, Hadoop was created by engineers at Yahoo and launched as an Apache open
source project. The distributed processing framework made it possible to run big data
applications on a clustered platform. This is the main difference between traditional vs big data
analytics.
At first, only large companies like Google and Facebook took advantage of big data analysis. By
the 2010s, retailers, banks, manufacturers and healthcare companies began to see the value of
also being big data analytics companies.
Large organizations with on-premises data systems were initially best suited for collecting and
analyzing massive data sets. But Amazon Web Services (AWS) and other cloud platform
vendors made it easier for any business to use a big data analytics platform. The ability to set up
Hadoop clusters in the cloud gave a company of any size the freedom to spin up and run only
what they need on demand.
A big data analytics ecosystem is a key component of agility, which is essential for today’s
companies to find success. Insights can be discovered faster and more efficiently, which
translates into immediate business decisions that can determine a win.

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PART II: THE FOUR (4) V’S OF BIG DATA

Source: https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/four-vs-big-data

IBM data scientists break big data into four dimensions:

1. VOLUME
2. VARIETY
3. VELOCITY
4. VERACITY

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PART III: BIG DATA ANALYTICS TOOLS

Source: Source: Camm et al, 2019.; https://data-flair.training/blogs/big-data-tutorials-home/

Big data analytics requires a software framework for distributed storage and processing of big
data. The following tools are considered big data analytics software solutions:

- Hadoop: An open-source programming environment that supports big data processing

through distributed storage and processing over multiple computers
- MapReduce: A programming model used within Hadoop that performs two major steps:
the map step and the reduce step for processing massive amounts of unstructured data in
parallel across a distributed cluster.
- Apache Kafka: Scalable messaging system that lets users publish and consume large
numbers of messages in real time by subscription.
- HBase: Column-oriented key/value data store that runs run on the Hadoop Distributed
File System.
- Hive: Open source data warehouse system for analyzing data sets in Hadoop files.
- Pig: Open source technology for parallel programming of MapReduce jobs on Hadoop
clusters.
- Spark: Open source and parallel processing framework for running large-scale data
analytics applications across clustered systems.
- YARN: Cluster management technology in second-generation Hadoop.

Data security is the protection of stored data from destructive forces or unauthorized users, and
is of critical importance to companies. For example, credit card transactions are potentially very
useful for understanding consumer behavior, but compromise of these data could lead to
unauthorized use of the credit card or identity theft.

Application
To assess your understanding to this lesson, an enabling assessment will be posted in your
School Book. In the case of inaccessibility to the assessment, let your instructor know
immediately for an alternative.

Answer the following questions and submit your answers using the School Book on or before
MARCH 29, 2021:

1. Name an industry or company you want to study

2. What are the variables (data) present in that industry or company?
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3. How important are those variables (data) in that industry or company?

4. Suggest tools that the company should use in analysing the data

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