Fundamentals of Business Analytics Module

Fundamentals of Business Analytics
Welcome to this introductory course on business analytics. This course provides students with an
overview of the current trends in business analytics which drive today’s business. The course
will provide understanding on data management techniques which can help an organization
achieve its business goals and address operational challenges.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
At the end of the course, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the value of business in managing business operations;
2. Describe the various sources of data (structured, unstructured) and the concept of data
management;
3. Describe the importance of data, how data can be used by an organization towards
competitive advantage, and how it enables organizations to make quicker and better
business decisions;
4. Describe, understand and explain business modeling, the business modeling process and
be able to apply it in a variety of different situations;
5. Describe the basics of business intelligence include data gathering, data storing, data
analyzing and providing access to data;
6. Describe how statistical analysis can help to better understand past events and predict
future events;
7. Discuss the fundamentals of project risk management, various methods used for effort
and cost estimation, various phases within a project, dependencies and critical path;
8. Describe various database models like the hierarchical database model and network
model; and
9. Discuss the ethical norms as required under policies and applicable laws governing
confidentiality and non-disclosure of data/information/documents and proper conduct i n
the learning process and application of business analytics.
COURSE OUTLINE
MODULE 1. Overview of Big Data and Business Analytics

A. Introduction to Business Analytics
B. History of Business Analytics
C. Big Data and Business Analytics
D. Big Data Investments by the Numbers
E. Providers of Big Data Services
MODULE 2. Business Analytics Framework

A. Framework for Business Analytics
B. Types of Analytics
MODULE 3. Data and Database Management

A. Data, Information, and Knowledge Management
B. Database
C. Database Management
D. Functions and Components of a Database System
MODULE 4. Applications of Business Analytics

A. Types of Analytics
B. Applications of Business Analytics in Finance
C. Applications of Business Analytics in Human Resource
D. Applications of Business Analytics Marketing
MODULE 5. Ethics Issues in Business Analytics

A. Ethical Issues
B. Ethical Implications of Business Analytics
MODULE 1: OVERVIEW OF BIG DATA AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Introduction
Everyone who runs a business would tell you that making decisions is the most important task in
the role. Business managers are always faced with questions on what to sell, how much to sell, to
whom, through what mode. A manager or entrepreneur has to know how much it would need to
make his or her product, how to cut down on expenses, how to market the product to customers,
and when the business can be expanded. Decisions do not just come about on their own. They
are a product of analysis based on the information available to the decision maker.
Business managers have always gathered information to base their decisions on. But with the
development of computers which can store and process large amounts of data, business analytics
began to offer more possibilities for decision makers. In this module, we will learn more about
the role of business analytics, big data, and business intelligence.
Learning Objectives
After completing this course, you should be able to:
1. Discuss the basic concepts on business intelligence, big data and
business analytics;
2. Trace the evolution of business analytics; and
3. Give examples of big data service providers.
1.1. Business Analytics and Business Intelligence

In the era of knowledge economy, getting the right information to decision makers at the right
time is critical to their business success, and one such attempt includes the growing use of
business analytics (Min, 2017). Business analytics is one of the most talked-about topics in the
field of business and information technology. And as expected, business analytics is becoming
one of the most sought-after courses in the academe.
Business Analytics (BA)

What goes through your mind when you hear the word Business Analytics? Below are some of
the definitions of business analytics.
1. Business Analytics is the art of assembling the data gathered through Business
Intelligence in such a way that it can be analyzed by people. It is comprised of the
tools with which people can disseminate the data that’s been collected, to produce
meaningful conclusions (Fulton, 2013).
2. Business Analytics is the use of data, information technology, statistical analysis,
quantitative methods, and mathematical or computer-based models to help managers
gain improved insight about business operations and make better, fact based
decisions (Evans, 2012).
3. Business analytics is comprised of solutions used to build analysis models and
simulations to create scenarios, understand realities and predict future states
including data mining, predictive analytics, applied analytics and statistics
(https://www.gartner.com/it-glossary/business-analytics) .
4. Business Analytics is the study of data through statistical and operations analysis,
the formation of predictive models, application of optimization techniques, and the
communication of these results to customers, business partners, and college
executives (Galleto, 2018).
5. Business analytics refers to a broad use of various quantitative techniques such as
statistics, data mining, optimization tools, and simulation supported by the query and
reporting mechanism to assist decision makers in making more informed decisions
within a closed-loop framework seeking continuous process improvement through
monitoring and learning (Min, 2017).
Business Intelligence (BI)

Now, let's look at what Business Intelligence (BI) is.
1. Business Intelligence as the process of collecting information from all
sources to make data-driven decisions in an organization (Fulton, 2013, Galleto,
2018).
2. Business Intelligence as the process of combining aspects of reporting,
monitoring and alerting, dashboards, scorecards, and ad hoc query data exploration
(Capistrano, 2018, Galleto, 2018).
1.2 Origin of Business Analytics

From ancient times, people have had this need to predict the future. They have used crude
methods like stones and sticks to project how much crops they were going to harvest or how
much they were going to yield. In this section, we shall trace the development of business
analytics from the ancient to the modern time
Internet age (21st century)
Prehistoric
Industrial (1800s)
Information age (mid-20th century)
1.3. Big Data and Business Analytics

We have already defined Business Analytics and Business Intelligence. This time, let us learn
another concept related to BA which is the Big Data. So, what is big data? SAS defines big data
as a term that describes the large volume of structured and unstructured data which can be
analyzed for insights needed for better decisions and strategic business moves. IBM, on the other
hand, refers to it as data sets whose size or type is beyond the ability of traditional relational
databases to capture, manage, and process the data with low-latency.
What is the difference? Business Analytics is said to focus on financial and operational analytics
of the business while big data involved machine automation to analyze data. The importance of
big data is not on how much data you have, but what you do with those data.
There are four aspects that define big data which are volume, variety, velocity and veracity.
1. Volume is about how huge the data sets are.
2. Variety includes how many pieces of data we gather together from social media data,
government data, financial data, banking data, all sorts of transactions all combined
together to make one or more profiles for your customers.
3. Velocity is the speed of data.
4. Veracity means that there is a lot of uncertainty, meaning, there is all of these different
data coming together, but the problem is we don’t know what to do with them.
1.4 Big Data Analytics Providers

A long list of big data service providers which are now available in the market can be found in
the Internet.

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Fundamentals of Business Analytics

At the end of the course, you should be able to:

MODULE 1. Overview of Big Data and Business Analytics

MODULE 2. Business Analytics Framework

MODULE 3. Data and Database Management

MODULE 4. Applications of Business Analytics

MODULE 5. Ethics Issues in Business Analytics

MODULE 1: OVERVIEW OF BIG DATA AND BUSINESS ANALYTICS

1.1. Business Analytics and Business Intelligence

Business Analytics (BA)

Business Intelligence (BI)

1.2 Origin of Business Analytics

1.3. Big Data and Business Analytics

1.4 Big Data Analytics Providers

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