Introduction to Data

Analytics
ISP610 BUSINESS DATA ANALYTICS
Prepared by: Ruhaila Maskat (PhD)

References:
EMC Data Scientist Associate
Bain Research
Ingram Micro Advisor

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At the end of this lesson you should know..
• The types of data.
• The value of data in the present and future.
• The importance of analytics in relation to the value of data.
• Four types of analytics.
• Analytics methods.
• The people involved in business data analytics.
• Your role in business data analytics.
• Necessary skill set to be in business data analytics.
• Questions to ask customers.

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Types of Data

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Types of Data
• 80-90% of the future data growth coming from non structured data types
(semi, quasi and unstructured).
• In reality, these four types of data sources can be mixed together.
• Example: you have a typical RDBMS which stores call logs for a support call
centre. Here, you may have structured data such as date/time stamps,
machine types, problem type, operating system, which were probably
entered by the support desk person from a pull-down menu GUI. Then you
will have unstructured or semi-structured data, such as free form call log
information, taken from an email ticket of the problem or an actual phone
call description of a technical problem and a solution. You could also have
voice logs or audio transcripts of the actual call that might be associated
with the structured data.

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Data Sources
• These data come from multiple sources, including:
• Medical Information, such as genomic sequencing and MRIs
• Increased use of broadband on the Web – including the 2 billion photos each
month that Facebook users currently upload as well as the innumerable
videos uploaded to YouTube and other multimedia sites.
• Video surveillance.
• Increased global use of mobile devices – the torrent of texting is not likely to
cease.
• Smart devices – sensor-based collection of information from smart electric
grids, smart buildings and many other public and industry infrastructure.
• Non-traditional IT devices – including the use of RFID readers, GPS navigation
systems, and seismic processing.

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The Value of Data
• Everyone and everything is leaving a digital footprint. The graph
shows the different forms of data being generated by new
applications and the scale and growth rate of the data. By analysing
these immense data, organisations can reap value.
• Industry case studies:
• Health care – Reducing cost of care
• Public services – Preventing pandemics
• Life sciences – Genomic mapping

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 Health care

Data

VALUE!
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 Public Services

Data

VALUE!

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 Life Sciences

Data

VALUE!
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Competitive Advantage
• To a profit-making organisation, value of data comes in the form of an
advantage over their competitors.
• According to Bain Research, top performing organisations tend to
make decisions based on what their data tells them. By having a good
basis to work on, these organisations tend to make decisions faster.

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Competitive Advantage: Airlines
• Call centres, for instance, can be made more effective and efficient by
capitalizing on what the company can know about the caller ahead of time.
And airlines have for years been able to route premium-status fliers to
higher-level customer service representatives by recognizing their caller
IDs. Now they can do even more: By making a quick correlation between
your ID, your booked flights and the status of those flights, they may be
able to determine why you’re calling, even before the second ring. If your
next flight has just been delayed, the representative could answer the
phone with a pretty good idea of why you’re calling. More in-depth analysis
could correlate your ID with your social media presence. If you’ve just
tweeted an irate message about being booted from a flight, the rep
answering your call may have already read it.

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What’s Driving Analytics in Organisations?

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Analytics
• More than just an OLTP MIS reporting.
• Rather than doing standard reporting on these areas, organizations can
apply advanced analytical techniques to optimize processes and derive
more value from these typical tasks.
• Analytics examine large amounts of data to uncover hidden patterns,
correlations and other insights.
• Analytics help organisations to make more accurate decisions when faced
with problems.
• Analytics helps organizations harness their data and use it to identify new
opportunities. That, in turn, leads to smarter business moves, more
efficient operations, higher profits and happier customers

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 WHO ARE THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IN
BUSINESS DATA ANALYTICS
AND
WHAT IS YOUR ROLE?

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 YOU

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SKILL SET

YOU

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• Quantitative skills, such as mathematics or statistics.
• Technical aptitude, such as software engineering, machine learning
and programming skills.
• Sceptical…. This may be a counterintuitive trait, although it is
important that data scientists can examine their work critically rather
than in a one-sided way.
• Curious & Creative. Must be passionate about data and finding
creative ways to solve problems and portray information.
• Communicative & Collaborative: It is not enough to have strong
quantitative skills or engineering skills. To make a project resonate,
you must be to articulate the business value in a clear way, and work
collaboratively with project sponsors and key stakeholders.

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Important Questions to Ask Your Customer
• What is the business problem you’re trying to solve?
• What is your desired outcome?
• Will the focus and scope of the problem change if the following
dimensions change:
• Time
• People
• Risk
• Resources
• Size and attributes of data

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Important Questions to Ask Your Customer
• What data sources do you have?
• What industry issues may impact the analysis?
• What timelines are you up against ?
• Who could provide insight into the project?
• Who has the final say on the project?

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 Group Discussion
Think of a business process
that interests you and answer
What value the given questions.
can be Who are the
gained? people
involved?
What questions
would you ask?

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