Business Analytics

Fall 2021
Week-1

GCR Code (A): mrmv4c7

GCR Code (B): yrybabv

Questions
1. Can you name few businesses where the number
of customers is in millions+
2. How does Amazon.com know which books and
other products to recommend to you when you
log in to their web site??
3. You apply for a loan for the first time. How does
the bank assess the riskiness of the loan it might
make to you?
4. Can you suggest similar questions from other
industries…?
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 Big data…

 Vast amounts of data now generated and stored

electronically.
 Estimate: the amount of data stored by
businesses more than doubles every two years.
 Challenge: How can managers convert these data
into knowledge that they can use to be more
efficient and effective in managing their
businesses? To gain competitive advantage.

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5 Vs of big data…

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 Use of analytical methods in business
applications (3 developments)

1) Technological advances— POS scanners, e-commerce

and SNS, sensor data, & data generated from personal
electronic devices.
2) Explosion in computing power, storage capability,
hardware, parallel computing, cloud computing etc…
3) Research has produced approaches to effectively
handle and explore massive amounts of data, efficient
techniques for processing and visualizing data.

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Business Analytics

 Business analytics is the scientific process of

transforming data into insight for making better
decisions.
 Used for data-driven or fact-based decision making
vs ‘tradition’, ‘intuition’ or ‘rule of thumb’.
 Can involve anything from simple reporting to
complex optimization techniques (finding the best
course of action).

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 Business Analytics: transform raw data into meaningful
and useful information for business purposes.

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Visualization: A Dashboard

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 The Architecture of BI

 A BI system has four major components:

 a data warehouse, with its source data
 business analytics, a collection of tools for
manipulating, mining, and analyzing the data in
the data warehouse;
 business performance management (BPM) for
monitoring and analyzing performance
 a user interface (e.g., dashboard)

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A High-level Architecture of BI

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 Components in a BI Architecture

 The data warehouse is the cornerstone of any

medium-to-large BI system.
 Included only historical data that was organized and
summarized, so end users could easily view or
manipulate it.
 Provides access to current data as well, so they can
provide real-time decision support.
 Business analytics are the tools that help users
transform data into knowledge (e.g., queries,
data/text mining tools, etc.).

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Components in a BI Architecture

 Business Performance Management (BPM), BPM

refers to the business processes & methodologies
used by enterprises to measure, monitor, and
manage business performance.
 User Interface (i.e., dashboards) provides a
comprehensive graphical/pictorial view of
corporate performance measures, trends etc..

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BA Applications
 Customer Relationship Management
 Improve customer retention (churn analysis)
 Identify and treat most valued customers

 Banking & Other Financial

 Automate the loan application process
 Detecting fraudulent transactions

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 BA Applications (cont.)
 Retailing and Logistics
 Improve the store layout and sales promotions

 Manufacturing and Maintenance

 Predict/prevent machinery failures
 Insurance
 Determine optimal rate plans
 Identify and prevent fraudulent claim activities

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BA: Broad View with associated

knowledge areas

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 Skills you will develop…

 Data preprocessing
 Data visualizations
 Exploratory data analysis
 Predictive analytics
 Basic machine learning
 Critical thinking/Presenting
 Software: MS Excel and Bluesky statistics

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