BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Business Analysts to help them make decisions and provide insights based on historical data. This also helps
companies to be more efficient, optimize and automate their processes, and also focus on their revenues and growth.
Business Analytics is that it helps organizations understand short and long-term risks based on available data such
as customer preferences, trends, etc. Business analytics enables organizations to understand why and how specific
results are achieved, reduce risks, look into more effective business processes and solutions, and also predict the
likelihood of certain results.

1.EXCEL
Amongst all the analytical tools available in the market, Excel is still the most versatile tool used for business
analytics. It is one of the cheapest, most accessible, and easiest to use. With powerful features like form creation,
PivotTable, VBA, etc, it can work with small as well as large amounts of data. Excel is one of the easiest tools to
pick up, you will even find professionals from any background excelling in Excel. Don’t forget to check-out the
course Excel Course and Training – Self Paced
2. SAS
SAS is a robust, easy to learn, and versatile tool that finds wide usage in the analytics industry. Loaded with a
range of statistical tools, SAS is often suitable for any large organization’s data mining process. It uses ML, AI, and
automation to meet Business Analytics requirements by simplifying the process of analyzing large sets of data in
less time. To gain the best use for SAS analytics SAS has added more modules for IoT, SAS anti-money laundering,
Data mining, data visualization, text analytics, forecasting, SAS analytics pro, and many more.

3. Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is one of the most popular business analytics tools which excels in data visualization and helps
users create interactive user reports. It offers data warehousing capabilities including data preparation, and data
discovery, and allows users to identify real-time trends and deliver reports. Besides providing a desktop-based
interface, the “Power BI Desktop”, it also provides cloud-based business services, known as “Power BI Services”,
which can be accessed from almost anywhere.

4. Tableau
Tableau is another powerful Analytics tool that can connect to any data source and create customizable data
visualizations, maps, and dashboards. Its powerful data discovery and data-cleaning function allow users to
perform analytical functions in seconds. It is easy to learn, robust, and does not include any complex scripting.
Tableau’s statistical functions help users to perform in-depth analyses and predict patterns based on current and
historical data.

5. Qlik Sense
Qlik Sense, created by Qlik is another powerful next-generation analytics tool that allows users to create
visualizations, charts, interactive dashboards, and many more. It is a cloud-based Analytics software that uses
Machine Learning and sophisticated Artificial Intelligence to improve the quality of data mining and data
processing. It provides analytics capabilities for all types of users and is flexible across public, private, and hybrid
clouds.

6. Splunk
Splunk is another widely used business analytics tool that was launched by Splunk Technology, a company from
San Fransisco. Splunk is used for processing machine log file data, capturing, indexing, and finding correlations
between real-time data. This data is used for generating graphs, reports, dashboards, etc. Splunk is generally used
in small and medium-scale industries.

7. MicroStrategy
MicroStrategy is a top business analytics tool that offers data discovery, data visualizations, and web services. It
combines a range of business analysis techniques that hosts other sources to fetch data for analysis and also allows
the user to create and share reports from any location or device. It also allows the smooth processing of unstructured
text data. Operating Microstrategy requires just a basic understanding of programming, data analysis, and SQL.

8. Sisense
Sisense is a business analytics software that allows users to perform extensive analysis and visualization of complex
and enormous amounts of data. It is used by both small businesses as well as enterprise-level businesses. It helps the
users bring data from a wide variety of sources, combine multiple data sets, and help make data-driven decisions and
forecast future trends. Sisense has been recognized as a leading cloud analytics platform by various industry
experts like Gartner, Dresner, etc.

9. Board
Another top-rated business analytics tool is Board which is best known because of its analytics model that permits
users to create custom intuitive and interactive user reports and dashboards. It can manage massive data
volumes and support accurate analysis and forecasting by manipulating data using data visualization, drill-down,
and drill-through functionality.

10. Domo
Domo is a complete cloud-based business analytics platform that integrates multiple data sources and provides
wide connector support. It is easy to use and offers micro and macro-level visibility and helps users see real-time
data. It is often used by both small and large-scale companies. Domo is designed to assist businesses in finding
effective solutions and taking informed actions from the insights gained.

With businesses increasingly leveraging, the demand for business analysts and business analytics tools is increasing
in diverse sectors including automotive, healthcare, retail, banking, hospitality, etc. Based on your interest and skill,
you may pick up the right tool for you and master yourself in it.

Data Vs. Information

Data is a raw and unorganized fact that required to be processed to make it meaningfu
data comprises facts, observations, perceptions numbers, characters, symbols, image, etc.
data is meaningless. Data contains numbers, statements, and characters in a raw form.

Information is a set of data which is processed in a meaningful way according to the given requirementInformation.
Information is processed, structured, or presented in a given context to make it meaningful and useful.
It is processed data which includes data that possess context, relevance, and purpose. It also involves manipulation
of raw data.
Parameters Data Information

Description Qualitative Or QuantitativeVariables It is a group of data which carries news and

which helps to develop ideas or meaning.
conclusions.
Etymology Data comes from a Latin word, datum, Information word has old French and middle
which means “To give something.” Over a English origins. It has referred to the “act of
time “data” has become the plural of informing.”. It is mostly used for education
datum. or other known communication.

Format Data is in the form of numbers, letters, or a Ideas and inferences

set of characters.

Represented in It can be structured, tabular data, graph, Language, ideas, andthoughts based on the
data tree, etc. given data.

Meaning Data does not have any specific purpose. It carries meaning that has been assigned by
interpreting data.

Interrelation Information that is collected Information that is processed.

Feature Data is a single unit and is raw. It alone Information is the product and group of data
doesn’t have any meaning. which jointly carry a logical meaning.

Dependence It never depends on Information It depended on Data.

Measuring unit Measured in bits and bytes. Measured in meaningful units like time,
quantity, etc.

Support for It can’t be used for decision making It is widely used for decision making.
Decision making

Contains Unprocessed raw factors Processed in a meaningful way

Knowledge level It is low-level knowledge. It is the second level of knowledge.

 Characteristic Data is the property of an organization and Information is available for sale to the public.
is not available for sale to the public.

Dependency Data depends upon the sources for Information depends upon data.
collecting data.

Example Ticket sales on a band on tour. Sales report by region and venue. It gives
information which venue is profitable for that
business.

Significance Data alone has no signifiance. Information is significant by itself.

Meaning Data is based on records and observations Information is considered more reliable than
and, which are stored in computers or data. It helps the researcher to conduct a
remembered by a person. proper analysis.

Usefulness The data collected by the researcher, may Information is useful and valuable as it is
or may not be useful. readily available to the researcher for use.

Dependency Data is never designed to the specific need Information is always specific to the
of the user. requirements and expectations because all the
irrelevant facts and figures are removed,
during the transformation process.

Internal and internal sources of data

“Internal sources of data reflect those data that are under the control of the business,” Customer Think contributor
and data scientist Bob Hayes explained.
Internal sources of data are those which are obtained from the internal reports of an organization. For instance, a
factory publishes its annual report on total production, total profit and loss, total sales, loans, wages to employees,
bonus and other facilities to employees etc. Internal data sources are typically easier to collect and can be more
relevant for the company’s own purposes and insights.Internal data is private data derived and collected inside a
business. Internal data is the information a company derives from inside the organization from different departments
like sales, website, financial, or customer data and use the information collected to help the company with decision
making and determine the strategy to be adopted by the business. Internal data in business refers to data retrieved
from inside the company to make decisions for successful operations.
“External data, on the other hand, are any data generated outside the wall of the business.”
Internal data is the information that the business already has on hand, has control of and currently owns, including
details contained within the company’s own computer systems and cloud environments. External data is
information that is not currently owned by the company, and can include unstructured, public data as well as
information gathered by other organizations.
Before decision-makers and data scientists look for external sources, it’s critical to ensure that all of a business’s
internal data sources are mined, analyzed and leveraged for the good of the company. External sources refer to the
information collected] outside agencies. It can be collected from primary as well as secondary sources; type of
information can be collected through census or sample method by conduct! Surveys and investigation. External
data is data that is collected outside an organization from areas like press releases, statistics departments,
government databases, and market research.
Internal data is information generated from within the business, covering areas such as operations, maintenance,
personnel, and finance. External data comes from the market, including customers and competitors. It's things like
statistics from surveys, questionnaires, research, and customer feedback

Big data
Big data is data that contains greater variety, arriving in increasing volumes and with more velocity. This is also
known as the three Vs.
big data is larger, more complex data sets, especially from new data sources. Big Data is a collection of data that is
huge in volume, yet growing exponentially with time. It is data with such large size and complexity that none of
traditional data management tools can store it or process it efficiently. Big data is also data but with huge size.

Three Vs of Big data

1. Volume - The amount of data matters. With big data, you’ll have to process high volumes of low-density,
unstructured data. This can be data of unknown value, such as Twitter data feeds, clickstreams on a web
page or a mobile app, or sensor-enabled equipment. For some organizations, this might be tens of terabytes
of data. For others, it may be hundreds of petabytes.
2. Velocity - Velocity is the fast rate at which data is received and (perhaps) acted on. Normally, the highest
velocity of data streams directly into memory versus being written to disk. Some internet-enabled smart
products operate in real time or near real time and will require real-time evaluation and action.
3. Variety - Variety refers to the many types of data that are available. Traditional data types were structured
and fit neatly in a relational database. With the rise of big data, data comes in new unstructured data types.
Unstructured and semistructured data types, such as text, audio, and video, require additional preprocessing
to derive meaning and support metadata.

Big data benefits:

Big data makes it possible for you to gain more complete answers because you have more information.
More complete answers mean more confidence in the data—which means a completely different approach to
tackling problems.