CONTENTS

UNIT-I: INTRODUCTION
Analytics
1. Introduction to Data
.1 Meaning andScope ofData Analytics
1.1.1 Data and Data Types
1.1.2 Meaning of Data Analyticsand Data Science
1.1.3 Data and Data Analytics
l.14 Business Data Analyticsand Business Intelligence
1.1.5 Scope ofBusiness Data Analytics (BDA)
1.2 Classification of DataAnalytics
1.2.1 Descriptive Analytics
1.2.2 Diagnostic Analytics
1.2.3 Predictive Analytics
1.2.4 Prescriptive Analytics
1.2.5 Cognitive Analytics
13 Application of DataAnalytics in Business
1.4 Big Data and its Characteristics
1.4.1 Meaning ofBig Data
14.2 Big Data Characteristics
1.4.3 Benefits of Big Data
1.5 Application ofBig Data
1.6 Challenges in Business Data Analytics
Analytics
1.6.1 Overcoming the Challenges in Business Data
Exercises
SUMMARIZATION AND
UNIT-II: DATA PREPARATION,
VISUALIZATIONS USING SPREADSHEET

2. Data Analytics using Spreadsheet

2.1 Basics of Spreadsheet
2.2.1 Structure of Spreadsheet
2.2.2 Using MS Excel for Spreadsheet
L.2 Working through Shortcuts in Spreadsheet
2.2.1 Keyboard Shortcuts in MS Excel
 2.2.2 Mouse Tips and Tricks 13
Worksheet 14
2.3 Working with Workbook and 15
2.3.1 Performing Simple Computations 15
2.3.2 Functions and Formula
Spreadsheet 16
2.3.3 Aggregation using
Summing and Reporting functions in spreadsheet 22.
2.3.4 29
Spreadsheet
2.4 Statistical Analysis Using 29
2.4.1 Descriptive Statistics
Nornality ofa Distribution 36
2.4.2 Testing the 38
2.4.3 Moving Averages
Corelation Matrix 42
2.4.4 Covariance and
Regression Model 48
24.5 Estimates of Linear
Linear Regression Results 57
2.4.6 Interpretation of Multiple Multicollinearity 63
and
2.4.7 Tests for Heteroscedasticity 70
Excrcises
3.1 -3.70
3. Data Preparation and Spreadsheet
3.1 Organizing Data with Sprcadsheet 2
3.1.J Basics of Data Organization 2
3.1.2 Guidelines for Data Organization 4
32 Data Preparation 4
3.2.1 Stcps Involved in Data Preparation
3.2.2 Sort and Filter
25
3.2.3 Conditional Fomatting
32
3.2.4 Detecting MissingValue from Data 36
3.2.5 Handling Missing DataValues 37
3.2.6 Tcxt to Column
37
3.3 Data Cleansing Techniques
38
3.3.1 Meaning of Data Cleaning andits Benefits 39
3.3.2 Removing Duplicate Data in Excel Workshcet 56
3.3.3 Data Validation
60
3.3.4 Identifying Outliers in the Data
67
Exercises
4.1 - 4.71
Data Summarization and Analytics in Spreadsheet
2
4.1 Data Surmmarization
2
4.1.1 Meaning of DataSummarization
3
4.1.2 Importance ofData Summarization
 4,2 Data Analytics and Spreadsheet
4.2.1 Database Concepts
4.2.2 Power Query
4.2.3 Power Pivot
4.2.4 Power BI(Formerly Power View)
4.2.5 Power Maps
4.2.6 Interactive Dashboards
4.2.7 Build and Display Notes
4.3 Consolidation of Data for Analysis
4.3.1 Consolidation of Data from Multiple Spreadsheets
4.3.2 Consolidation ofData from Multiple Workbooks
44 Standardized Layouts
4.4.1 Table-based Layouts in Spreadsheets
4.4.2 Spreadsheet-based ILayouts
Exercises

5. Data Visualization and Spreadsheet 5.1-5.

S.1 Introduction to Data Visualization
5.1.1 Meaning, Purpose and Elements of Data Visualization
5.1.2 Scope of DataVisualization
5.1.3 Benefits of Data Visualization
S.1.4 Techniques ofData Visualization
5.2 Organizing Charts and Graphs
5.2.1 Scatter Plots
5.2.2 Line Charts
5.2.3 Histogram
5.3 Pivot Tables and Charts
5.3.1 Pareto Chart
5.3.2 Boxplots
5.3.3 Tree Map 3
5.3.4 Sunburst Charts 4
Exercises 4

UNIT-III: GETTING STARTEDWITHR

6.1 -6.90
6. Getting Started with R
2
6.1 Introduction toR
6
6.1.1 Installation of RPackages
7
6.1.2 Advantages of usingRfor Data Analytics
6.2 Programming in RLanguage 8. D
Constants in R
6.2.1 Variables and 13
Data Structure in R
6.2.2 Data Types and 34
Structures in R
6.2.3 Control 41
6.2.4 Commands and Syntax 43
6.3 Packages and Libraries 44
Use Functions inR
6.3.1 Some Ready to 48
6.3.2 User-defined Functions
S1
6.4 Data Processing in R 51
6.4.1 Importing Data 53
6.4.2 Inspecting Data 54
ofMissing Values
6.4.3 Addressing the Problem S7
6.4.4 Data Transformation
60
and Summarization
6.4.5 Data Aggregation 70
6.4.6 Data Reshaping
79
6.4.7 Merging and Joining Data 81
6.4.8 Data Export 87
Exercises 9
USING R
UNIT-IV: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS
7.1 -7.42
and R
7. Measures of Central Tendency 1
7.1 Measures of CentralTendency 2
7.1.] Introduction
7.1.2 Mathematical Averages 10
7.1.3 Positional Averages
15
7.14 Moving Averages 18
7.2 Measures of Dispersion
18
7.2.1 Distance Measures
21
7.2.2 Average Deviation Mcasures
28
7.2.4 Relationship among the Measures of Dispersion
29
7.2.5 Skewness and Kurtosis
32
7.3 Measures of Covariances
32
7.3.1 Bivariate Analysis of Relationship between Variables
33
7.3.2 Covariations
34
7.3.3 Coefficient of Correlationand Determination
39
Exercises
ata Visualization Using R 8.1 - 8.68
.1 Meaning and Scope ofData Visualization
8.1.1 Meaning
8.1.2 Scope and Applications 2
8.1.3 Purpose and Importance
8.1.4 Visualization Tools 8
8.2 Data Visualization in RUsing Charts 14
8.2.1 Histograms 14
8.2.2 Bar Charts and Box plots 20
8.2.3 Line Graphs 28
8.2.4 Scatter Plots 32
8.3 Case Studies Applying Visualization in R 40
8.3.1 AnalysingEmployees Performance 40
8.3.2 Analysing Sales Data 46
8.3.3 Analysing Financial Performance 53
Exercises 65
UNIT-V:PREDICTIVE AND TEXTUAL ANALYTICS
Predictive Analytics using R 9.1 -9.46
9.1 Meaning and Scope of Predictive Analytics
9.1.1 Meaning of Predictive Analytics 2
9.1.2 Scope of PredictiveAnalytics 3
9.1.3 Predictive Tools and
Techniques
9.14 Role of Rin Predictive Analytics 9
9.2 Simple Linear Regression Models 12
9.2.1 Simple Linear Regression Estimates 12
9.2.2 Confidence & Prediction intervals
16
9.3 Multiple Linear Regression Models 18
9.3.1 Multiple Regression Statistics 18
9.3.2 Interpretation of Multiple Regression Coefficients 23
9.4 Important Issues in Ordinary Least Square (OLS)
9.4.1
Regression 25
Heteroscedasticity 25
9.4.2 Multicollinearity 28
9.5 Case Study on Marketing Research and Strategy
37
Exercises 43
10. Textual Analytics Using R 10.1 - 10.64
10.1 Introduction to TextualAnalysis Using R 2
10.1.1 Basics of TextualData Analysis 2
 6
of Textual
Analysis
10.1.2 Significance
of Textual Analysis
10.1.3 Applications Textual Analysis
10.1.4 Challenges in 9
AnalysingTextual Data Analysis
10.2 Using R for Methods and Techniques for Textual
Categories of Analysis
10.2.1 Broad for using R for Textual 13
Environment
10.2.2 Setting up 14
Pre-processing and Text Clean up using R
10.2.3 18
10.2.4 Text Mining
27
10.2.5 Sentiment Analysis 33
10.2.6 Text Categorization 40
10.3 Generating aTF-IDF Matrix 45
10.4 Data Clustering 52
10.5 Visualization and Reporting 61
Exercises
A.1-A.4
Appendix-A
A5-A.15
Appendix-B
 UNIT-I INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER

1.1
Introduction to Data Analytics
Meaning and Scope of Data Analytics
1.1.1 Data and Data Types
1.1.2 Meaning of Data Scicnce and Analytics
1.1.3 Data and Data Analytics
1.1.4 Data Analytics Vs. Data Analysis
1.1.5 Scope of Data Analytics
1.2 Classification of Analytics
1.2.1 Descriptive Analytics
1.2.2 Diagnostic Analytics
1.2.3 Predictive Analytics
1.2.4 Prescriptive Analytics
1.2.5 Cognitive Analytics
1.3 Applicationof analytics in business
1.4 Big Data and its characteristics
1.5 Applications of Big data
1.6 Challenges in data analytics
Exercises
Answers

Business data analytics is a powerful set of tools that is

the business operations are carried out. In essence, it is themeant to transform the manner by which
use of
to gather the valuable and
decision useful insights from business processes,
data by
tools, and techniques
The companies, by analysing past and
present appropriate processing.
information,
opportunities to optimize business operations, boost sales, and make may identify trends, patterns, and
it is oriented towards strategic decisions. Primarily,
drives the real results. transformation of raw data into actionable
information (or intelligence) that
The business enterprises, in today's data-driven world, generate massive amounts of
Business data analytics is an enabler to make sense of this information.
business data by uncovering hidden
 BUSINESS ANALYTICs

Further, Business data analytics plays

1.2 nissed out: customers, optimize their
otherwise be
wioperating
would understand their
may be usedto resolve a
that
patterns and trends businessenterprises to analytics de rång
crucialrole in
helping decision-making. Data analytics to:
strategic enterprise use data
might
processes, and drive example., a business
issues. For
ofbusiness customers better
Understand their
campaigns
Inprove their marketing
services
Develop new products and
Reduce costs
Increase efficiency
enterprises may gain a competitive edge, increase
efficiency
analytics, business
By leveraging data
andenhance their overall performance. business enterprises may make
With the insights provided by business data analytics,
succeed. In
data-backed
brief, Business data analytics is a
bod
decisions that are expected and likely to jnsick.
and techniques to extract valuable
knowledge that focuses on using data analysis tools
from business data.
ANALYTICS
1.1 MEANING AND SCOPE OF DATA

1.1.1 Data and Data Types

Data refers to the raw and unprocessed pieces of information, such as basic facts, numbers, svmbols
audio and visual observations, that are yet to be organised and analysed. It lacks context from
which anything meaningful could be derived. It is distinct from information, which may ba
understoodas data that has been structured, organised, and presented in a meaningful manner.
Data types refer to the
collection of attributes applicable to a particular piece of data that enables a
computer programme to correctly identify, understand and interpret its value. Data
classified into the types mav be
following categories:
1. Primitive data types: These refer to basic
values. Some of the common forms of data storage elements or units that represent simple
primitive data types include:
(a) Numeric: stores numbers,
(b) Integer: stores whole including decimals (e.g. 28, -4.86, 10.001)
21,-15, 0). numbers; the values may be positive,
negative, or even zero (e.g
(c) Character: stores a
(d) Boolean: stores
single character suchas aletters,
2. logical values (True or False). symbols or numbers (e.g. x. #.+)
Non-pridatamitsets.
large ive data types: These represent
(a)
Some of thecommon forms of complex data structures that organise and Stol.
Array: stores a of data items ofnon-primitive data types include:
modi fied collection
(b) String: using an index (e.g. "[1, 2,3]",
the same data
stores an ordered type, that may be retrieved and
(c) numeri cal and evencolblank "[A,B.CT).
lection (or sequence) of
List: storesvalues
an spaces (e.g. characters such as leters, symbols.
Phone No.]") ordered group data items of "Alpha@ 123 ).
of
different data types (e.g. "[Name, Address.
INTRODUCTIONTO DATA ANALYTICs 1.3

Dietionary (or Map): an associative data structure that stores collections of key-yalue
pairs; cach key is linked to a single value (e.g. "get(firstname) Anupreet; get(lastname)
Kaur').
Data may be categorised, analyscd and interpreted depending upon its level of measurement, that
deteumiesthe nature of mathematical operations that can be performed on the data. The main
measurement include:
Jvels of data
(a) Nominal: The simplest form of categorical data that does not ascribe any order or ranking to
the data items. Accordingly, nominal data is essentially only a label to accord a distinctive
meaning to the data item without assigning any quantitative value to it. For example, month
January. February, December); gender (male, female, others); movie genre (action, comedy,
drama)etc.
k Ordinal: The next level of categorical data that accords ranks or order to the data items.
However, the intervals between successive ranks may not be of the same magnitude. For
Pxample. in a customer satisfaction survey, the ratings assigned may be 'highly satisfied',
*somewhat satisfied', 'neutral', 'somewhat dissatisfied and 'highly dissatisfied'. While it is
obvious that a rating of 'highly satisfied' ranks higher than other ratings, it is difficult to
auantify the difference in satisfaction levels between successive ratings.
e Scale: The level of categorical data that primarily contains numerical values that accord
meaningful ranks or order to the data items. To state differently, the intervals between successive
values are of equal magnitude. Scala data, therefore, is amenable to statistical analyses and
meaningful interpretations for decision-making. Scala data may be further classified into ratio
data and interval data. Ratio data has atrue zero indicating the absence of avalue. For example,
a zero value assigned to age, weight, speed represents complete absence of age, weight and
speed respectively. Interval data, on the other hand, does not have a true zero indicative of a
complete absence of avalue; the zero point is arbitrary in nature. For example, atemperature
of zero degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit does not signify the absence of heat. Similarly, the year
absence
zero is an arbitrary starting point to measure passage of time and does not indicate the
of time.
affects the
Athorough understanding of data types and levels of measurement is essential since it
way in which data is collected, organised, analysed and interpreted to derive meaningful conclusions
and formulate reliable solutions to real-time problems.

1.1.2 Meaning of DataAnalytics and Data Science

of
Data analytics is the process of data collection, organization, and storage with the purpose
informed decision
analyzing, interpreting,and inferring meaningful insights from such data to enable cleaning and
making and drive alternative strategies. Besides this, Data analytics involves data
so as to allow
data transformation into a format that can be easily understood and analyzed
today's data-driven
organizations to make data-driven decisions and gain a competitive edge in organizations to
helps business
wond. The data analytics, by using various tools and techniques, leading to an improvement
icover patterns, trends, and correlationswithin their data sets, thereby
Whether it is identifying
operational efficiency, better customer insights, and strategic planning.
outcomes, data analytics plays a crucial role
i s , optimiz1ng processes,or predicting future Associated with Data Analytics
oCking the value of data and driving organizational success.
1S Big Data analytics and Data Science.
1.4
BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Data science is an interdisciplinary field that includes such disciplines as statistics. IN
and comnputer programming. It derives knowledge from data and applies it for predictive or
other purposes by using expertise about underlying processes, systems, and algorithms. For
mathematsuchics, ex
the application of t-values and p-values from statistics in identifying significant model
in aregression model is an outcome of data science.
example,
parameters bu
un
im
Big data analytics is the analysis of huge volumes of data that runs into trillions of records to sol,.
difficult-to-crack problems. Obviously, such analysis requires a huge amount of storage and CJ
computing capability. An enormous amount of memory is required to store such data. Further
number of super-fast ; processors are required to crunch the data and extract its essence. An 1
example
is the analysis of geospatial data (that is data related to the relative position of objects on the carth' A
surface) which is captured by satellite to identify weather patterns and make related predictions ob
Simply stated, data analytics is the process ofcollecting, organizing, examining, cleaning, and transfomin. am
raw data into infomation that can be used to make informed decisions. It is a powerful tool that mavh is
used in almost any organization and industry, from healthcare to finance to marketing and so on in the Bu
business world. The various elements of data analytics process have becn explained below: of
(a) Data Collection: This involves collecting and gathering data from various sources, such as to
professional databases, surveys, and social media platforms. th
(b) Data Cleaning: It refers to the process of identifying and rectitying errors, discrepancies or bu
inconsistencies within the dataset that has been collected for analytical purposes. This may Bu
involve removing duplicate data items, removing data redundancies, formatting data into a ot
consistent manner, and filling in missing values by using interpolation or extrapolation methods. the
The organizations, by cleaning the data, can ensure that their analysis and an
decision-making
processes are based on accurate and reliable information. Data cleansing is an essential step in
the data preparation process and helps to enhance the overall effectiveness of data
and business intelligence initiatives. It helps to improve the quality of data, analytics G
ensure that the data is consistent and I iable for use in various reduce errors, and
applications. pa
(c) Data Transformation: After cleaning the data, it may be ha
suitable for further analysis. This transformation may involve transformed into a format that is (a
new variables and also summarizing data for better combining datasets, creating
(d) Data Analysis: This is at the core of the data
understanding and analysis.
analytics process, wherein the data is analysed to
identify patterns, trends, and relationships. There are a variety of ways for different data analysis
techniques 'such as statistical analysis, machine learning, and data visualization. Machine (b
learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that provides
imitate intelligent human behavior. machines with the capability to
(e) Information Communication: Once the data has been analysed, the results in the fom of
infornation need to be communicated to stakeholders
take the form of creating reports, in aclear and concise manner.
charts, and user-oriented This may
dashboards.
1.1.3 Data and Data
Analytics (c
Data refers to raw facts, figures, and
draw inferences about some statistics that have been collected and stored for
events, which are represented by such analys1s t0
forms, such as text, numbers, images, or data. It may appear in various
videos, and is typically stored in
repositories. Data analytics, on the other hand, is the process of databases or daa (d
collecting, organizing. stonn
 INTRODUCTIONTO DATA ANALYTICS
1.5
cics. examining, interpreting, and deriving insights out of data to make informed decisions and drive
uch business strategies. Data analytics involves using various tools and techniques to analyze data,
ple, uncoverpatterns and trends, and extract valuable information that can be used to optimize processes,
ers
improve decision-making, and gain a competitive advantage. In essence, data analytics transforms
lve raW data into actionable insights that can help organizations achieve their goals and objectives.
and Clearly,the data analytics is completely dependent on the availability of data.
I, a
nL4 Business Data Analytics and Business Intelligence
h's As alreadyexplained, Data Analytics refers to the analysis of data, whether big or small, with the
S. objective of deve loping an understanding about the patterns, trends and relationships within and
mong datasets to explore and expose the knowledge hidden therein. An example of data analytics
ing the analysis of data related to various classes of people using guest houses and hotels.
ybe Pasiness Data analytics is the
the application of data analytics to business environment with the purpose
ofexploring and understanding the business opportunities. An example is offering specific discounts
to diferent classes of people using guest houses and hotels on the basis of the volume of business
they generate or have the capacity to generate. The ultimate goal is to glean practical and actionable
husiness insights to boost efficiency, productivity, and revenue of a business enterprise.
Or
Business analytics and business intelligence though intimately related are yet different from each
lay other. Business intelligence (BI), which falls within the broader discipline of business analytics, is
)a
the process of gathering the needed data from all sources, and preparing it for use by business data
ds. analysts. In brief, BI reveals what has happened whereas business analytics divulges why it has
ng
In
happened and when it may occur again. In this context, the main task of a Business Analyst is to
jdentify the weak areas of the corporate enterprise.
cs
nd
Growth Drivers of Business Data Analytics: With the increasing number of relevant computer
packages and applications, Business Data Analytics has tended to register tremendous growth, that
has been duly driven by several key factors:
is
(a) The Ever-Rising Volume and Variety of Transactions: The modern-day business enterprises
ng are generating more transactions than ever before, from customers, suppliers and other service
providers. Each transaction creates data that needs to be processed for the potential insights.
to As a result, such data explosion requires sophisticated analytics tools to extract and explore
value-based and decision-oriented information.
e
(b) The growing Importance of Customer Experience: The business enterprises are now a
days focused on ensuring a positive customer experience. This is better inferred through data
analytics, which is essential for understanding customer needs and preferences. The business
f enterprises, by analysing customer data, can personalize their marketing campaigns, improve
their products and services, and also provide better customer support, which is the essential
for creating new customer and retaining the existing ones.
(C) The Need for Data-driven Decision Making: In today's competitive
environment, the business
enterprises cannot afford to rely on instinct, intuition or gut feling. Ascientific and fact-based
toundation for better decision-making about everything from product development and
harketing to pricing and stafing is facilitated by Business Data Analytics.
) Availability of Cloud: The cloud, with reliable high speed internet
service, has made it casier
and more affordable for business enterprises of all sizes to store, access, and
analyse data
 BUSINESS ANALYTIC
1.6
Analytics platforms have INT
tendedtoand climinate the needforAsexpensive
fromanywhere.
Cloud-Based eImerged
a result, hardware and software infrastructure,thereby making and
anytime easily and
started with data analytics quickly.
business enterprises to get
it possible for
(A) Tools and Machine Learning (ML): Al and ML
increasingly Artificial Intelligence
transforming the arena ofdata analytics byintroducing automateddtasks, identifyingare
(e) Growth of
predictionsthat would be otherwise
impossible for
more reliable
patterns, and making technologies are enabling business enterprises to get deeper humans
to achieve alone. These
unlock new levels of value
additions to their decision insight
process.
from their data and thereby pushing up the growth of
businos
some of reasons that are
The above drivers are just a generate higher volume of data and becomo
continue to
analytics. As business enterprises analytics solutions is expected.
demand for data
dependent on data-driven decision making, the
future.
grow continuously in the near
have immensely contributed to the orou.a1
Besides this, several open-source software packages
use programming languae!
business data analytics. Python, for example, is an open source, free to
environment has various dat.I
has a rich library support for data analysis. Similarly, R programming 2.
sets, documentation on its packages, and ready-made algorithms for performing data analytics
1.1.5 Scope of Business Data Analytics (BDA)
The scope of Business Analytics is expanding continuously, with changing business paradigm, and
its relevance with respect to its core functionalities and also across allverticals cannot be undermined
Business Data Analytics is not just about processing numerical data. It is also about interpreting
that data and understanding how it can be used to benefit the business enterprises. Corporates are
expected to engage qualified professionals, who can analyze. the data and also interpret and apply
the insights to suggest business strategies, failing which the data and its analytics is of little value.
The Real-time applications of Business Data Analytics are also becoming
among business enterprises.
increasingly popular
The scope of Business Data Analytics has been explained below
areas as well as business functions:
with respect to core functional
1.
Manufacturing: Business data analytics is a powerful tool that can be used to
efficiency, quality, and profitability in improve
to optimize operations by analyzing manufacturing. Manufacturers leverage
data to improve production, forecast business analytics
supply chains, and enhance quality control. demand, manage
predict andprevent equipment failures, andThey seek to reduce costs by optimizing processes.
competitive advantage by making data-driveninmprove overall efficiency. As a result, they gain
decisions for
of business analytics in the better business outcomes. Some
of the most common
described below: applications
manufacturing sector have been
(a Predictive Maintenance:
can predict the time of likelyManufacturers,
by analyzing data from sensors on
failure in equipments. As a
maintenance in advance to prevent downtime and machines.
sequel to this, they canschedu
) Supply Chain improve overall equipment
Optimization:
identifying bottlenecks to improve BDA can be used to optimize the effectiveneS
improve delivery times. inventory management and supply chan b
thereby reduce COsts and
 ’DMAIl-Dejne, Meone, Analye,tmpere
INTRODUCTIONTO DATA ANALYTICS Cona.
1.7

Ouality Control: BDA can be used to improve quality control by identifying trends in e nane
product defects. The manufacBurers, by comparing the actual product data with its Aea wase
specifications,can take corrective action before defects become amajor problem.
(d) Demand Forecasting: The predictive analytics of BDA can be used to forecast demand
for products. As a result, manufacturers can plan their production volumes accordingly
to avoid stockouts or overproduction.
(e) Process Improvement: BDA can be used to identify areas where manufacturing processes
can be improved by identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies, measuring progress,
improved decision makirg and continuous performance monitoring. Some process
i provement methodologies duly supported by BDA are Six Sigma, which is a data
driven methodology that focuses on eliminating defects in processes; Lean Six Sigma is
a combination of lean manufacturing principles and Six Sigma methodology that focuses
on reducing waste and improving efficiency; and Kaizen, which is a Japenese philosophy
that focuses on continuous improvement. In essence, this can help to reduce costs and
improve product quality.
2 Retail Sector: BDA plays a critical role in the retail sector, byempowering retailers with
valuable insights to make informed decisions and optimize operations by leveraging data.
Some of the main applications of BDA in retail have been explained below:
(a) Customer Segmentation and Targeting: BDA helps the retailers to analyze customer
purchase history, demographics, and loyalty program data, so as to segment their customer
base into distinct groupswith similar characteristics and buying behaviours. This enables
them to target marketing campaigns more effectively, personalize product recommendations,.
and develop targeted promotions that resonate with specific customer segments.
(b) Inventory Management: BDA helps retailers to optimize inventory levels by analyzing
sáles trends, seasonal fluctuations, and supplier lead times. As a result, they can prevent
stockouts, rpduce storage costs, and ensure that the right products are available at the
right time, Predictiveanalytics can be used to forecast future demand and adjust inventory
levels accordingly.
(c) Pricing Strategy: Retailers may leverage BDA to decide optimal prices for their products.
After considering such factors as competitor pricing, product cost, customer demand,
and price elasticity. the retailers can identify the price point that maximizes their
profitability.
(d) Store Operations: BDA can be used to analyze data from point-of-sale systems, foot
fall on counters, and video surveillanceto gain insights into store layout, staffinglevels,
and checkout efficiency. This information may be used to improve store layout, optimize
staffing schedules, and reduce wait times.
(e) Fraud Detection:Retailers may use BDA to detect fraudulent transactions by analyzing
purchase patterns and identifying inconsistenciesand anomalies. Járgepurchases fiequent
returns from the same customer, yasual purchase locations compared to billing address,
or a sudden spike in transactions from a new account can all be red flags as likely
transaction frauds. Unexplained discrepancies between inventory records and actual stock
counts can indicate internaltheft of inventory. Similarly, Analysis of Point-of-sale (POS)
from cash registers can revealunusual activity patterns:such as returnsprocessed outside
Kauen
 1.8
BUSINESS ANALYTIC:
of usualreturn windows or by unauthorized personnel. This may help to prevent finanei
losses and protcct customers from identity theft.
() Supply Chain Management: BDAcan be used to improve the efficiency of tthe
chain by tracking inventory levels throughout the supply chain, thereby suppl
identifyin
bottlenccks, and optimizing transportation routes.
(g) Site Selection: Whilc considering opening a new store, retailers can use BDA
to identif
the best locations, The retailers, by analyzing demographic data, traffic patterns, and
3.
presence of competitor can choose locations that are most likely to be successful.
Communication Sector: Business data analytics has become a powerful tool for improving
COmmunication in several ways. Some of the key applications are explained below:
(a) Understanding Customer Behaviour and
Preferences: Business
analyzing data from various communication channels (email, social media,enterprises,
website
by
chat)
can casily understand the way customers prefer to be
content that cchoes well with them. This paves the way for
contacted and also the kind of
strategies that are more likely to get a positive response from targeted communication
(b) Optimizing Communication customers.
Channels: BDA provides a good help in assessing the
effectivencss of different communication channels: email marketing, secial media
campaigns, or çustomer service interactions etc. Business
channels that generate the best results and enterprises can identify the
cfforts. accordingly optinize their communication
(c) Improving Messaging and its Content: The analysis of
communication tends to reveal the kind of content that performscustomer
can accordingly use this
engagement with
well. Business enterprises
information to tailor
communication channels. As a result, it leads totheir
more
messaging for different audiences and
effective communication that drives
conversionsor brand loyalty.
(d) Identifying Communication
which communication Gaps: BDA can be used to identify
and highlight areas in
in customer service, formight be missing or at a rudimentary stage. A slow
may be example, may be revealed
or
low open rates for emailresponse time
identified. Business enterprises can use this campaigns
communicationgaps to bring about an information to identify and
address
(e) Measuring ROIof improvement in overall communicationefficiency.
track key metrics like Communication
Efforts: Business enterprises, using BDA can
by
can help to measure thewebsite traffic, conversion rates, and
data-driven approach allowsreturn on investment (RO)of customer satisfaction. This
their
business enterprises to
strategics that are most efective understand communication
the best
efforts. This
4.
Financial Sectors: BDA plays a criticalin role
achieving their goals. communication
banking and insurance. in main sectors of
the finance
The financial world
is a industry, such as
highlyvolatile
help the
organizations to mancuver their market place, and
BDA is used to extract
turn to business analysts to optimize way through tricky terrains. Financial insights that
portfolio
include: management. SOme of the key
budgeting, banking, financial planning, enterprises
sector
functionalities forecasting, and
provided BDA in the finance sector
by
INTRODUCTIONTO DATA ANALYTICS
1.9

(a) Risk Management: BDA helps to assess the creditworthiness of loan

allowing banking and other financial institutions to make informed lending applicants, thereby
minimize bad debts. This is achieved by analyzing nancial history, income, and
decisions to
data point, to develop credit scoring models to predict the likelihood of loans turningother
bad
in the future. Itcan also be used to identify fraudulent
transactions and suspiciousactivities
t0 prevent financial losses.
ih) Investment Decisions: Financial analysts, by using BDA, leverage historical
and trends, to make better informed investment suggestions to their clients.
market
Data
analvtics tools are used to identify undervalued stocks and accordingly optimize
porttolios. investiment
ic) Customer Segmentation: Banking and other financial institutions leverage BDA to
segment their customers on the basis of demographics, financial behaviour, and risk
profiles. This helps them to offer tailor-made financial products and services to specific
customer segments and thereby improve the cffectiveness of marketing strategies.
d) Operational Efficiency: BDA is used to analyze operational data for identifying areas
ofimprovement to streamline processes within a financial enterprise. This tends o bring
about cost savings and thereby increased efficiency.
(e) Regulatory Compliance: Banking and other financial institutions are subjected to a
complex set of regulations. BDA can help them ensure compliance with these regulations
by automating reporting processes and enabling them to submit their period statements
to regulatory bodies on time and identifying potential breaches in such reporting activities.
5. Credit Card Business Organizations: Now a days, credit and debit cards are part of consumer
spending habits. and they are an ideal way of gathering information about apurchaser's spending
pattems. financial situation, behavior trends. demographics, and lifestyle preferences. Credit
card business organizations generate and store a massive volume of data on customer
transactions. demographics, and spending habits. These organizations, by leveraging BDA
applications. tun this data into actionable insights to improve their bottom line and customer
satisfaction. Someof the key applications of business data analytics in credit card business are
explained below:
(a) Detection and Prevention of Frauds: BDA are crucial for identifying such fraudulent
activities as unauthorized purchases, reckless spending etc. The credit card business
organizations, by analyzing spend1ng patterns and comparing them to customer profiles,
can îlag suspicious transactions in real-time and thereby prevent financial losses by
blocking suspicious transactions.
(b) Customer Segmentation and Targeting: BDA helps to categorize customers on the
hasis of demographics, spending habits, and creditworthiness. This paves the way tor
targeted marketing campaigns with personalized credit card offerings,rew ards programs.
and interest rates.
(c) Creditworthiness Assessment and Risk Management: Credit card business
organizations use BDA to assess the creditworthincss of new applicanis and also that of
existing customers from time to time. This involves analvzing such factors as uncome.
Aeht-to-income ratio, and also the predit history to determ1ne credit lmits and interest
 1.10
BUSINESS ANALYTICS
rates effectively. Acustomer in default with respect to timely repayments loses
point and creditworthiness. the credit
(d) Customer Relationship Management (CRM): BDA helps to understand
behaviour and preferences and accordingly allows for personalized customer
Jproved customer service experiences, and increased customer retention rates. cation.
communi
(e) Product Innovation and I Development: The analysis of customer spending
using BDA, can reveal trends and unfulfilled needs. This valuable information can by patterns,
used to develop new credit card products with features that benefit and cater to
customer segments. specific
() Regulatory Compliance: The credit card business
by various regulatory bodies. BDA helps them to ensure Organizations are heavily regulated
by tracking and reporting the transactions and customer compliance with various regulations
6. data securely on time.
Healthcare Sector: Healthcare organizations utilize BDA to improve
optimize resource allocation, and enhance operational patient outcomes,
analyzing patient data, treatment outcomes, and operational efficiency. Healthcare providers, by
processes,
improvement, reduce costs, identify frauds and deliver better qualitycan identify areas for
example, use BDA to track patient outcomes, identify care. Hospitals, for
readmission and patients who are at higher risk of
BDA isa powerfulsubsequently
take steps to prevent them from being
tool that healthcare readmitted. In brief,
organizations can
finances, and ultimately, patient care. Some of the key leverage improve their operations,
to
been explained below: applications of BDA in healthcare have
(a) Resource
Management: BDA, by analyzing patient volume, data can
needs and thereby ensure that predict staffing
BDA optimizing staffing needsadequate personnel are available during peak
and reduces wait times and hours. Thus,
Besides this, healthcare organizations, improves patient
levels of medical supplies and by analyzing usage
patterns, can optimizesatisfaction.
inventory
medications, thereby reducing wastage and ensure
essential supplies are always in stock. that
(b) Financial
readmissionsPerformance:
or
BDA can identify areas of high
spending, such as unnecessary
for cost-saving inefficient processes. Healthcare organizations
the efficiency of measures to achieve cost reduction. BDA can alsocan then target these areas
medical billing and coding help to track and improve
reimbursement from insurance processes to ensure timely and
(c) Patient Care: The companies. accurate
identifying predictive analytics of BDA can be used to
can improveindividuals analyze patient data for
at high risk for
the patient health and developing chronic diseases.An early
more individualized approach
reduce intervention
for personalizedoverall healthcare costs, BDA allows for a
history, genetics, and lifestyle factors to
tailor
healthcare, by analyzing a patient's medical
BDA can identify patternstreatment
(d) Other plans.
Applications:
thereby helping insurance of fraudulent
financial losses. BDA can beorganizations to save money and activity in healthcare claims,
to specific patient used to target protect themselves from
healthcare
population, thereby improving publicservices and educational
health outcomes. programs
INTRODUCTIONTO DATA ANALYTICs
1.11

Future of Business Data Analytics

The future offbusiness
l analytics is bright because of continuous growth in data collection, storage,
andmachine
moden techniques of analysis. The emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and
learning, have the potential to further enhance the capabilities of business data analytics.
The business enterprises, by leveraging effectively the potential of data processing technologies,
can gain asigniticant competitive advantage over others in today's data-driven economic system.
Accordingly, the future of business data analytics is full of potential and exciting possibilities that
are duly driven by the rising volume of data, advancements in computing and data processing
technology, and also a in recognition of the growing importance of data-driven decisions. The
following are the key trends to be kept under observation:
Real-time and Predictive Analytics: Business enterprises are transitioning from static reports
to real-time data analysis, leveraging loT and social media to make faster, informed decisions.
Powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), predictive analytics is
expected to enable businesses in anticipating future outcomes and proactively shaping strategies,
transforming business analytics from reactive to predictive. This will lead to data-driven
optimization and strategic decision-making.
Data Democratization: The act of making something accessible to everyone is called
democratization. Business Analytics tools are expected to become more user-friendly and
largely accessible, so as to empower employees across all levels to make data-driven decisions
in their respective roles. Accordingly, the data-driven culture decisions within organizations
are expected to proliferate.
Focus on Data Governance and Security: The continued data proliferation and robust data
governance practices are expected to be of paramount importance in ensuring the quality of
data, its security, and compliance with privacy regulations. This will tend to ensure the accuracy
and reliability of analytics.
Rise of Citizen Data Scientists: With the advent of user-friendly analytics tools,there is an
expected a rise in "citizen data scientists" - business users with the ability to analyse data
without requiring extensive technical expertise and formal data science background. Such
citizen data scientists will play amore prominent role in uncovering valuable insights. However,
the strong demand for highly skilled data scientists will continue to grow for handling complex
tasks of business data analytics. In essence, the work of specialized data scientists will remain
complimented by citizen data scientists",
Integration of Aland Machine Learning: The automation of business data analysis tasks is
expected to be handled by Artificial Intelligence (Al) and machine learning (ML), thereby
freeing up human analysts for more strategic analytic work. As aresult, generative Al techniques
willbe used to open doors tonew possibilities in exploration and analysis of business data.
Cloud-Based Analytics: Most of the business enterprises are expected to prefer Cloud
platforns because of their flexibility, scalability, and also the cost-efficiency for data storage
and analytics. As a result, Cloud computing is expected to continue to be a major driver,
offering business enterprises an access to advanced analytical tools.
Focus on Decision Intelligence: The business enterprises, by integrating data analysis with
human psychology and behavioural science, isexpected to bridge the gap between insights of
data and actions, thereby leading to more effective decision-making process.
 BUSINESS ANALYTC
1.12
empowering organizationsto leverage data f
analyticsliesin data-driven decision-making. By
In brief, the future of business data
optimization, and
competitive advantage, operational can identify trends, patterns, andf
opportunities to
shap
harnessin
the power of data analytics, businesses effectively harnessthe power of data are expected to
their future. Business enterprises that can landscape, identify newopportunities, and achieve
better positioned to navigate the competitive
sustainable success in their operations.

1.2 CLASSIFICATION OF DATAANALYTICS

intended to
analytics may be classified into different categories on the basIS of what is
Data types of data analytics are descriptive
achievedwith insights into data. Accordingly, the four main cognitive. First, Descriptiv.
diagnostic, predictive and predictive. Another emerging analytics is insight
Analytics is the most basic type of analytics that focuses on summarizing past data to gain
generatino
into what has already happened. The common applications of this analytics involve
Summary reports, calculating Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and creating description
dashboards. Second, Diagnostic Analytics digs deeper into the reasons behind the patterns and
trends, which have been identified by descriptive analytics. Such analytics helps the users to
understand the root causes of underlying issues so as to identify areas for further improvement
Such techniques as data mining and data drill-downs are normally employed in diagnostic analytics
Third, Predictive Analytics uses insights ofhistorical data to predict trends and expected outcomes
in future. Accordingly, this analytics is useful for forecasting sales, identifying potential risks, and
help making data-driven decisions. Predictive analytics use such techniques as statistical modelling
and machine learning. Fourth, Prescriptive Analytics goes beyond
prediction to suggest and
recommendation the actions that are based on the insights from predictive analytics. Accordingly.
these analytics help the business enterprises to optimize various
business
decisions, and thereby gain a competitive advantage. This analytics uses processes, make better
optimization and simulation suggest the best business strategies. Finally, in such techniques as
four types, there is another emerging
analytics
addition to above
called
gaining importance in the realm of data analytics. Cognitive Analytics that has started
analytics that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and Cognitive analytics is an advanced form of
insights from data analysis. It mimics måchine learning (ML) to extract and explore
the context and meaning of human-like intelligence because of its ability to
information that is derived from data understand
improvement over time with additional information. analysis. and further make
unstructured data, learn and improve by itself and is This ofanalytics has the ability to handle
understand each of these analytics in detail. capable understanding the context. Let us
1.2.1 Descriptive Analytics
Deseriptiye
and business data analytics, which involves
describe the event that have
occurTed in
analysis of historical data, is meant to
focusing on summarizing and
presenting
the past. This understand
data in such a analytics achieves this description by
trends, patterns, and relationships
tounderstand and within the data. meaningful way as to gain
insights into
These enterprises,identify
by
key metrics, track
progress Descri ptive : analytics helps business
towards goals and also the current enterprises
data-driven decisions andvisualizing data through charts,
communicate their findings to graphs, and reports, can performance.
advanced analytic techniques such as the relevant functional effectively make
predictive and prescriptive verticals. The more
analytics, use the outcome o
INTRODUCTION TO DATA ANALYTICs 1.13

descriptive analytics as their foundation by obtaining acomprehensive overview of the business

enterprise 's data landscape.
Inbrief, descriptive business data analytics is all about understanding what has
inthe business enterprise. This understanding is achieved by summarizing and actually happened
data to identify patterns and trends. The common tools that are employed for analysing historical
this purpose include
basic statisticalanalysis, preparing reports, and Key Performance Indicators (KPls). Some
of KPls are presentation of sales figures, customer examples
acquisition cost, or website traffic.
Descriptive Analytics in Action:
Tracking Performance Over Time: The descriptive analytics, by comparing sales and
operating results across the years and also through monitoring website traffic patterns and
trends, can track performancce of the business enterprise.
Identifying Areas for Improvement: The descriptive analytics, by discovering and identifying
the products with high sales volume and also the most preferred products of
customers, can
pinpoint other products and service areas where improvements are required.
Benchmarking against Industry Standards: The descriptive analytics helps understand how
business enterprise stands up against competitors by using benchmarks against industry
standards.

Descriptive Analytics in Business Functions:

Marketing: Marketing, as a business function, creates a new demand or fits a product into an
existing market by focusing on moving the product from the company to the market through
product launches and awareness campaigns. Descriptive analytics is a powerful tool for business
enterprises or marketers to provide valuable insights into customer behaviour, campaign
performance, and overall marketing effectiveness. First, the customer behaviour can be better
understood by analyzing website traffic, social media engagement, and customer surveys.
Business enterprises or marketers can gain insights into customer demographics, preferences,
and buying journeys. This allows for targeted campaigns and messaging that resonate with
specific customer segments. Second, descriptive analytics help optimize marketing campaigns
by measuring the success of marketing initiatives. Marketing teams can track metrics like
click-through rates, conversion rates,and cost-per-acquisition to identify what works and what
does not work for the business enterprises. The information revealed by descriptive analytics
helps to make adjustments in campaigns on a real-time basis to maximize return on investment
(ROI). Third, descriptive analytics facilitates an efficient allocation of resources by providing
clarity about the marketing channels, which generate the best results, and thereby enabling
marketing teams to allocate resources more strategically. Besides this, descriptive analytics
helps to identify the most effective marketing channels, thereby allowing for budget optimization
and a focus on high-performing campaigns. Fourth, descriptive analytics helps track progress
towards goals for campaigns and overallmarketing efforts that are set by marketing teams by
providing clear data on key performance indicators (KPIs). This measurement of progress in
goals allows for course correction and timely adjustments to the marketing strategies. The
analysis of social media engagement metrics is used to identify the campaigns that are most
effective and therefore suitable.
 BUSINESS ANALYTIC
1.14

focuses on moving the product from the market

fulfil the demand and sales
Sales: Sales
customer. Descriptive analytics helps in ldentifyingtop-performing salespersons and
tool to gain insights
trom past data and
ol he
ndprCouduyrTrsaleent
understaallows
performance.
thereby as a powerful
actingThese analytics, by helping to explore what has been happening,
teamsto make data-driven decisions and also formulate future strategies. There are severa
ways in which businesses can benefit by leveraging descriptive analytics in sales. First
descriptive analytics enables the process of monitoring performance so that sales teams
may keep track of Key Performance Indicators(KPIs)such as sales rep performance, revenue
by product or region, and sales growth over time. As aresult, sales teams are able to id.entif
strengths and weaknesses, and thereby adjust sales strategies accordingly. Second. sales teamMS
understanding of customer behavior by analyzing customer purchase
get an
demographics, history.
andinteractions, thereby identify trends and patterns. This is achieved through
descriptive analytics, which help themto personalize outreach, target high-value customers,
andi tailor promotions for better results. Third, descriptive analytics allows for Sales Pipeline
Analysis by helping to track the progress of leads and deals through the sales funnel T
sales team, by identifying botlenecks and analyzing conversion rates at each stage, can improve
the efficiency of the sales process. Fourth, descriptive analytics enables Sales Forecastino hu
exploring, organizing and summarizing historical sales data that is used to forecast sales
trends,thereby helping with budgeting, resource allocation and setting realistic sales targets
Fifth. descriptive analytics enables Benchmarking by allowing business enterprises to compare
their sales performance against industry averages or the sales achieved by competitors. This
Benchmarking may further reveal areas for improvement and identify best practices to emulate.
In essence, descriptive analytics provides astrong foundational structure for data-driven sales
decisions, which is facilitated by exploring, summarizing and visualizing past sales data, thereby
equipping the sales teams to improve performance, optimize strategies, and achieve better
sales results.
Finance: Descriptive analytics provide reports to track revenue and
time. It is a powerful toolkit in the hands of financial pro expenses over a period ot
is happening with the business enterprise's fessionals to understand what exactly
finances by
data. Some of the key ways in which descriptive summarizing and organizing financial
analytics is used in finance are financial
performance monitoring, identifying trends and patterms,
Financial statements, specifically income statements andratio analysis and investment analys1s.
of descriptive analytics. First, balance sheets are prime examples
these financial statements, help
measurement by providing a financial performance
time. The trends, patterns andsnapshot ofin a company's financial health at a specific pont ln
changes performance can be
financial statements across various periods of time. Such identified by comparing ie
budgeting and future financial planning. Second, the performance chan ges are crucial 1o
parameters such as sales, process of identifving trends in financla
descriptive analytics. Aclearreceivables, purchases, payables may also be enabled through
issuesthat might need immediate understanding of these financial parameters helps identify the
analytics helps calculate financialattention
or
's ratiosadjustments
that are the
by the
managers. Third, Descriptive
business enterprise financial metrics relate different parts of a
to
Descriptive analytics, through thestatements, such as
debt-to-equity ratio or Current ratio
business enterprise's mechanism of
liquidity, solvency, Riskthese ratios, provides valuable insightsintoa
assessment and profitability. Descriptive
INTRODUCTION TO DATA ANALYTICS 1.15

Analytics, by comparing these ratios with industry averages or its own historical performance.
highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the business enterprise. Fourth, descriptive analytics
belps investors to conduct Investment Analysis to evaluate potential investments. This is
achicved by analysing financial statements of the business enterprise, by cxamining its stock
price history, and also considering industry trends. Further, descriptive analytics, by organizing
and summarizing the financial data, helps investors make informed decisions about where to
park their funds. In essence, descriptive analytics is a foundational structure of financial analysis
for a business enterpriseto provide the what' and 'how' behind its financial situation, thereby
enabling financial professionals to make crucial informed decisions.
Operations and Production: Descriptive analytics is a powerful tool used in operational and
productionactivity to understand past performance and identify areas for improvement. First,
it is used for performance monitoring by summarising a lot of data, which is
generated by
the operational activity and production lines. Descriptive analytics helps track key KPls such
as production volume, defect rates, and machine downtime. This enables the managers to
monitor overall performance, identify bottlenecks and the arcas, wherein the capacity stands
exceeded. Sccond, descriptive analytics, by analyzing historical data and their patterns, helps
Identify Trends. For instance, such analytics can reveal a seasonal dip in production or a
gradual increase in defect rates over a specific product line. Third, descriptive analytics performs
the task of Benchmarking, by allowing manufacturing enterprises to compare their
performance against industry standards or their own historical performance over a period of
time. This helps such enterprises to identify arcas where they are lagging behind and have the
opportuniies for improvement. Fourth, this type of analytics can reveal products and services
that are resource-intensive or otherwise, and thereby helps in Resource Allocation through a
better allocation of manpower, materials, and machinery to optimize production efficiency. In
essence, descriptive analytics provides a clear view of actual activities in operations and
production so that adata-driven approach may be adopted as the foundation for making informed
decisions and implementing improvenents in various aspects of manufacturing.
Human Resource Management: Descriptive analytics is a powerful tool in the hands of HR
professionals to understand their workforce requirement by summarizing and analyzing
historical data pertaining to manpower employed. First, The HR team, can identify trends in
historical data pertaining to labour-turnover, absenteeism in specific department, and time to
hire. Further. such trends may be investigated to understand the root causes of absenteeism
and higher labour turnover. Second, descriptive analytics allows Benchmarking by HR
professionals to compare their business enterprise's HR metrics with industry standards or
against their own performance from previous periods. In essence, this helps to assess how
well their HR practices are working in the organization. Third, descriptive analytics can provide
workforce insights with respect to demographics, skills, and experience of the workforce.
This aspect helps in workforce planning, identifying gaps in skill, and also designing targeted
training programs. Fourth, the descriptive analytics may also be used by HR professionals for
reporting and communication by generating reports that summarize key HR metrics for
management. This data-driven approach helps in informed strategic decision making. In essence,
descriptive analytics provides the structural foundation for more advanced HR analytics such
as predictive and prescriptive analytics, which may help HR team to anticipate future trends
and develop strategies to optimize workforce performance.
 BUSINESS AHALITIC
1.16

Descriptive
Benefits of business dataAnalytics:
Descriptive analytics provides a clear understanding ofthe busincss hcalth, hrli
goals and identifies areas andissues where deeper
(predictive achievement of
or prescriptive) mightbe useful. Specifically, it offers several benefits to organ17ati
monitor progresstowards

as explained below: business

analyzing historical data,
(a) gain insights intoPast
Understanding Performance: By
opportunities for
enterprises
their past performance, trends, and patterns. This understanding may helpan

(b) identify strengths and weaknesses, as well as improvement.

areas of Descriptiveanalytics ofteninvolves data visualization by providing chany
Data Visualization:
graphs, and dashboards. This visual representation makes it easier for stakeholdersto understan

interpret the complex data, thereby enabling better informed decision-making

(c) and
Identifying Key Metrics: Descriptive analytics helps business enterprises to identify key
in measuring success and track
performance indicators (KPls) and metrics, which are critical
goals. This allows the business enterprises to focus
progress towards achievement of business
resource utilization effectively.
on important matters and prioritize identik
historical data, businesses can
(d) Improving Operational Efficiency: By analyzing lead to proces
inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and areas for optimization. This insight can
efficiency.
Improvements, cost savings, and increased operational
(e) Enhancing Strategic Planning: Descriptive data analytics provides a solid structural
foundation for strategic planning by offering a comprehensive overview of the business
enterprise's data landscape. As a result, the business enterprises are enabled to make data.
driven decisions, set realistic goals, and develop effective strategies for growth and success.
In essence, the descriptive data analytics empowers business enterprises to leverage data effectively
gain valuable insights, and move towards informed decision-making process across all levels of
the business functions. Overall, descriptive analytics is a powerful tool in the hands of business
data analysts working for business enterprises of all sizes to turn data into insights that can be used
toimprove decision-making and overall performance.
1.2.2 Diagnostic Anlytics
Diagnostic business data analytics is aspecific type of apowerful tool for data analytics that focuses
on uncovering the root causes of trendsand patterns within business data to improve their operational
performance. The business enterprises, by using diagnostic analytics, can deep dive into developing
an understanding of their data and make better decisions that may result in greater success. This
type of analytics goes beyond simply describing what has happened (that is descriptive analytics)
or predicting what might happen in the future (that is predictive analytics) to explain why
is happening. The process of diagnostic analytics involves inter alia the something
following steps:
(a) Identify an Anomaly (or an area) for Improvement: This could be
anvthing from a sudden
drop in sales to an abnormal influx of custom:rs:
(b) Collect Relevant Data: Aset offrrelevant data (or decision useful data) may be gathered from
a variety of sources: sales figures, outcomes of customer surveys, website traffic data, or
social media sentiment.
(c) Clean and Prepare the Data: The process of cleaning data involves removing duplicates.
redundancy, using unique data formats consistently, and also filling in any missing values.
INTRODUCTION TO DATA ANALYTICS 1.17

(d) Explore the Data: The data visualization techniques may be used to explore
data so that the
patterns and trends are conveniently and readily identified.
(c Formulation of Hypothesis: An educated guesswork about what might be causing the
anomaly
or a problem may be used for this purpose.
() Testing of Hypothesis: Statistical analysis techniques are used to test the relationships between
the variables that have been identified.
(o) Draw Inferences: On the basis of above analysis, the business data analyst determines the
root cause of the anomaly (or the problem in hand).
(h) Appropriate Action: Once the analyst knows why something undesirable is happening, he
may initiate appropriate steps to fix the problem (or improve the undesirable situation).
Techniques of Diagnostic Analytics: Some of the common techniques used in diagnostic business
data analytics are as given below:
(a) Data Mining: Data mining is a process to extract hidden patterns and trends from a large
dataset, and thereafter explore the relationships within such datasets.
(b) Data Drilling Down: This technique is the process of zooming in on specific data points to
dig deeper into specific data points to understand the underlying causes and also to get a more
detailed view.
(c) Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis is the use of statistical methods to summarize, analyse,
and interpret data. This technique of statistical analysis is also used to test hypotheses and
identify correlations between variables.
(d) Regression Analysis: This technique is used to model the relationship between a dependent
variable and one or more independent variables.
Benefits of Diagnostic Analytics: Business data analysts may leverage diagnostic analytics to
identify and solve problematic issues, improve efficiency, and make better data-driven decisions.
Some key benefits of using diagnostic business data analytics are as follows:
(a) Identify and Resolve Problems: Diagnostic analytics is a powerful tool for identifying and
resolving problems with targeted solutions by using data to pinpoint the root causes and not
just solutions, and also gives the analysts a general idea of an issue. Insights provided by
diagnostic analysis can help prevent similar problems in the future.
(b) Improved Decision-making: By understanding the root causes of problems and trends,
businesses can make more informed decisions about allocation of resources, improvement in
processes, and also the achievement of enterprises' goals. Decision making is based on evidence,
and not a mere guesswork.
(c) Increased Productivity: Diagnostic analytics can help businesses identify areas where they
are wasting time or money. By eliminating these inefficiencies and unproductive expenses, a
business analyst can improve their overall productivity.
(d) Reduced Costs: Diagnostic analytics, by identifying and solving problems at an early stage,
Can help save money on corrective actions and thereby reduce the costs.
(e) Develop Better Products and Services: Diagnostic analytics helps the analyst to
pinpoint
the root causes of customer behavior, product performance, or operational issues. Understanding
the products and services on a deeper level is the holy grail of business enterprises. Further,
1.18
BUSINESS ANALYTIc
Diagnostic analytics can helpto identify arcas wherethe product or service is falling Short an
and services.
thereby allows for better products Diagnostic analytics can help
Satisfaction and Loyalty: business
() Boost Customer
to understand why customcrs

relatcd to
are satisfied or
enterpr
dissatisfied with the product or services, D
dissatisfaction, the business analysts can imnprove
addressing the issues
satisfactionand develop customer loyalty. wide range of
CUstome
Business Data Analytics: It is applied to a
Application of Diagnostic
situations. For example, a busincss enterprise might use diagnostic analytics in a number of way
declining. In this context, it is imy
busines
understand why customer satisfaction scores are
First,
identify theroot cause ofmanufacturing defects, Analyse the effectiveness of marketing campaign
Second, business enterprises. hy.
and diagnose the reasons for high employee turnover.
diagnostic analytics, can gain a deeper understanding of their operations and make data-drive
aleai
decisions that can improve their bottom line. Third, Diagnostic business data analytics may
prOcesses, such as:
used in busincss functions to improve a wide range of business
Marketing: Diagnose why certain marketing campaigns are not performing well
Sales: ldentify the factors that are influencing sales conversion rates
Customer Service: Understand why customers are churning and take steps to improve custome
retention
Operations: Identify bottlenecks in production processes and improve efficiency.
1.2.3 Predictive Analytics
Predictive business data analytics is a powerful tool that uses historical data, statistical modelling
and machine learning techniques to forecast future trends, patterns and events. Such analytis
essentially allows business enterprises to forecast with reasonable accuracy as to what might happ
in near future. As a result, business enterprises may develop their strategies by taking data-driv
decisions to improve operations, reduce risk, and gain a competitive advantage.
Objectives of Predictive Analytics: The primary goal of predictive analytics is to enable th
forecasting of expected outcomes in the near future, on the basis of historical data. The predicti
analytics, by unveiling the future, goes beyond just understanding what has happened in the pas
by aiming to provide insights into what is likely occur. Predictive analytics uses statistical algorithm
and machine learning techniques to sift through data, identify patterns and
uncover hiddc
patterns that may not be readily apparent through simpler analytical methods.
Techniques of Predictive Analytics: Predictive analytics is a branch of data
statistical techniques, extrapolation, data mining, machine learning and artificial analytics that çs
make predictionsabout future outcomes. The process of predictive Analytics to explore intelligence
and analys
historical data to identify patterns and relationships that can be used for
common techniques that are used in predictive forecasting. Some o
analytics have been explained
(a) Regression Analysis: This is a statistical technique that helps to identify thebelow:
causal relationshi
between a dependent variable (the variable sought to be predicted) and one or more independen
variables (the variables that
degree to which the value ofinfluence
the dependent
variable variable).
registers Ita change understanding thg
the dependent helps in when one or mot-
INTRODUCTION TO DATA ANALYTICS 1.19

independent variables arc varicd. There are different types of regression analysis, including
lincar reyression, multiple regression, logistic regression and polynomial regression, cach suitcd
to differcnt types of data and forccasting. Regression analysis is widely used in various business
functions toidentify patterns,understand the impact of different variables on an outcome and
also to makc predictions. It hclps in making informed decisions, by facilitating forecasting
future trends, besides testing hypotheses based on data.
(h) Decision Irees: Decision trec analysis is avisual tool that helps in making stratcgic decisions.
It involves crcating alowchart-like structure with nodes and branches to represent different
decisionpoints and their potential outcomes. The root node is the starting point, internal nodes
represent decision points, branches represent possible choices, and leaf nodes represent the
final outcomes. By analyzing the decision tree, organizations can identify the most effective
COursc of action.

(c) Neural Networks: Ancural nctwork is amethod in artificial intelligence that guides computers
to proccss data in such a way as human brain does. It is a typeof machine learning process,
callcd deep learning that uses interconnccted nodes or artificial neurons ina layered structure
that rescmbles the human brain, thercby creating an adaptive system. The computers learn
from their mistakes and improve continuously through trial-and-error process. As a result,
artificial ncural networks make repcated attempts to solve complicated problems, like
summarizing documents or recognizing faces, with greater accuracy. Therefore, artificial
neuralnetworks arca type of machine learning algorithm that is inspired by the structure and
functioning of the human brain. Neural networks are used to model complex relationships
betwcen inputs and outputs and can be used for a variety of predictive analytics tasks, such as
fraud detection, image recognition, and natural language processing.
(d) Time Series Analysis: Time series analysis is a specific way of analyzing a sequence of data
points collected over an interval of time consistently. In time series analysis, it is imperative to
recorddata points at uniform intervals over a set period of time rather than just recording the
data points intermittently or randomly. This statistical technique is used to identify trends,
scasonality, andothcr patterns in data. This information may then be used to forecast expected
values of the tíme series.
(e) Survival Analysis: Originally developed in biomedical sciences, survival analysis has been
uscd to understand the onset of certain diseases. Now survival analysis is a branch of statistics
that may bcused to forecast how long it takes for certain instances to occur. It is widely used
in engincering, finance, insurance, risk analysis, and many other disciplines. This statistical
technique is used to analyse and understand insights of data on the time to an event, such as the
time todeath, the time to a customer churn, or the time to a machine failure. Survival analysis
can bc usedto estimate the probability that an event may occur within a certain time period.
These are some of the many techniques that may be used in predictive analytics.The best technique
to be applied will depend on the specific problem that the analyst is trying to solve.
Benefits of Predictive Analytics: The predictive analytics offers the following benefits to the
business enterprises to boost their operational capabilities and business functions:
(a) Identify Future Trends and Opportunities in Real-Time: Advancements in technology and
data processing capability have paved the way for real-time predictive analytics, thereby
allowing for instant predictions, development of strategy and immediate course correction so
as to give business enterprises a significant edge over others.