UNIT 1

Concept of Business analytics

 Business analytics (BA) refers to the skills, technologies, and
practices for continuous iterative exploration and
investigation of past business performance to gain insight
and drive business planning.
 Business analytics focuses on developing new insights and
understanding of business performance based on data and
statistical methods.

Difference between Business Intelligence and Business Analytics

Business Intelligence
The process comprising of technologies and strategies incorporated by
the enterprise industries to analyse the existing business data which
provides past (historical), current and predictive events of the business
operations.
Business Analytics
The process of technologies and strategies used to continue exploring
and to extract the insights and performance from the past business
information to drive successful future business planning.
Difference between Business Intelligence and Business Analytics
Business Intelligence :
 The term Business Intelligence (BI) alludes to advances,
applications, and hones for the collection, integration,
examination, and introduction of business data.

 The reason for Commerce Insights is to bolster superior trade

choice making. Basically, Trade Insights frameworks are data-
driven Decision Support Systems (DSS).

 Business Intelligence is now and then utilized traded with briefing

books, reports and inquiry instruments, and official data
frameworks.
  Business Intelligence frameworks give authentic, current, and
prescient sees of commercial operations, most frequently utilizing
information that has been assembled into an information
stockroom or an information shop and sometimes working from
operational information.
2. Business Analytics :
 Business analytics ordinarily refers to the abilities, advances,
hones for investigation of past commerce performance to pick up
understanding and drive trade arranging.
 It creates unused bits of knowledge and understanding of
business performance based on the information and measurable
strategies.

Difference between Business Intelligence and Business

Analytics :
Business Intelligence Business Analytics

Examines past and display to drive Analyses past information to drive

current business needs. current business

To alter trade operations and move

To run current trade operations. forward efficiency

For current commerce operations. For future commerce operations

Tools are Word handling, Google

Tools are SAP Trade Objects, docs, MS Visio, MS Office
QlikSense, TIBCO, PowerBI etc. Instruments etc.,

Applies to companies where future

Apply to all large-scale companies to development and efficiency as its
run current commerce operations. objective

Comes beneath Business Analytics. Contains Data warehouse, data

Business Intelligence Business Analytics

administration etc.

Key skills for business intelligence are Key skills for business Analytics Get
Data collection and Management, Data it your objectives, Good verbal
Stockroom concepts, Understanding of communication skills, The capacity to
diverse data sources and exchange run partner meetings, Be a great
applications, Domain and business listener, Hone your introduction
information. aptitudes.

Business Analytics process

The Business Analytics process involves asking questions, looking at

data, and manipulating it to find the required answers. Now, every
organization has different ways to execute this process as all of these
organizations work in different sectors and value different metrics more
than others based on their specific business model.

Since the approach to business is different for different organizations,

their solutions and their ways to reach the solutions are also different.
Nonetheless, all of the actions that they do can be classified and
generalized to understand their approach. The image given below
demonstrates the steps in the Business Analytics process of a firm:
6 Steps in the Business Analytics Process

Step 1: Identifying the Problem

The first step of the process is identifying the business problem. The
problem could be an actual crisis; it could be something related to
recognizing business needs or optimizing current processes. This is a
crucial stage in Business Analytics as it is important to clearly
understand what the expected outcome should be. When the desired
outcome is determined, it is further broken down into smaller goals.
Then, business stakeholders decide on the relevant data required to
solve the problem. Some important questions must be answered in this
stage, such as: What kind of data is available? Is there sufficient data?
And so on.

Step 2: Exploring Data

Once the problem statement is defined, the next step is to gather data (if
required) and, more importantly, cleanse the data—most organizations
would have plenty of data, but not all data points would be accurate or
useful. Organizations collect huge amounts of data through different
methods, but at times, junk data or empty data points would be present
in the dataset. These faulty pieces of data can hamper the analysis.
Hence, it is very important to clean the data that has to be analyzed.
TO do this, you must do computations for the missing data, remove
outliers, and find new variables as a combination of other variables. You
may also need to plot time series graphs as they generally indicate
patterns and outliers. It is very important to remove outliers as they can
have a heavy impact on the accuracy of the model that you create.
Moreover, cleaning the data helps you get a better sense of the dataset.

Step 3: Analysis

Once the data is ready, the next thing to do is analyze it. Now to execute
the same, there are various kinds of statistical methods (such as
hypothesis testing, correlation, etc.) involved to find out the insights that
you are looking for. You can use all of the methods for which you have
the data.

The prime way of analyzing is pivoting around the target variable, so you
need to take into account whatever factors that affect the target variable.
In addition to that, a lot of assumptions are also considered to find out
what the outcomes can be. Generally, at this step, the data is sliced, and
the comparisons are made. Through these methods, you are looking to
get actionable insights.

Step 4: Prediction and Optimization

Gone are the days when analytics was used to react. In today’s era,
Business Analytics is all about being proactive. In this step, you will use
prediction techniques, such as neural networks or decision trees, to
model the data. These prediction techniques will help you find out
hidden insights and relationships between variables, which will further
help you uncover patterns on the most important metrics. By principle, a
lot of models are used simultaneously, and the models with the most
accuracy are chosen. In this stage, a lot of conditions are also checked
as parameters, and answers to a lot of ‘what if…?’ questions are
provided.
Step 5: Making a Decision and Evaluating the Outcome

From the insights that you receive from your model built on target
variables, a viable plan of action will be established in this step to meet
the organization’s goals and expectations. The said plan of action is then
put to work, and the waiting period begins. You will have to wait to see
the actual outcomes of your predictions and find out how successful you
were in your endeavors. Once you get the outcomes, you will have to
measure and evaluate them.

Step 6: Optimizing and Updating

Post the implementation of the solution, the outcomes are measured as

mentioned above. If you find some methods through which the plan of
action can be optimized, then those can be implemented. If that is not
the case, then you can move on with registering the outcomes of the
entire process. This step is crucial for any analytics in the future because
you will have an ever-improving database. Through this database, you
can get closer and closer to maximum optimization. In this step, it is also
important to evaluate the ROI (return on investment). Take a look at the
diagram below of the life cycle of business analytics.
 Decision-Making

Provides a Better Customer Experience

Analytics plays a significant role in decision making as it helps discover
patterns from both employees as well as customers, allowing leaders to
understand and interpret their interactions. This allows the leaders to
work with the relevant departments to enhance the overall customer
experience.

 Improves Overall Performance

By analyzing data, businesses can delve deeper into business operations
and their efficiency. This not only helps maximize time and resource
allocation but also ensures better performance across the entire
company.

 Makes the Most Out of Consumer Patterns

Companies using customer behaviour insights are outperforming
competitors by 85% in sales growth. – Mckinsey
In an increasingly customer-centric era, organizations are being forced to
collect and analyze consumer information and data concerned with their
behaviour, interests, etc. To remain competitive, businesses must
leverage consumer insights to redefine their marketing and sales
strategy.

 Conducts Better Risk Assessment and Management

Another key area that business analytics lends a hand is risk assessment
and management. Whether it’s related to structured data or unstructured,
analytics help forecast potential issues and threats. So by using this data,
you can improve decision making in a crisis, eradicating the reactive style
of management completely.

5 ways how business analytics helps with decision

making.

1. Unfolds Customer Patterns

In today’s customer-oriented era, digital forums are overflowing with
insightful consumer information and data. But do you know how to make
the most out of it? Business analytics can unfold evolving tastes and
preferences, helping you reshape products, solutions, and buying
experiences. However, handling complex datasets is not everyone’s cup
of tea because it requires expert skills and knowledge. If you want to draft
a stellar business strategy, enroll yourself in the MBAN program to make
data-driven business decisions.

You will learn to leverage predictive analytical models to reduce customer

churn and evaluate marketing campaign’s effectiveness. Likewise, you
can find patterns within data sets and anticipate future trends to satisfy
consumer demand. Alongside helping you gain competitive intelligence on
market conditions, it optimizes the decision-making process.

2. Boosts Operational Efficiency

Meanwhile, organizations spend considerable sweat and energy analyzing
consumer data; it is imperative to improve productivity and business
performance. Luckily, business analytics play a crucial role in reducing
inefficiency. The reporting tools and digital dashboards can recognize data
correlations, letting managers segment prices and appraise performances.
As a result, you can make competent decisions regarding pricing models
and target audience.

Moreover, business analytics also help companies retain and develop

talent. Firstly, you can outline key performance indicators (KPIs) and
identify employees with high potential to succeed. After this, update data
points such as educational information, professional history, age,
demographics, etc. It will help you run collated data, recognizing the most
competent employee profiles.

3. Streamlines Accounting Processes

Honestly, financial decisions regarding budgeting and investments have a
direct impact on organizational performance. Therefore, you have to back-
up these decisions with statistical data and reasoning to ensure the
company doesn’t land into losses. Here, business analytics can help you
manage tangible assets while throwing light into a company’s financial
performance. It highlights areas that are consuming a significant chunk of
profits – for instance, electricity bills, tariffs, salaries, etc.

In case you are unfamiliar with accounting analytics, opt for a Master of
Accountancy – a MACC degree to learn the ropes. It will help you
apprehend market trends and cashflows since predictive models can
navigate into a highly fluctuating market. Hence, you can capitalize on
trends and get ahead in the competition. For instance, if oil markets are
about to crash, analytics will anticipate this and save you from losses in
the stock market.

4. Facilitates Better Risk Assessment

In today’s modern era, organizations encounter immense risk. While some
have to deal with bad debts, others try to combat market risk and
fluctuating interest rates. Luckily, business analytics can put companies in
a better position by predicting and quantifying risk. It pulls data across
different organizational levels and establishes standard protocols to
manage risk. For instance, if the markets are volatile, analytics will help
with portfolio diversification.

Instead of putting all eggs in one basket, it will disclose lucrative

investment opportunities to help you enjoy higher returns. Likewise, these
models also offer hedging opportunities, making you immune to market
fluxes. Above all, it incorporates risk considerations into their core
strategic decision-making process. By becoming more risk intelligent,
managers can deal with uncertainty and make decisions with accuracy.

5. Improves Supply Chain

Believe it or not, but supply chains are an incredible place to find
opportunities and business advantages. After all, they have a significant
contribution to the company’s cost structure. Hence, by putting business
analytics to use, you can identify potential inefficiencies in the
conventional supply chain structures. Similarly, you can also detect
anomalies and validate data to ensure timely deliveries.

Moreover, business analytics uses data and quantitative methods to

improve decision-making for all supply chain activities. You can integrate
enterprise resource planning to apply statistical methods to all the
existing data sources. In addition to enhancing the front-line operations,
the data-driven process can lead to better sales and inventory planning.

UNIT II
Customer Analytics:
o Customer Life time value – group Customers on high, medium, low value & take actions to increase
revenue
o Customer Segmentation – grouping of Customers based on demographics, or profitability, or life time
value
o Customer Churn/attrition – predict which Customers are likely to leave you & take suitable actions
o Customer Retention – identify most profitable Customers & then retain them
o Campaign management – selective campaigns based on segmentation or Customer’s likely behavior
o Cross-sell and Up-sell – increase the revenue proposing other products or high end products
Apart from these I am mentioning below some of the areas in business verticals, where Analytics is
applied for foresight.

Banking & Financial Services Analytics:

o Anti money laundering – identifying suspicious transactions to alert investigation officers
o Credit scoring – score the customer based on various parameters to arrive at certain number and if
that is above a threshold then approve the credit
o Credit Risk – predicting the risk involved due to non payment by borrowers in case of credit cards,
loans etc
o Fraud detection & Prevention – predicting suspicious transactions which are likely to be fraud in all the
transactions of card, wire transfers, online transactions etc
o Price Optimization – Debt collection agency can predict the optimal price for the portfolio & forecasting
the probable recovery from defaulters
Insurance Analytics:
o Claims Fraud detection – predicting the claims which are likely to be fraudulent
o Policy Lapse prediction – predict which are the policies that are going to lapse before completing the
tenure
o Underwriting rate optimization – predicting the best price for the insurance products based on
Customer profile
o Agent performance prediction – how agents are going add revenues to the organization, improve
customer satisfaction & retention
o Agent Lifetime Value – how best an agent is going to serve the organization throughout his/her tenure

Healthcare Analytics:
o Healthcare Claims Fraud detection – predicting the claims which are likely to be fraud
o Financial recovery – predicting the payments from healthcare insurance payer which are
overpayments to service providers
o Health plan analytics – allows organizations to compare & predict different benefits & risk options in
terms of coverage & costs
o Condition Management – predict which of the people are likely to develop diseases like blood
pressure, cholesterol etc
1. Use of business analytics in business in Health care

Business analytics is playing a huge role in helping companies taking informed decisions,
within different therapeutically areas, markets, and regions to reach up to decisions within the
stipulated timeframe, and get exposed to real-world insights from competitors, payers, regulators,
patients, etc.

 Role of data analytics in health care

Data analytics in health care is vital. It helps health care organizations to evaluate and
develop practitioners, detect anomalies in scans and predict outbreaks in illness, per the
Harvard Business School. Data analytics can also lower costs for health care organizations and boost
business intelligence.

 Roles & Responsibilities of Healthcare Business Analyst

 They gather data and acquire insight into many elements of a business, such as cutting
operating expenses and cost-effectively enhancing operational procedures, using their specialist
knowledge in data analysis, management, finance, and IT systems.

 The Four Stages of Healthcare Analytics

 Descriptive Analytics - helps understand historical patient data to compare and discover
trends across various aspects of healthcare.
Predictive Analytics - provides benefits mainly in clinical care, administrative tasks and
operational management.
 Prescriptive Analytics- to recommend patients' or providers' best course of action.
 Discovery Analytics- including developing new drugs, analysing new diseases or
disorders, and hypothesising alternative medical strategies for treatment.

Examples of predictive analytics in healthcare

 Preventing readmissions.
 Managing population health.
 Enhancing cybersecurity.
 Increasing patient engagement and outreach.
 Speeding up insurance claims submission.
 Predicting suicide attempts.
 Forecasting appointment no-shows.

Advanced analytics in healthcare

Advanced analytics helps keep providers fully informed of their performance relative to
contractual incentives. Real-time transparency allows providers struggling to meet quality metrics to
immediately make changes to eliminate performance gaps.

Retail Analytics:
o Discount or Price optimization – predict the optimal prices of discounts & normal prices of
merchandizes for today’s sensitive shopper
o Cross-Sell & Up-Sell – propose other products depending on various factors such as color, fashion,
choice, location, earning patter & Customer buying behavior etc.
o Forecasting – based on demands from Customers predict how much stock is required to avoid stock-
outs & excess inventory

Manufacturing Analytics:
o Predicting the parts failure – based on the history data predict which of the machinery parts are going
to fail & when
o Issue detection – predicting the issues before they occur so preventive maintenance can be done on
the parts
o Warranty Analytics – identify issues across production period to reduce warranty costs
o Forecasting – based on demands from Customers predict how much stock is required to avoid stock-
outs & excess inventory
o Inventory Optimization – to reduce inventory carrying costs & increase order fulfillment by predicting
optimal inventory to be stored across warehouses
Text Analytics:
o Discover & extract meaningful patterns and relationships from the text collection from social media
site such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, Blogs, Call center scripts
o Understand Customer sentiments – positive & negative. Used for Product & Customer service
improvements. Also for knowing what competition is good or bad at

Business Analytics in Education

Recently, universities have started using data analytics to gather and update student data profiles
using multiple data points. This includes financial information, academic performance, demographics,
and more.

2. Use of business analytics in business in Education

For schools, like universities, implementing a BI and analytics initiative enables
administrators to access constant reporting, meet reporting requirements.
Learning business analytics skills can also help professionals improve their ability to find correlations
between actions and results. Managers need to be able to analyze their decisions, compare them
against their forecasts and effects, and determine the next best step.
 Focus of academic analytics
The focus of academic analytics includes reporting, modeling, analysis and decision support
functions across university and campus services. Examples of these kinds of services include, but are
not limited to admission, advising, financing, academic counseling, enrolment, and administration.
 The Benefits of Business Analytics
Improve operational efficiency through their daily activities. Assist businesses to understand
their customers more precisely. Business uses data visualization to offer projections for future
outcomes. These insights help in decision making and planning for the future.

 Why is business analytics important for students?

Business analytics takes a data-driven approach to the world of business, using statistics
and data modeling to develop new business insights. This blend of technology and business
makes it an ideal study option for anyone with an interest in programming or working with big data.

 Why data analytics is important in education?

Data usage enables more effective evaluation of programs, resources, and

interventions to facilitate student, school, and district success. State and federal systems also
use data to create legislation that focuses on student achievement, progress, and meeting the specific
needs of the state and district.
3. Use of business analytics in Automobile

With data analytics, car companies can analyse their existing customers to identify
characteristics that predict a purchase. Big data can also help car companies use insights like past
vehicle purchases, online behaviour, and demographics to create personalised marketing
communications and share relevant content.
  Uses of advanced analytics in automotive industry
Using big data analytics, sales and marketing teams can understand the levers that have worked in
the past and what situation. Once done correctly, automakers can enhance customer engagement
and interaction with their brand through more targeted, controlled and informed sales and
marketing initiatives.
 Data analytics will impact the automobile industry
Big data analytics allows the automobile manufacturing industry to collect data from ERP systems
to combine information from multiple functional units of the business and the supply chain members.
For example, customer data on loyalty cards, consumer behaviour, and car location can be
tracked by monitoring social media information, asking for contact information, monitoring website
browsing activities, and using car sensors and GPS systems.

4. Use of business analytics in business in Telecommunications

The role of data analytics in telecom is to give each company a unified view of their data
across departmental lines. When data streams in from multiple data sources all through the
company, the company can take advantage of all its teams suggestions to come up with the best
solution for every challenge.

Telecom analytics can help service providers improve their profitability, enhance customer
satisfaction and boost efficiency, particularly by finding the issues and giving the best
recommended action before they impact the customers.

 Role of big data analytics in telecom industry

Big data for telecom operators is helpful in optimizing the quality of provided services by
integrating network optimization. For example, companies can record and gather issues raised by
users from a particular area and look for solutions to resolve these issues, i.e. by improving the
connectivity.

Use of analytics in telecom

 Network Optimization
 Predictive Churn Analysis
 Attracting New Subscriber
 Enhance Network Security
 Price Optimization
 Improve Customer Experience
 Targeted Marketing
  Real-Time Operational Analysis

AMC Networks (American entertainment company)

AMC Networks is using IBM analytical tools to uncover new insights into audience preferences and
viewing patterns, helping to make smarter scheduling and data-driven marketing decisions. The
benefit Analyzing big data in seconds unlocks never-before-seen capabilities, helping to win new
viewers and advertisers.

Resources of Business Analytics data

1. Capturing Key Requirements Preparation Checklist

A part of the Manage Different Types of Requirements scenario, with this resource business
analysis professionals can use this checklist to prepare and capture requirements.

2. Requirement Types Infograph

90% of users find infographics or custom content helpful, so it’s no wonder this document comes in at
the number 2 spot! Also a part of the Manage Different Types of Requirements scenario, with this
resource you can gain tips and user stories for the four types of requirements.

3. Meeting Agenda Minutes Template

Tom Lipscomb says, “templates encourage repeatability and efficiency. Reworking your
documents/spreadsheets for every project or proposal wastes valuable time and money. Instead,
focus on content and completing tasks”. Available in the Capture Key Requirements scenario, use this
template for your meetings to capture requirements.

4. Stakeholder List
Good management of stakeholders is important in business analysis. In IIBA’s BABOK
Applied Stakeholder Analysis section, you’ll find this helpful resource Stakeholder Map Template.

5. Communications Plan and Template

Let’s face it, good communication is essential as a business analysis professional. Also, from IIBA’s
BABOK Applied Stakeholder Analysis section, you will find this ready to use template.
IIBA Members can login to view these resources anytime. Not an IIBA Member? Join today for instant
access to these handy resources.

Caregories of data ECM framework petrsonalresouirces

Enterprise content management (ECM) solutions enable an organization to take full advantage of the
customer information and company knowledge embedded in its content. ECM solutions capture,
store, activate, analyze and automate business content, providing new value from data that was
previously unstructured and unavailable.

When effectively managed across the organization, content can be used to engage customers,
automate business processes and enhance collaboration.

The ECM Strategy Elements are as follows:

People Element

It provides a focus on the human element supporting the ECM technological implementation. This
Element encompasses end-users including, executives, knowledge workers, IT support staff,
technology partners, and other stakeholders.

Process Element

ECM provides focus on the organizational strategies, policies, protocols, and tactical procedures
required to support business and support activities, facilitated by content management. This focus
includes current (As-Is) and future (To-Be) business process workflows and associated problems
(pain points) and opportunities.

Content Element

ECM provides a focus on structured and unstructured content (and knowledge) handling and storage
within enterprise storage systems. ECM supported content includes e-mail, video, documents (both
physical and electronic) and other types of content. This Element also focuses on content metadata,
tagging structures, and rules necessary for personalized experiences and semantic searches.

Technology Element

Provides focus on the current and future enterprise technology environment and systems architecture
and digital infrastructures needed to support successful content lifecycle management, within an ECM
strategy.