CCW331 BUSINESS ANALYTICS L T P C

20 2 3
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
 To understand the Analytics Life Cycle.
 To comprehend the process of acquiring Business Intelligence
 To understand various types of analytics for Business Forecasting
 To model the supply chain management for Analytics.
 To apply analytics for different functions of a business

UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ANALYTICS 6

Analytics and Data Science – Analytics Life Cycle – Types of Analytics – Business Problem
Definition – Data Collection – Data Preparation – Hypothesis Generation – Modeling – Validation
and Evaluation – Interpretation – Deployment and Iteration

UNIT II BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE 6

Data Warehouses and Data Mart - Knowledge Management –Types of Decisions - Decision Making
Process - Decision Support Systems – Business Intelligence –OLAP – Analytic functions

UNIT III BUSINESS FORECASTING 6

Introduction to Business Forecasting and Predictive analytics - Logic and Data Driven Models –Data
Mining and Predictive Analysis Modelling –Machine Learning for Predictive analytics.

UNIT IV HR & SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYTICS 6

Human Resources – Planning and Recruitment – Training and Development - Supply chain network
- Planning Demand, Inventory and Supply – Logistics – Analytics applications in HR & Supply Chain
- Applying HR Analytics to make a prediction of the demand for hourly employees for a year.

UNIT V MARKETING & SALES ANALYTICS 6

Marketing Strategy, Marketing Mix, Customer Behaviour –selling Process – Sales Planning –
Analytics applications in Marketing and Sales - predictive analytics for customers' behaviour in
marketing and sales.

30 PERIODS
LIST OF EXPERIMENTS:
Use MS-Excel and Power-BI to perform the following experiments using a Business data set,
andmake presentations.
Students may be encouraged to bring their own real-time socially relevant data set.

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I Cycle – MS Excel
1. Explore the features of Ms-Excel.
2. (i) Get the input from user and perform numerical operations (MAX, MIN, AVG, SUM,SQRT,
ROUND)
ii) Perform data import/export operations for different file formats.
3. Perform statistical operations - Mean, Median, Mode and Standard deviation, Variance,
Skewness, Kurtosis
4. Perform Z-test, T-test & ANOVA
5. Perform data pre-processing operations i) Handling Missing data ii) Normalization
6. Perform dimensionality reduction operation using PCA, KPCA & SVD
7. Perform bivariate and multivariate analysis on the dataset.
8. Apply and explore various plotting functions on the data set.
II Cycle – Power BI Desktop
9. Explore the features of Power BI Desktop
10. Prepare & Load data
11. Develop the data model
12. Perform DAX calculations
13. Design a report
14. Create a dashboard and perform data analysis
15. Presentation of a case study

COURSE OUTCOMES:
CO1: Explain the real world business problems and model with analytical solutions.
CO2: Identify the business processes for extracting Business Intelligence
CO3 : Apply predictive analytics for business fore-casting
CO4: Apply analytics for supply chain and logistics management
CO5: Use analytics for marketing and sales.

TEXT BOOKS
1. R. Evans James, Business Analytics, 2nd Edition, Pearson, 2017
1. R N Prasad, Seema Acharya, Fundamentals of Business Analytics, 2nd Edition, Wiley,2016
2. Philip Kotler and Kevin Keller, Marketing Management, 15th edition, PHI, 2016
3. VSP RAO, Human Resource Management, 3rd Edition, Excel Books, 2010.
4. Mahadevan B, “Operations Management -Theory and Practice”,3rd Edition,
Pearson Education,2018.
TOTAL :60 PERIODS
CO’s-PO’s & PSO’s MAPPING

1 - low, 2 - medium, 3 - high, ‘-' - no correlation

CO’s PO’s PSO’s

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3
1 2 2 3 1 1 - - - 1 2 1 1 3 2 1
2 3 3 3 2 3 - - - 1 2 2 2 3 1 2
3 2 2 3 3 2 - - - 3 1 1 3 3 1 2
4 2 1 1 2 2 - - - 3 3 2 1 1 3 1
5 2 3 2 3 2 - - - 3 3 1 3 3 1 1
AVg. 2.2 2.2 2.4 2.2 2 - - - 2.2 2.2 1.4 2 2.6 1.6 1.4

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 UNIT - 1

INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Business Analytics is a term that took industries by storm in the 21st century.
All businesses around the world were looking to make more and more profits, and
the only way they could do that was by finding out gaps and filling them.
The Business Analytics process initially came as a problem-solving approach
to many organizations where data was being captured and accessed. This data was
then used for multiple purposes, ranging from improving customer services to
predicting fraud. Due to its vast success, people realized quickly that Business
Analytics can not only solve pre-existing visible problems but also can notify them
about illusive problems that do not seem to be existing.
In today’s world, Business Analytics is so important that almost every
organization has a Business Analytics team and well-defined business analytics
process steps. Since there are problems and gaps in all forms of business, Business
Analytics is a viable approach across all industries. From the food industry to the IT
sector, everyone is employing Business Analytics to find out the optimum ways to
do business.

BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Business Analytics is the process of transforming data into insights to improve
business decisions. Data management, data visualization, predictive modelling, data
mining, forecasting simulation, and optimization are some of the tools used to create
insights from data.

COMPARING BUSINESS ANALYTICS TO DATA SCIENCE

Business Analytics Data Science

Business Analytics is the statistical

Data science is the study of data using
study of business data to gain
statistics, algorithms and technology.
insights.

Uses mostly structured data. Uses both structured & unstructured data

Coding is widely used. This field is a

Does not involve much coding. It is combination of traditional analytics
more statistics oriented. practice with good computer science
knowledge.

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The whole analysis is based on Statistics is used at the end of analysis
statistical concepts. following coding.

Studies trends and patterns specific

Studies almost every trend and pattern.
to business.

Top industries where business

Top industries/applications where data
analytics is used: finance, healthcare,
science is used: e-commerce, finance,
marketing, retail, supply chain,
machine learning, manufacturing.
telecommunications.

BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Business analytics bridges the gap between information technology and business by
using analytics to provide data-driven recommendations. The business part requires
deep business understanding, while the analytics part requires an understanding of
data, statistics and computer science.

SKILLS OF A BUSINESS ANALYST

Interpretation: Businesses manage a vast amount of data. As a business analyst, you
should have the ability to clean data and make it useful for interpretation.
Data Visualization and storytelling: Data visualization is an evolving discipline,
and Tableau defines data visualization as a graphical representation of data and
information. A business analyst uses such visual elements as charts, graphs and maps,
and provides an accessible way to see and understand trends, outliers and patterns in
data.
Analytical reasoning ability: Consists of logical reasoning, critical thinking,
communication, research and data analysis. A business analyst requires these to
apply descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics in business situations to solve
business problems.
Mathematical and statistical skills: The ability to collect, organize and interpret
numerical data is used for modeling, inference, estimation and forecasting in
business analytics.
Written and communication skills: If you have better communication skills, it
becomes easy to influence the management team to recommend improvements and
increase business opportunities.

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DATA SCIENCE
Data science is the study of data using statistics, algorithms and technology. It is the
process of using data to find solutions and predict outcomes for a problem
statement.

SKILLS OF A DATA SCIENTIST

The core skills required in data science are as follows:
Statistical analysis: You should be familiar with statistical tests, likelihood estimators
for a keen sense of pattern and anomaly detection.
Computer science and programming: Data scientists encounter massive datasets. To
uncover answers to problems, you will have to write computer programs and should
be proficient in computer programming languages such as Python, R and SQL.
Machine learning: As a data scientist, you should be familiar with algorithms and
statistical models that automatically enable a computer to learn from data.
Multivariable calculus and linear algebra: This significant mathematical knowledge is
needed for building a machine learning model.
Data visualization and storytelling: After you have the data, you have to present
your findings. Data scientists use data visualization tools to communicate and
describe actionable insights to technical and non-technical audiences.

BUSINESS ANALYTIC' MODEL LIFE CYCLE

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ASK THE RIGHT QUESTION
• Asking questions helps you define what insight you’re trying to gain, problem
you’re trying to solve or larger business goal you’re trying to meet. Asking
the right question(s) helps you build the model to collect relevant data. So how do
you determine the “right” question to ask?
• If, for example, sales of a particular product are flat and your goal is to increase
sales by 10% to 15%, you’d want to be sure you’re processing the right sales data to
discover the source of your highest and lowest sales. Who within these markets is
purchasing the product and how? Have online sales ticked up? Are in-store or same-
store purchases flat or in decline?

PROCESS THE DATA TO ANSWER THE QUESTION

• The sources and streams of data flowing into your organization are abundant—
from email, mobile apps, social networks, e-commerce sites and web traffic—
providing information on sales figures, customer engagement, demographic profiles
and the overall health of your business. All that data feeds into or is collected and fed
into your central data center. Effective data management and programming
strategies can help you gather it, clean it and apply it to answer your question.
• Gather: Extract data from your database through advanced queries using
Structured Query Language (SQL), which supports, extracts, transforms and loads
data in preparation for analytics model development.
• Clean: Data cleaning or cleansing identifies and removes errors, corruptions,
inconsistencies or outliers that can affect data accuracy and, ultimately, its
functionality.

VISUALIZE AND ANALYZE THE DATA

• Now that you have solid data to work with, it’s time to gain intuition and
insight through data visualization and analysis.
• Data visualization—presented in statistical graphs, plots, charts or other visual
context—descriptively summarizes the information so you can apply the right
structured data model for analysis. Specialized analytics systems based on your
model can provide the analysis and statistics to start answering your question.
• Statistics and Algorithms: This can include correlation analysis, hypothesis
testing, and regression analysis to see whether simple predictions can be made.
• Machine Learning: Decision trees, neural networks and logistics regression are
all machine learning-based predictive analytics techniques that can turn data into
proactive solutions.
• As you go through data analysis, different comparisons can derive different
insights (i.e. applying differing machine learning approaches).

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VALIDATE THE ANALYSIS
• Ready to ask more questions? Examining “Is it accurate?”, “Is it appropriate?”
and running “what-if” scenarios will help you determine if your analysis is valid or on
the right track.
• Statistical analysis, inference and predictive modeling are applied to define and
validate target parameters, leading to an optimal solution and model most aligned to
your business goal.

APPLY IT TO THE BUSINESS

• This is where all that data starts providing solutions to your business questions.
You’ve deepened your insight and understanding and now can start making business
recommendations and taking action based on your data analysis, visualization and
models.
• As you begin to measure outcomes and derive new insights, new questions will
arise: “Was the action effective?” “Is a different decision or solution needed?” “What
was the return on investment?”
• Evaluating appropriateness, managing the value creation of your analytics
project, and being able to identify and emphasize the success factors are all critical to
leveraging your analytics for a competitive advantage.
• Remember, the business analytics cycle is continual. Your data model will need
to be updated as the new insights and questions arise, and as your business needs
change with new problems to solve and challenges to meet.

TYPES OF ANALYTICS

• Descriptive Analytics: Descriptive analytics involves examining past data to

understand what has happened. It summarizes historical data and provides insights
into patterns, trends, and key metrics.

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• Diagnostic Analytics: Diagnostic analytics goes beyond descriptive analytics by
aiming to understand why something happened. It involves delving into the data to
identify the root causes of a particular outcome.
• Predictive Analytics: Predictive analytics involves using historical data and
statistical techniques to predict future events or outcomes. It utilizes patterns and
relationships found in the data to estimate what might happen in the future.
• Prescriptive Analytics: Prescriptive analytics takes data analysis further by
recommending specific actions to optimize outcomes based on predictive models and
business objectives. It uses advanced algorithms, optimization techniques, and
simulation to generate actionable insights.

BUSINESS PROBLEM DEFINITION

It defines the problem that a company is facing. Also, it involves an intricate analysis
of the problem, details relevant to the situation, and a solution that can solve the
problem. This is a simple yet effective way to present a problem and its solution
concisely.

SEVEN DATA COLLECTION METHODS USED IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS

1. SURVEYS
• Surveys are physical or digital questionnaires that gather both qualitative and
quantitative data from subjects. One situation in which you might conduct a survey is
gathering attendee feedback after an event. This can provide a sense of what
attendees enjoyed, what they wish was different, and areas in which you can
improve or save money during your next event for a similar audience.
• While physical copies of surveys can be sent out to participants, online surveys
present the opportunity for distribution at scale. They can also be inexpensive;
running a survey can cost nothing if you use a free tool. If you wish to target a specific
group of people, partnering with a market research firm to get the survey in front of
that demographic may be worth the money.

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2. TRANSACTIONAL TRACKING
• Each time your customers make a purchase, tracking that data can allow you to
make decisions about targeted marketing efforts and understand your customer base
better.
• Often, e-commerce and point-of-sale platforms allow you to store data as soon
as it’s generated, making this a seamless data collection method that can pay off in
the form of customer insights.
3. INTERVIEWS AND FOCUS GROUPS
• Interviews and focus groups consist of talking to subjects face-to-face about a
specific topic or issue. Interviews tend to be one-on-one, and focus groups are
typically made up of several people. You can use both to gather qualitative and
quantitative data.
• Through interviews and focus groups, you can gather feedback from people in
your target audience about new product features. Seeing them interact with your
product in real-time and recording their reactions and responses to questions can
provide valuable data about which product features to pursue.
• As is the case with surveys, these collection methods allow you to ask subjects
anything you want about their opinions, motivations, and feelings regarding your
product or brand. It also introduces the potential for bias.
• One downside of interviewing and conducting focus groups is they can be time-
consuming and expensive. If you plan to conduct them yourself, it can be a lengthy
process. To avoid this, you can hire a market research facilitator to organize and
conduct interviews on your behalf.
4. OBSERVATION
• Observing people interacting with your website or product can be useful for
data collection because of the candor it offers. If your user experience is confusing or
difficult, you can witness it in real-time.
• Yet, setting up observation sessions can be difficult. You can use a third-party
tool to record users’ journeys through your site or observe a user’s interaction with a
beta version of your site or product.
• While less accessible than other data collection methods, observations enable
you to see firsthand how users interact with your product or site. You can leverage
the qualitative and quantitative data gleaned from this to make improvements and
double down on points of success.
5. ONLINE TRACKING
• To gather behavioral data, you can implement pixels and cookies. These are
both tools that track users’ online behavior across websites and provide insight into
what content they’re interested in and typically engage with.

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• You can also track users’ behavior on your company’s website, including which
parts are of the highest interest, whether users are confused when using it, and how
long they spend on product pages. This can enable you to improve the website’s
design and help users navigate to their destination.
• Inserting a pixel is often free and relatively easy to set up. Implementing
cookies may come with a fee but could be worth it for the quality of data you’ll
receive. Once pixels and cookies are set, they gather data on their own and don’t
need much maintenance, if any.
• It’s important to note: Tracking online behavior can have legal and ethical
privacy implications. Before tracking users’ online behavior, ensure you’re in
compliance with local and industry data privacy standards.
6. FORMS
• Online forms are beneficial for gathering qualitative data about users,
specifically demographic data or contact information. They’re relatively inexpensive
and simple to set up, and you can use them to gate content or registrations, such as
webinars and email newsletters.
• You can then use this data to contact people who may be interested in your
product, build out demographic profiles of existing customers, and in remarketing
efforts, such as email workflows and content recommendations.
7. SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING
• Monitoring your company’s social media channels for follower engagement is
an accessible way to track data about your audience’s interests and motivations.
Many social media platforms have analytics built in, but there are also third-party
social platforms that give more detailed, organized insights pulled from multiple
channels.
• You can use data collected from social media to determine which issues are
most important to your followers. For instance, you may notice that the number of
engagements dramatically increases when your company posts about its
sustainability efforts.

DATA COLLECTION IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS

The process of gathering and analyzing accurate data from various sources to find
answers to research problems, trends and probabilities, etc., to evaluate possible
outcomes is Known as Data Collection.

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STEPS IN THE DATA PREPARATION PROCESS
Data preparation is done in a series of steps. There's some variation in the data
preparation steps listed by different data professionals and software vendors, but the
process typically involves the following tasks:
1. Data collection. Relevant data is gathered from operational systems, data
warehouses, data lakes and other data sources. During this step, data scientists,
member of the BI team other data professionals & end users who collect data should
confirm that it's a good fit for the objectives of the planned analytics applications.
2. Data discovery and profiling. The next step is to explore the collected data to
better understand what it contains and what needs to be done to prepare it for the
intended uses. To help with that, data profiling identifies patterns, relationships and
other attributes in the data, as well as inconsistencies, anomalies, missing values and
other issues so they can be addressed.
3. Data cleansing. Next, the identified data errors and issues are corrected to
create complete and accurate data sets. For example, as part of cleansing data sets,
faulty data is removed or fixed, missing values are filled in and inconsistent entries
are harmonized.
4. Data structuring. At this point, the data needs to be modeled and organized to
meet the analytics requirements. For example, data stored in comma-separated
values (CSV) files or other file formats has to be converted into tables to make it
accessible to BI and analytics tools.
5. Data transformation and enrichment. In addition to being structured, the data
typically must be transformed into a unified and usable format. For example, data
transformation may involve creating new fields or columns that aggregate values
from existing ones. Data enrichment further enhances and optimizes data sets as
needed, through measures such as augmenting and adding data.
6. Data validation and publishing. In this last step, automated routines are run
against the data to validate its consistency, completeness and accuracy. The prepared
data is then stored in a data warehouse, a data lake or another repository and either
used directly by whoever prepared it or made available for other users to access.

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KEY DATA PREPARATION can also incorporate or feed into data curation work that
creates and oversees ready-to-use data sets for BI and analytics. Data curation
involves tasks such as indexing, cataloguing and maintaining data sets and their
associated metadata to help users find and access the data. In some organizations,
data curator is a formal role that works collaboratively with data scientists, business
analysts, other users and the IT and data management teams. In others, data may be
curated by data stewards, data engineers, database administrators or data scientists
and business users themselves.

HYPOTHESIS GENERATION Hypothesis generation is an educated guess of the various

factors affecting the business problem to be resolved. Or, put another way, you are
making wise assumptions about how certain factors would impact the target variable.
Some Examples of Hypothesis
• Students who eat breakfast will perform better on a math exam than students
who do not eat breakfast."
• Complex hypothesis: "Students who experience test anxiety before an English
exam will get lower scores than students who do not experience test anxiety.
Another example of hypothesis generation?
• Hypothesis generation might include things like: Talking to people who buy
shoes online to explore what their problems are.

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BUSINESS MODEL
The term business model refers to a company's plan for making a profit.
It identifies the products or services the business plans to sell, its identified target
market, and any anticipated expenses.
Business models are important for both new and established businesses.

Model Validation
 Model validation is defined within regulatory guidance as “the set of processes
and activities intended to verify that models are performing as expected, in line with
their design objectives, and business uses.” It also identifies “potential limitations and
assumptions, and assesses their possible impact.”
 Generally, validation activities are performed by individuals independent of
model development or use. Models, therefore, should not be validated by their
owners as they can be highly technical, and some institutions may find it difficult to
assemble a model risk team that has sufficient functional and technical expertise to
carry out independent validation. When faced with this obstacle, institutions often
outsource the validation task to third parties.

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 In statistics, model validation is the task of confirming that the outputs of a
statistical model are acceptable with respect to the real data-generating process. In
other words, model validation is the task of confirming that the outputs of a statistical
model have enough fidelity to the outputs of the data-generating process that the
objectives of the investigation can be achieved.

MODEL VALIDATION CONSISTS OF FOUR CRUCIAL ELEMENTS WHICH SHOULD BE

CONSIDERED:
1. Conceptual Design
• The foundation of any model validation is its conceptual design, which needs
documented coverage assessment that supports the model’s ability to meet business
and regulatory needs and the unique risks facing a bank.
• For example, a poorly designed risk assessment model may result in a bank
establishing relationships with clients that present a risk and reputation damage.
• A validation should independently challenge the underlying conceptual design
and ensure that documentation is appropriate to support the model’s logic and the
model’s ability to achieve desired regulatory and business outcomes for which it is
designed.
2. System Validation
• All technology and automated systems implemented to support models have
limitations.
• An effective validation includes:
firstly, evaluating the processes used to integrate the model’s conceptual design
and functionality into the organization's business setting,
secondly, examining the processes implemented to execute the model’s overall
design. Where gaps or limitations are observed, controls should be evaluated to
enable the model to function effectively.
3. Data Validation and Quality Assessment
• Data errors or irregularities impair results and might lead to an organization's
failure to identify and respond to risks.
• To establish a framework for data validation, guidance indicates that the
accuracy of source data be assessed. This is a vital step because data can be derived
from a variety of sources, some of which might lack controls on data integrity, so the
data might be incomplete or inaccurate.
4.Process Validation
• To verify that a model is operating effectively, it is important to prove that the
established processes for the model’s ongoing administration, including governance
policies and procedures, support the model’s sustainability.

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• A review of the processes also determines whether the models are producing
output that is accurate, managed effectively, and subject to the appropriate controls.
• If done effectively, model validation will enable your bank to have every
confidence in its various models’ accuracy, as well as aligning them with the bank’s
business and regulatory expectations. By failing to validate models, banks increase
the risk of regulatory criticism, fines, and penalties.

MODEL EVALUATION
• Model Evaluation is an integral part of the model development process. It
helps to find the best model that represents our data and how well the chosen model
will work in the future.
• Evaluating model performance with the data used for training is not acceptable
in data science because it can easily generate overoptimistic and over fitted models.
There are two methods of evaluating models in data science, Hold-Out and Cross-
Validation.
Hold-Out: In this method, the mostly large dataset is randomly divided to three
subsets
• Training set is a subset of the dataset used to build predictive models.
• Validation set is a subset of the dataset used to assess the performance of
model built in the training phase. It provides a test platform for fine tuning model's
parameters and selecting the best-performing model. Not all modeling algorithms
need a validation set.
• Test set or unseen examples is a subset of the dataset to assess the likely
future performance of a model. If a model fit to the training set much better than it
fits the test set, overfitting is probably the cause.
Cross-Validation: When only a limited amount of data is available, to achieve an
unbiased estimate of the model performance we use k-fold cross-validation.

DATA INTERPRETATION
Data interpretation refers to the process of using diverse analytical methods to
review data and arrive at relevant conclusions. The interpretation of data helps
researchers to categorize, manipulate, and summarize the information in order to
answer critical questions.
STEPS IN INTERPRETING DATA
There are four steps to data interpretation:
1) assemble the information you'll need,
2) develop findings,
3) develop conclusions, and
4) develop recommendations.

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ITERATION IN BUSINESS ANALYSIS
Iterative development, however, is a cyclical methodology that promotes constant
improvement. It is the nature of business analytics, that once one project is complete
it often spawns an understanding of new requirements and derivative solutions that
start the iterative process once again.

DEPLOYMENT IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Typically, deployment of Advanced Analytics insights includes all operations to
generate reports and recommendations for end users, visualization of key findings,
self-service and data discovery functionalities for business users, and finally,
depending on the size and scope of the analytical application.

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 UNIT – 2
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

• Business intelligence (BI) is a technology-driven process for analyzing data and

delivering actionable information that helps executives, managers and workers make
informed business decisions.
• Business intelligence (BI) is software that ingests business data and presents it
in user-friendly views such as reports, dashboards, charts and graphs.

Business intelligence helps organizations become data-driven enterprises, improve

performance and gain competitive advantage. They can:
• Improve ROI by understanding the business and intelligently allocating
resources to meet strategic objectives.
• Unravel customer behavior, preferences and trends, and use the insights to
better target prospects or tailor products to changing market needs.
• Monitor business operations and fix or make improvements on an ongoing
basis, fueled by data insights.
• Improve supply chain management by monitoring activity up and down the line
and communicating results with partners and suppliers.

Business intelligence best practices

Organizations benefit when they can fully assess operations and processes,
understand their customers, gauge the market, and drive improvement. They need
the right tools to aggregate business information from anywhere, analyze it, discover
patterns and find solutions.

The best BI software supports this decision-making process by:

Connecting to a wide variety of different data systems and data sets including
databases and spreadsheets.
Providing deep analysis, helping users uncover hidden relationships and patterns in
their data.
Presenting answers in informative and compelling data visualizations like reports,
maps, charts and graphs.
Advanced BI and analytics systems may also integrate artificial intelligence (AI) and
machine learning to automate and streamline complex tasks. These capabilities
further accelerate the ability of enterprises to analyze their data and gain insights at a
deep level.

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 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DATA WAREHOUSE AND DATA MART

In business intelligence, a data mart is a subset of a data warehouse that provides

users with data. Data marts are focused on a specific business function or
department.
They make data available to a defined group of users, which allows them to quickly
access critical insights.
Data marts blend data from a variety of sources to answer specific business
questions.
They use the extract, transform, load (ETL) process to retrieve information from
external sources.

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Data marts can provide faster and more tailored access to relevant information for
decision making and analysis.
However, they also have some drawbacks and challenges, such as performance, and
data quality.

A data warehouse is a central repository for businesses to store and analyze data
from multiple sources. Data warehouses are a key element of business intelligence
(BI). They provide organizations with the tools to make informed decisions.
Data warehouses are designed to enable and support BI activities, especially
analytics. They are solely intended to perform queries and analysis and often contain
large amounts of historical data.
Business intelligence relies on complex queries and comparing multiple sets of data
to inform everything from everyday decisions to organization-wide shifts in focus.
Data warehousing refers to the methods organizations use to collect and store their
information. Business intelligence refers to the methods used to analyze this
information.
Some best practices for data warehousing include:
 Selecting a suitable data warehouse platform and tools
 Implementing Master Data Management (MDM) practice
 Applying Change Data Capture (CDC)
 Establishing an Operational Data Plan
 Defining access
 Automating management and maintenance
 Setting up reporting
 Being agile
Microsoft Power BI is one of the most widely used Data Warehousing and Business
Intelligence solutions.

Data Mart
• Focus: A single subject or functional organization area
• Data Sources: Relatively few sources linked to one line of business
• Size: Less than 100 GB
• Normalization: No preference between a normalized and denormalized
structure
• Decision Types: Tactical decisions pertaining to particular business lines and
ways of doing things

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• Cost: Typically, from $10,000 upwards
• Setup Time: 3-6 months
• Data Held: Typically summarized data

Data Warehouse
• Focus: Enterprise-wide repository of disparate data sources
• Data Sources: Many external and internal sources from different areas of an
organization
• Size: 100 GB minimum but often in the range of terabytes for large
organizations
• Normalization: Modern warehouses are mostly denormalized for quicker data
querying and read performance
• Decision Types: Strategic decisions that affect the entire enterprise
• Cost: Varies but often greater than $100,000; for cloud solutions costs can be
dramatically lower as organizations pay per use
• Setup Time: At least a year for on premise warehouses; cloud data warehouses
are much quicker to set up
• Data Held: Raw data, metadata, and summary data

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Knowledge management is the process by which an enterprise gathers, organizes,
shares and analyzes its knowledge in a way that is easily accessible to employees.
This knowledge includes technical resources, frequently asked questions, training
documents and people skills.

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Knowledge management process
While some academics (PDF, 156 KB) (link resides outside of IBM) summarize the
knowledge management process as involving knowledge acquisition, creation,
refinement, storage, transfer, sharing and utilization. This process can be synthesized
this a little further. Effective knowledge management system typically goes through
three main steps:
1. Knowledge Creation: During this step, organizations identify and document
any existing or new knowledge that they want to circulate across the company.
2. Knowledge Storage: During this stage, an information technology system is
typically used to host organizational knowledge for distribution. Information may
need to be formatted in a particular way to meet the requirements of that repository.
3. Knowledge Sharing: In this final stage, processes to share knowledge are
communicated broadly across the organization. The rate in which information
spreads will vary depending on organizational culture. Companies that encourage and
reward this behavior will certainly have a competitive advantage over other ones in
their industry.

Benefits of knowledge management

Companies experience a number of benefits when they embrace knowledge
management strategies. Some key advantages include:
 Identification of skill gaps: When teams create relevant documentation
around implicit or tacit knowledge or consolidate explicit knowledge, it can highlight
gaps in core competencies across teams. This provides valuable information to
management to form new organizational structures or hire additional resources.
 Make better informed decisions: Knowledge management systems arm
individuals and departments with knowledge. By improving accessibility to current
and historical enterprise knowledge, your teams can upskill and make more
information-driven decisions that support business goals.

21
 Maintains enterprise knowledge: If your most knowledgeable employees left
tomorrow, what would your business do? Practicing internal knowledge management
enables businesses to create an organizational memory. Knowledge held by your
long-term employees and other experts, then make it accessible to your wider team.
 Operational efficiencies: Knowledge management systems create a go-to place
that enable knowledge workers to find relevant information more quickly. This, in
turn, reduces the amount of time on research, leading to faster decision-making and
cost-savings through operational efficiencies. Increase productivity not only saves
time, but also reduces costs.
 Increased collaboration and communication: Knowledge management
systems and organizational cultures work together to build trust among team
members. These information systems provide more transparency among workers,
creating more understanding and alignment around common goals. Engaged
leadership and open communication create an environment for teams to embrace
innovation and feedback.
 Data Security: Knowledge management systems enable organizations to
customize permission control, viewership control and the level of document-security
to ensure that information is shared only in the correct channels or with selected
individuals. Give your employees the autonomy access knowledge safely and with
confidence.

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DECISION MAKING
is the process of making choices by identifying a decision, gathering information, and
assessing alternative resolutions.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF DECISIONS MAKING IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

We can summarize these types of decisions in business intelligence this way:
• Strategic: Long-term, complex, made by senior managers
• Tactical: Medium-term, less complex, made by mid-level managers
• Operational: Day-to-day, simple, routine, made by junior managers

DECISION MAKING

Step 1: Identify the decision

You realize that you need to make a decision. Try to clearly define the nature of the
decision you must make. This first step is very important.

Step 2: Gather relevant information

Collect some pertinent information before you make your decision: what information
is needed, the best sources of information, and how to get it. This step involves both
internal and external “work.” Some information is internal: you’ll seek it through a
process of self-assessment. Other information is external: you’ll find it online, in
books, from other people, and from other sources.

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Step 3: Identify the alternatives
As you collect information, you will probably identify several possible paths of action,
or alternatives. You can also use your imagination and additional information to
construct new alternatives. In this step, you will list all possible and desirable
alternatives.

Step 4: Weigh the evidence

Draw on your information and emotions to imagine what it would be like if you
carried out each of the alternatives to the end. Evaluate whether the need identified
in Step 1 would be met or resolved through the use of each alternative. As you go
through this difficult internal process, you’ll begin to favor certain alternatives: those
that seem to have a higher potential for reaching your goal. Finally, place the
alternatives in a priority order, based upon your own value system.

Step 5: Choose among alternatives

Once you have weighed all the evidence, you are ready to select the alternative that
seems to be best one for you. You may even choose a combination of alternatives.
Your choice in Step 5 may very likely be the same or similar to the alternative you
placed at the top of your list at the end of Step 4.

Step 6: Take action

You’re now ready to take some positive action by beginning to implement the
alternative you chose in Step 5.

Step 7: Review your decision & its consequences

In this final step, consider the results of your decision and evaluate whether or not it
has resolved the need you identified in Step 1. If the decision has not met the
identified need, you may want to repeat certain steps of the process to make a new
decision. For example, you might want to gather more detailed or somewhat
different information or explore additional alternatives.
DECISION MAKING PROCESS USING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) SYSTEM
The decision-making process using BI includes:
Analyzing data Identifying the most appropriate decision-making model
Implementing the decision Repeating the data analysis process altering the model
based on new information or discoveries

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 Business intelligence (BI) systems help organizations make data-driven decisions by
collecting, storing, and analyzing data to generate insights. The decision-making
process using BI involves the following steps:
1. Analyze data
2. Identify the most appropriate decision-making model
3. Implement the model
4. Repeat the data analysis process
5. Alter the model based on new information or discoveries
BI systems can help businesses in many ways, including:
 Generating reports with valuable insights

 Data visualization to understand the reports

 Tracking progress on a daily basis for better performance management
 Interactivity
 Database connection
 Mobile business intelligence
 Predictive analytics
 Application integration
 Ad hoc reporting
 Automating tasks so that business leaders always have precise reports
For example, a company can use data analytics to identify problem areas and
opportunities to make decisions that will improve their inventory management.
Decision Making Process Using Business Intelligence (BI) System

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DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
A decision support system (DSS) is an interactive information system that analyzes
large volumes of data for informing business decisions.
A decision support system (DSS) is a computerized program used to support
determinations, judgments, and courses of action in an organization or a business. A
DSS sifts through and analyzes massive amounts of data, compiling comprehensive
information that can be used to solve problems and in decision-making.
• There are various types of decision support system, which are classified as:
• Data-driven.
• Model-driven.
• Knowledge-driven.
• Document-driven.
• Communication -driven.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE
• Business intelligence (BI) is software that ingests business data and presents it
in user-friendly views such as reports, dashboards, charts and graphs.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IS IMPORTANT
• Improve ROI by understanding the business and intelligently allocating
resources to meet strategic objectives.
• Unravel customer behavior, preferences and trends, and use the insights to
better target prospects or tailor products to changing market needs.
• Monitor business operations and fix or make improvements on an ongoing
basis, fueled by data insights.
• Improve supply chain management by monitoring activity up and down the line
and communicating results with partners and suppliers.

OLAP (ONLINE ANALYTICAL PROCESSING)

OLAP stands for On-Line Analytical Processing.
OLAP is a classification of software technology which authorizes analysts, managers,
and executives to gain insight into information through fast, consistent, interactive
access in a wide variety of possible views of data that has been transformed from raw
information to reflect the real dimensionality of the enterprise as understood by the
clients.
OLAP implement the multidimensional analysis of business information and
support the capability for complex estimations, trend analysis, and sophisticated data
modeling. It is rapidly enhancing the essential foundation for Intelligent Solutions
containing Business Performance Management, Planning, Budgeting, Forecasting,
Financial Documenting, Analysis, Simulation-Models, Knowledge Discovery, and Data

26
Warehouses Reporting. OLAP enables end-clients to perform ad hoc analysis of
record in multiple dimensions, providing the insight and understanding they require
for better decision making.

OLAP APPLICATIONS ARE USED BY A VARIETY OF THE FUNCTIONS OF AN

ORGANIZATION.
Finance and accounting:
• Budgeting
• Activity-based costing
• Financial performance analysis
• And financial modeling
Sales and Marketing
• Sales analysis and forecasting
• Market research analysis
• Promotion analysis
• Customer analysis
• Market and customer segmentation
Production
• Production planning
• Defect analysis

OLAP is a multidimensional model of data. It allows users to extract and view

business data from different points of view. OLAP can be used for:
 Limitless report viewing
 Complex analytical calculations
 Predictive “what if” scenario planning
 Business performance management
 Planning
 Budgeting
 Forecasting
 Financial documenting
 Analysis
 Simulation-models
 Knowledge discovery
 Data warehouses reporting

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There are three main types of OLAP:
 MOLAP is a multi-dimensional storage mode.
 ROLAP is a relational mode of storage.
 HOLAP is a combination of multi-dimensional and relational elements.

ANALYTIC FUNCTIONS
An analytic function is a function provided by the relational database that performs
an analytical task on a result set. An analytic function in a query returns, with each
row in the result set, a calculation from a group of rows. The groups of rows can be
ordered and partitioned.
Analytic functions can be used to:
• Compute moving averages
• Compute running totals
• Compute percentages
• Compute top-N results within a group

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 UNIT III
BUSINESS FORECASTING

Business forecasting is the process of analyzing historical data to predict future

market conditions. The goal is to develop strategies based on these
predictions. Business forecasting can be qualitative or quantitative.

Forecasting uses unique trends in data to predict future values. For example, a
company might predict average annual turnover based on data from 10+ years
prior. Predictive analysis factors in a variety of inputs to predict future behavior.

Business forecasting can help companies:

 Develop business strategies
 Identify patterns in past data
 Prepare for potential issues
 Identify areas for profitable growth

Business forecasting refers to the tools and techniques used to predict developments
in business, such as sales, expenditures, and profits. The purpose of business
forecasting is to develop better strategies based on these informed predictions.

What is the Importance of Forecasting in Business?

The use of forecasts in business management is indispensable for nearly every
decision in every industry. The use of business forecasting provides information that
helps business managers identify and understand weaknesses in their planning, adapt
to changing circumstances, and achieve effective control of business operations.

Some business forecasting examples include: determining the feasibility of facing

existing competition, measuring the possibility of creating demand for a product,
estimating the costs of recurring monthly bills, predicting future sales volumes based
on past sales information, efficient allocation of resources, forecasting earnings and
budgeting, and scrutinizing the appropriateness of management decisions.

Business forecasting software can help business managers and forecasters not only
generate forecast reports easily, but also better understand predictions and how to
make strategic decisions based off of these predictions. A quality business forecast
system should provide clear, real-time visualization of business performance, which
facilitates fast analysis and streamlined business planning.

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The application of forecasting in business is an art and a science, the combination
of business intelligence and data science, and the challenges of business forecasting
often stem from poor judgments and inexperience. Assumptions combined with
unexpected events can be dangerous and result in completely inaccurate predictions.
Despite the limitations of business forecasting, gaining any amount of insight into
probable future trends will put an organization at a significant advantage.

FORECASTING AND PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

• Forecasting is a technique that uses historical data as inputs to make informed
estimates that are predictive in determining the direction of future trends.
Businesses utilize forecasting to determine how to allocate their budgets or
plan for anticipated expenses for an upcoming period of time.
• Predictive Forecasting is an extension of forecasting that guides companies to
grow more profitable and respond quickly to changing circumstances and new
business developments. It uses historical data and predicts future trends to
help you make better business decisions and stay ahead of the competitors.

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LOGIC DRIVEN MODELING IN BUSINESS ANALYTICS
• A logic-driven is based on experience, knowledge and logical relationships of
variable and constants connected to the desired performance outcome. To
help conceptualize the relationships inherent in a system, diagramming
methods are useful.
• many sources to qualitatively establish model relationships.
• Examples include fuzzy logic, fuzzy and rough sets for handling uncertainty,
neural networks for approximating functions, global optimization and
evolutionary computing, statistical learning theory, and Bayesian methods.
DATA DRIVEN MODELING (DDM)
• is a technique using which the configurator model components are dynamically
injected into the model based on the data derived from external systems such
as catalog system, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Watson, and so
on.
• The Omni-Configurator engine constructs the model components including
option class and option item during runtime based on the service request
parameters, and populates associated properties before executing business
logic contained inside the configurator model.
• Using the DDM technique, a modeler can define a configurator model by using
the Sterling Configurator Visual Modeler tool with DDM properties that defines
the data source and selection criteria for injecting the catalog items into the
model. The data is retrieved from the system or data source by using the data
source adapters implemented for each system or data source.
• Based on the data source defined in the model, the corresponding data source
adapters are invoked to fetch the data. Model components are dynamically
created in the configurator model based on the data returned by the data
source adapter.
The DDM technique provides the following benefits over the static modeling
technique:
• It reduces the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by eliminating manual
construction of model components by the modeler that represents products
within configurator models.
• It reduces the time to market since the model is dynamically updated with
changes in the catalog system.

Logic driven models remain based on experience, knowledge and logical relationships
of variables and constants connected to the desired business performance outcome
situation. 2. Data-driven Models refers to the models in which data is collected from
many sources to qualitatively establish model relationships.

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DATA MINING AND PREDICTIVE MODELING
• Predictive modeling solutions are a form of data-mining technology that works
by analyzing historical and current data and generating a model to help predict
future outcomes.
DATA MINING MODELS
• A Data mining model refers to a method that usually use to present the
information and various ways in which they can apply information to specific
questions and problems. As per the specialists, the data mining regression
model is the most commonly used data mining model. In this process, a mining
expert first analyzes the data sets and creates a formula that defines them.
Various Financial market analysts use this model to make predictions related to
prices and market trends.
TYPES OF DATA MINING MODELS
• Predictive data mining models
• Descriptive data mining models
• Predictive data mining models

TYPES OF DATA MINING MODELS

• Predictive data mining models
• Descriptive data mining models

PREDICTIVE DATA MINING model predicts the values of data using known results
gathered from the different data sets. Predictive modeling can not be classified as a
separate discipline; it occurs in all organizations or industries across all disciplines.
The main objective of predictive data mining models is to predict the future based on
the past data, generally but not always on the statistical modeling.
• Predictive modeling is used in healthcare industries to identify high-risk
patients with congestive heart failures, high blood pressure, diabetes,
infection, cancer, etc. It is also used in the vehicle insurance company to assign
the risk of accidents to the policyholder.

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Descriptive data mining is a technique that analyzes stored data to identify what
happened in the past. The main objective of descriptive data mining is to summarize
and transform data into useful information for reporting and monitoring purposes.
Descriptive data mining models recognize the designs or relationships in data and
discover the properties of the data studied. These models include: Clustering,
Summarization, Association rule, Sequence discovery.
Descriptive data mining is based on data classification, association, and feature
extraction. It is usually used to provide correlation, cross-tabulation, frequency, and
other types of information. These techniques are used to determine the data
regularities and to reveal patterns.
The other main type of data mining model is predictive. Predictive data mining is
based on data classification, time series analysis, and data regression. It is used to
understand the data and predict future events.

33
There are two main data mining models types. These are: Predictive and Descriptive.
The descriptive model recognizes the designs or relationships in data and discovers
the properties of the data studied. For instance, Clustering, Summarization,
Association rule, Sequence discovery etc.

STEP BY STEP PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS – MACHINE LEARNING PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Involves certain manipulations on data from existing data sets with the goal of
identifying some new trends and patterns. These trends and patterns are then used
to predict future outcomes and trends. By performing predictive analysis, we can
predict future trends and performance. It is also defined as the prognostic analysis,
the word prognostic means prediction. Predictive analytics uses the data, statistical
algorithms and machine learning techniques to identify the probability of future
outcomes based on historical data.
IMPORTANT OF PREDICTIVE ANALYSIS
In predictive analysis, we use historical data to predict future outcomes. Thus
predictive analysis plays a vital role in various fields. It improves decision making and
helps to increase the profit rates of business and reduces risk by identifying them at
the early stage.
• Predictive analysis is used in various fields like:
• Online Retail
• Healthcare
• Education
• Reduces Risks
• Fraud Detection
• Improvised market campaigning
• weather forecasting
• Social Media Analysis
• cyber security
• Recommendation and search engines
• Government Sector etc.

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Steps To Perform Predictive Analysis:
Some basic steps should be performed in order to perform predictive analysis.
• Define Problem Statement:
Define the project outcomes, the scope of the effort, objectives, Identify the
data sets that are going to be used.
• Data Collection:
Data collection involves gathering the necessary details required for the
analysis. It involves the historical or past data from an authorized source over
which predictive analysis is to be performed.
• Data Cleaning:
Data Cleaning is the process in which we refine our data sets. In the process of
data cleaning, we remove un-necessary and erroneous data. It involves
removing the redundant data and duplicate data from our data sets.
• Data Analysis:
It involves the exploration of data. We explore the data and analyze it
thoroughly in order to identify some patterns or new outcomes from the data
set. In this stage, we discover useful information and conclude by identifying
some patterns or trends.
• Build Predictive Model:
In this stage of predictive analysis, we use various algorithms to build predictive
models based on the patterns observed. It requires knowledge of python, R,
Statistics and MATLAB and so on. We also test our hypothesis using standard
statistic models.
• Validation:
It is a very important step in predictive analysis. In this step, we check the
efficiency of our model by performing various tests. Here we provide sample
input sets to check the validity of our model. The model needs to be evaluated
for its accuracy in this stage.
• Deployment:
In deployment we make our model work in a real environment and it helps in
everyday discussion making and make it available to use.
• Model Monitoring:
Regularly monitor your models to check performance and ensure that we have
proper results. It is seeing how model predictions are performing against actual
data sets.

35
36
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DESCRIPTIVE AND PREDICTIVE DATA MINING:

Descriptive Predictive
S.No. Comparison Data Mining Data Mining

It determines,
It determines, what can
what happened happen in the
in the past by future with
analyzing the help past
1. Basic stored data. data analysis.

It produces
results does
It provides not ensure
2. Preciseness accurate data. accuracy.

Standard Predictive
reporting, modelling,
Practical query/drill forecasting,
analysis down and ad- simulation
3. methods hoc reporting. and alerts.

It requires
It requires data statistics and
aggregation and forecasting
4. Require data mining methods

Type of Reactive Proactive

5. approach approach approach

Carry out the

induction over
the current
Describes the and past data
characteristics so that
of the data in a predictions
6. Describe target data set. can be made.

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 UNIT IV
HR & SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYTICS

DEFINITION
Human resources (HR) is the division of a business that is charged with finding,
recruiting, screening, and training job applicants.

DUTIES OF HUMAN RECOURSES

In an organization, Human Resources is the department
in charge of all employees and employee-related operations.
As a term, we also use it to describe the entire workforce of
an organization.
Human Resources manages 5 main duties:
 Talent management,
 Compensation and employee benefits,
 Training and development,
 Compliance, and
 workplace safety.

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN RECOURSES

HR plays a key role in developing, reinforcing and changing the culture of an
organization.
Pay, performance management, training and development, recruitment and
reinforcing the values of the business are all essential elements of business culture
covered by HR.

Human resources (HR) analytics is the process of collecting and analyzing data to
improve an organization's workforce performance. HR analytics is also known as
people analytics, talent analytics, or workforce analytics.
HR analytics allows HR leaders to develop data-driven insights to:
 Inform talent decisions
 Improve workforce processes
 Promote positive employee experience
HR analytics can help organizational leaders:
 Watch the rate at which employees are receiving promotions and raises
 Understand what key factors drive these decisions
HR analytics has become a standard component of many human resources processes.

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There are four types of HR analytics: Descriptive, Diagnostic, Predictive, Prescriptive.
HR professionals have worked to counteract the decrease in productivity caused by
the pandemic.

PLANNING, RECRUITMENT IN HUMAN RESOURSES

The Importance of Planning, Recruitment, and Selection in Human Resource
Management
From the above description of the three processes of human resource management,
planning, recruitment and selection; it is evident that they contribute greatly to
better performance of the employees and the organization as a whole. They are all
equally important, and we cannot determine which is more crucial.
The processes are also interdependent, and they rely on each other. An effective
planning process is likely to lead to effective recruitment practices, leading to an
effective selection process. The reverse is also true, and a fault in one of the
processes is likely to bring about failures in the others. Hence, the outcome results
will be poor hiring, where the hired employees’ qualifications do not match the
organizational needs. This leads to poor performance of the employees and that of an
organization at large.

THE ROLE OF RECRUITMENT, SELECTION, AND PLANNING PROCESSES – EXAMPLE

• To enhance the understanding of the importance of these processes, I give a
situation in my workplace. Before the concepts of effective planning,
recruitment and selection were adhered to in our organization, there existed a
lot of problems, the leading one being employee turnover.
• It was then that the management thought of identifying the reasons behind
this and how the problems could be solved. The main reasons for employee
turnover were the mismatch of their qualifications with the job positions
leading to bad performance and, thus, lack of job satisfaction.

39
• This was due to poor planning, recruitment as well as selection, where there
was no proper identification of the organization’s needs, and hence these led
to poor recruitment practices where the appropriate job information was not
provided. This, in turn, led to poor selection, people would not perform as
expected, and lack of job satisfaction led to instances of quitting. Another issue
was a lack of motivation, where the employees never felt appreciated and
valued (Mathis & Jackson, 2008).
• Proper steps were taken, and the policies governing the processes of planning,
recruitment and selection and the general human resource management were
revised. This has improved the situation greatly, and there are very low
turnover rates as most employees are suitable for their jobs and put in good
working conditions that foster job satisfaction.
• The impact of the above scenario has taught me a lot in regard to carrying out
practices, both official as well as personal. There is a need for an individual to
carry out activities having in mind the consequences of each action. Right
procedures are crucial, and nothing should be taken for granted.

Human Resource Planning

• Human resource planning plays a significant role in determining the demand
and supply factors of labor as well as the problems that are associated with the
resolution of these factors.
• Human resource planning is influenced by an organization’s short term as well
as long term operational and development needs.
• The employees and stakeholders needs and aspirations also play a great role in
shaping the human resource planning function of an organization (Roberts,
1997).

Human Resource Recruitment

Human resource recruitment on the other hand entails the process of
attracting and encouraging eligible individuals to apply for different positions in
an organization.
• It involves generating a pool of appropriate and qualified candidates for
available job positions in an organization.
• It is a process that commences when the new recruits are identified and ends
when the applications from these candidates are received.
• Recruitment is a very essential process as it facilitates the attraction of
qualified candidates to apply
• Recruitment also plays a role in projecting the organization’s image.

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TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN HRM
Training and development in Human Resource Management (HRM) refers to a system
of educating employees within a company. It includes various tools, instructions, and
activities designed to improve employee performance. It’s an opportunity for
employees to increase their knowledge and upgrade their skills.
Here are some training and development trends
• Self-paced online employee training and development programs
• Training on the management of virtual teams
• Personalized training programs based on employees’ needs
• Mobile app training programs
• Usage of knowledge-sharing systems for all employees
• Retraining and reskilling to keep up with changing technology
• The widespread availability of online learning courses
• Training for first-time managers and leaders
• Training on diversity and inclusion
• Interactive training programs and walkthroughs
• Training with real-time feedback from employees

Purpose of training and development in HRM

1. Increase company productivity
• You might want to consider upskilling your employees. Training them to use
advanced tools and technology might improve their efficiency. Moreover, being more
confident in their abilities will make them more motivated to work.
• Also, they’ll be able to face challenges and adapt to changes quickly. Aside
from that, you’ll also be promoting a culture of learning in your workplace. The act of
learning together can help your employees bond with each other better.
2. Improve product or service quality
• Training and development programs are an opportunity for experts within your
organization to share their techniques. Within a short span of time, employees will
get to learn tips and best practices for their work.
• This will allow them to create better products or provide more satisfying
services. Additionally, adequate training of employees involves giving them the same
set of instructions. This leads to uniformity in their methods and output.
3. Lessen employee turnover
• Research has shown that training and development has a positive impact on
employee turnover. Workers will surely appreciate your company’s investment in
their development. This will strengthen their sense of job satisfaction, belongingness,
and commitment.

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• Training and development programs might also lead them to have a better
relationship with the organization. As a result, it’ll decrease their intentions to leave
and increase your company’s workforce retention. It’s a win-win situation for
everyone.
4. Decrease costs and errors
• If your company has highly trained employees, there are few to no mistakes
being made every day. As a result, less time and resources are spent on redoing
incorrect work.
• Also, product malfunctions and improper delivery of services are generally
frowned upon. They might involve additional expenses, too. Properly trained
employees know how to use materials efficiently. Thus, your company will spend less
because waste and spoilage are minimal.
• This applies to machinery as well. A trained employee will know how to take
care of equipment. This will lead to lesser breakdowns and a longer lifespan for your
machinery.

ROLE OF HR IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

This vital role can be fulfilled through the following functions:
• Employee guidance and mentorship
• Monitoring employee performance
• Gathering feedback and interpreting data collected
• Providing enhancement activities and educational platforms
• Supplying sufficient on-the-job training
• Boosting employee morale and motivation
• Ensuring employees’ overall well-being

THE 5 PROCESSES IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

The processes are:
• Assessment of training needs and resources
• Motivation of trainers and trainees
• Design of training programs and materials
• Delivery of training
• Process and outcome evaluation

Recruitment analytics is a type of people analytics that involves analyzing data and
patterns from the recruitment process. This data is used to make decisions about
how to improve the recruitment process.

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Recruitment analytics can be used to track and analyze metrics related to:
 Sourcing
 Selection
 Hiring
 The impact of new hires on retention and turnover
A recruitment plan is a strategy for hiring employees. It acts as a timeline for finding
qualified applicants. The plan identifies the goals for a particular position. The plan
can help direct the recruitment team to focus on attracting and hiring people in the
areas most needed by the company.

The recruitment process includes:

 Identifying needs
 Writing a job description
 Developing a talent pipeline
 Screening candidates
 Interviewing the most qualified candidates
 Evaluating and making an offer

Training and development in Human Resource Management (HRM) is a system of

educating employees to improve their performance. It includes tools, instructions,
and activities that help employees increase their knowledge and skills.
Training refers to acquiring specific knowledge and skills for a particular job or
task. Development focuses on improving and honing existing skills and the overall
growth of employees.

Training and development can include:

 Teaching employees how to use new technology
 Rating individual and group performances
 Using evaluations to develop more efficient processes
 Job shadowing
 One on one coaching
 Mentoring

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The goal of training and development is to increase productivity, motivation, and
results
Training and development, usually, refers to an organizational process. It's primarily
focused on improving your employees' work performance. Meanwhile, learning and
development is more employee-centric. It deals with your employees' progress and
education as a whole, not just within the workplace.

PURPOSE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT IN HRM

1. Increase company productivity

You might want to consider upskilling your employees. Training them to use
advanced tools and technology might improve their efficiency. Moreover, being
more confident in their abilities will make them more motivated to work.

Also, they’ll be able to face challenges and adapt to changes quickly. Aside from
that, you’ll also be promoting a culture of learning in your workplace. The act of
learning together can help your employees bond with each other better.

All of these factors might contribute greatly to your company’s productivity.

2. Improve product or service quality

Training and development programs are an opportunity for experts within your
organization to share their techniques. Within a short span of time, employees will
get to learn tips and best practices for their work.

This will allow them to create better products or provide more satisfying services.
Additionally, adequate training of employees involves giving them the same set of
instructions. This leads to uniformity in their methods and output.

3. Lessen employee turnover

Research has shown that training and development has a positive impact on
employee turnover. Workers will surely appreciate your company’s investment in
their development. This will strengthen their sense of job satisfaction,
belongingness, and commitment.

Training and development programs might also lead them to have a better
relationship with the organization. As a result, it’ll decrease their intentions to leave
and increase your company’s workforce retention. It’s a win-win situation for
everyone.

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4. Decrease costs and errors

If your company has highly trained employees, there are few to no mistakes being
made every day. As a result, less time and resources are spent on redoing incorrect
work.

Also, product malfunctions and improper delivery of services are generally frowned
upon. They might involve additional expenses, too. Properly trained employees
know how to use materials efficiently. Thus, your company will spend less because
waste and spoilage are minimal.

This applies to machinery as well. A trained employee will know how to take care of
equipment. This will lead to lesser breakdowns and a longer lifespan for your
machinery.

ROLE OF HR IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

Employee guidance and mentorship
Monitoring employee performance
Gathering feedback and interpreting data collected
Providing enhancement activities and educational platforms
Supplying sufficient on-the-job training
Boosting employee morale and motivation
Ensuring employees’ overall well-being

FIVE PROCESSES IN TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

The processes are:
Assessment of training needs and resources
Motivation of trainers and trainees
Design of training programs and materials
Delivery of training
Process and outcome evaluation

SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK

• A supply chain is the network of all the individuals, organizations, resources,
activities and technology involved in the creation and sale of a product.
• A supply chain encompasses everything from the delivery of source materials
from the supplier to the manufacturer through to its eventual delivery to the end
user.

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Example of a supply chain network
• Supply Chain Network Example: For Apple Juice
• Organization. A supply chain network shows the links
• between organizations and how information and
• materials flow between these links.

FOUR STAGES OF SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK

• Integration, operations, purchasing and distribution are the four elements of
the supply chain that work together to establish a path to competition that is both
cost-effective and competitive.
How HR is related to supply chain management?
• HR staff that understands supply chain management can streamline your
processes by building trusting relationships with suppliers.
• They can also make policies that promote transparency, organizational
confidentiality, and the right interdependence strategy
What are the objectives of supply chain network?
• The objectives of SCM include optimizing efficiency, minimizing costs,
increasing customer satisfaction, and providing a competitive advantage to firms. To
that end, companies need to ensure that their supply chain processes are as
streamlined and automated as possible.
What are the 5 supply chain?
• Five supply chain drivers, Production, Inventory, Location, Transportation, and
Information

A supply chain network is a network of people, organizations, resources, and

technology involved in the creation and sale of a product. The supply chain includes
everything from the delivery of raw materials from the supplier to the manufacturer
to the final delivery to the end user.

THE SUPPLY CHAIN NETWORK INCLUDES:

Entities, Materials, Information, Human resources, Physical locations, Transportation
vehicles, Supporting systems.
The supply chain network design is a working model that assesses the time and costs
required to bring goods to the market. This model helps businesses spot inefficiencies
and potential risks in the supply chain.

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THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF MAIN FLOWS IN ANY SUPPLY CHAIN:
 Flow of materials/goods
 Flow of money/cash
 Flow of information

Almost everything that we purchase in a store comes to us as a part of a supply

chain. Managing these networks is a complex and ever evolving task.

Demand planning is a supply chain management process that involves forecasting

customer demand for products. The goal is to have enough inventory to meet
customer needs without having a surplus.

DEMAND PLANNING IS A CRUCIAL PART OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

BECAUSE IT ALLOWS ORGANIZATIONS TO:
 Anticipate demand
 Stock inventories appropriately
 Provide customers with the best value for their money

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Demand planning involves creating a demand plan based on a statistical forecast. The
plan considers factors that can influence demand, such as inventory and
marketing. The plan specifies where to distribute products to meet the anticipated
demand.

Supply planning determines how a business will fulfill demand while still meeting its
financial and service goals. Supply planning should factor in various aspects related to
inventory production and logistics.

Demand and inventory planning systems contribute to supply chain optimization

and cost efficiency. By aligning demand with inventory levels, organizations can:
 Reduce carrying costs
 Minimize stockouts
 Optimize order fulfillment processes

DEMAND PLANNING
In general, demand management is the process of forecasting customer demand.
Demand planners combine data sets from historical sales, market influences, retailer
or distributor actions, and other conditions that may affect demand, such as social
influences, school schedules or weather impacts. They use this data to forecast
customer demand.
There are two types of demand planning: unconstrained and constrained. In
unconstrained demand forecasting, the planner focuses solely on raw demand
potential. This means they won’t factor in possible constraints such as capacity and
cash flow. Essentially, how much could you sell if supply wasn’t an
issue. Constrained forecasting, however, does take these factors into account,
creating a more realistic approach.
Businesses should employ both unconstrained and constrained demand planning to
give their customers the most value and keep supply costs down. When your business
improves its demand forecasting, you also reduce the amount of inventory you hold
to meet service targets, reducing costs. Bringing both together is essential in
supporting executive Sales and Operations Planning as current, and future resources
as considered in relation to demand.
There are four elements of demand planning that businesses should take into
account:
 Appropriate Product History: What you’ve sold in the past may indicate what
you will sell in the future. This element involves choosing the best historical period
and the right conditions but can be helpful in forecasting.

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 Internal Trends: Also using historical data, businesses determine trends based
on another sales pattern in the product or group of products.
 External Trends: Some factors that may influence a business’s ability to meet
its goals include competition, socio-cultural factors, legal, technological changes,
economy, and political environment.
 Events and Promotions: When businesses run events or promotions, there will
often be an increase in sales. Demand planning must account for this as well.

DEMAND PLANNING SOLUTIONS enabled by Blue Ridge Global will help you
effectively forecast and allow you to take a proactive approach to your supply chain.

SUPPLY PLANNING
While demand planning involves forecasting customer demand, supply planning
determines how a business will fulfill that demand while still meeting its financial and
service goals. Therefore, supply planning should factor in various aspects related to
inventory production and logistics. These factors may include on-hand quantities,
open and planned customer orders, minimum order quantities, lead times,
production leveling, safety stocks, and demand.
There are five functions of supply chain management:
1. Acquisition: This step involves purchasing raw materials needed for the final
product. Purchasing supplies is essential for manufacturing to take place and should
include having visibility to your suppliers and their suppliers.
2. Business Operations: This is where demand forecasting comes in. At this step,
you need to know how much product must be produced, to calculate the demand
and decide how much inventory you will need.
3. Transportation and Logistics: This component organizes the parts of planning,
buying, manufacturing, storage, and transportation to ensure items reach the end
customer.
4. Management of Resources: Here, businesses ensure that enough resources are
available and optimally distributed.
5. Workflow of Information: Exchanging information keeps supply chain
management on track. This process ensures a standardized system is in place across
all departments.
Many businesses will use supply planning software to automate inputting a demand
plan and all its data into generating a master production schedule. Then, once the
supply plan is created, they will review its capacity and impact on resources and
revise it as needed.

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LOGISTICS
Logistics is an aspect of the supply chain that stores or delivers finished goods or
services to the customer, whether that's a manufacturer, distributor or consumer.
The goal of logistics is to get goods and services to the customer on time & at a
competitive price
Why Logistics is the key to success with supply chains
While a good marketing strategy can “open many doors” and attract customers, a
reliable logistics service can help your business build and maintain a positive public
image. Meanwhile, poorly organized logistics can lead to losing customers and
decreased sales.is logistics important in supply chain
What is the role of logistics?
The roles of logistics feature transportation/delivery, storage, packaging, cargo
handling, distribution processing, and information processing, and many systems
have been put in place to deliver products from the production location or factory to
the consumer quickly and on time.

Logistics analytics is the process of analyzing and coordinating a company's logistics

and supply chain to ensure operations run smoothly and cost-effectively. The goal of
logistics analytics is to establish a value-driven network that aligns supply and
demand.
Business analysts can use logistics analytics to:
 Track shipments
 Determine the best delivery routes
 Ensure there are enough employees
 Fix delays
 Predict future shipping needs

Logistics analytics can help companies improve operations, minimize risk, and meet
customer expectations. Companies that don't use data analytics are at a
disadvantage, especially when faced with competition.

Logistics analytics can generate insights on:

 Product placement
 Pricing strategy
 Cost and labor optimization
 Operational risk management

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Logistics is the process of purchasing and delivering raw materials, packaging,
shipping, and transporting goods to distributors.

Analytics can be used in HR and supply chain management to make better decisions
and improve efficiency.
In HR, analytics can be used for:
 Hiring the right talent
 Determining the success rate of teams
 Identifying causes of employee attrition
 Personalizing training programs
 Understanding employee behavior
 Improving employee performance

In supply chain management, analytics can be used for:

 Demand forecasting
 Inventory management
 Network optimization
 Monitoring inventory and shipping
 Predictive analytics to estimate the impact of future promotions on sales
Analytics can help organizations make more informed decisions, which can lead to
improved efficiency and cost savings.

HR ANALYTICS
HR analytics is the data you collect about your people. This process involves
gathering, analyzing, and connecting talent data to business outcomes. The insight
leaders uncover with HR analytics provides the evidence needed to take strategic
action. With a robust HR analytics strategy, leaders can make data-driven decisions
and move forward with confidence.

What does HR analytics measure

HR analytics can measure many things that are key to business success. With a
robust strategy and the right tools, leaders can keep a pulse on:
Employee engagement
Employees are a top driver of business success—that’s why leaders need to keep a
pulse on employee engagement levels across their workforce. By uncovering

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engagement trends over time, leaders can gauge where employee engagement
stands. That way, they can understand what areas of the employee experience to
focus on. And when leaders connect employee engagement data to business
outcomes, they can tell compelling stories about their people and take strategic
action to shape an engaged, motivated workforce.

Employee performance
HR analytics can help leaders understand performance impact across all individuals
and teams. See the big picture behind employee performance to address skills gaps,
motivate rising stars, and drive long-term business success.

Voluntary and involuntary turnover rate

Keeping a pulse on both your involuntary and voluntary turnover rates gives insight
into the employee experience and the success of your recruiting strategy. If many
employees choose to leave within a given time period, leaders should find ways to
improve the employee experience. If many employees are being terminated from
their roles, it’s time to evolve your recruiting strategy.

Turnover risk
Turnover risk identifies employees at risk for leaving their organization based on
metrics such as absenteeism rates, performance issues, and low engagement levels.
This predictive data helps leaders take measures to prevent talent loss before it’s too
late and retain valued employees.

Human capital risk

Human capital risk helps leaders keep a pulse on all employee-related risks. These
include employee skills gaps and lack of employees to fill senior positions. When you
understand the scope of these employee-related risks, you can take the action
needed to mitigate threats and move forward with confidence.

Training efficiency
Based on employee performance, role progression, and employee growth after
training, leaders can understand what’s working and what isn’t in their training
program. If your training program fails to set employees up for success, performance
suffers and revenue plummets. To put your best foot forward for employee and
business success, leaders need a constant pulse on training efficiency.

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Absenteeism
Absenteeism rates measure the number of days that an employee missed over a
period of time. This gives insight into employee productivity and happiness. If many
employees have high absenteeism, the employee experience may be lacking.

 Revenue and training expenses per employee

When you divide your organization’s generated revenue by each employee, you can
understand the average revenue that each employee produces. This gives leaders
insight into the efficiency of revenue generation through employees.

 Time to hire and fill

The time to hire an employee measures the number of days between approaching a
future employee and their acceptance of your offer. Time to fill measures the average
number of days between publicizing a job opening and finding someone to fill that
role. Time to fill and time to hire data helps leaders uncover gaps in their recruiting
process, improve the candidate experience, and reduce the amount of time it takes
to hire solid employees.

 Offer acceptance rate

Your offer acceptance rate gives insight into your talent acquisition strategy’s success.
It’s measured by dividing the number of accepted job offers within a given period by
the total number of job offers. By keeping a pulse on this data point, you’ll know
when it's time to adapt and improve your strategy.

WHY DOES YOUR BUSINESS NEED HR ANALYTICS

The deep insights leaders uncover with HR analytics helps shape meaningful action.
Here are the top benefits of using HR analytics to make strategic decisions:

 Reduce employee turnover

 Enable fast, strategic recruiting
 Understand effectiveness of training and development
 Develop long term hiring plans
 Understand and act on employee perceptions
 Identify high performers and skills gaps

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SUPPLY CHAIN transforms raw materials and components into a finished product
that's delivered to a customer. It is made up of a complex network of organizations
and activities, such as raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers
and the customer.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

A supply chain transforms raw materials and components into a finished product
that’s delivered to a customer. It is made up of a complex network of organizations
and activities, such as raw materials suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, retailers
and the customer.
Supply chain management is the orchestration between these networks comprising
procurement, management and storage of raw materials and manufacturing, as well
as the moving, delivery, and storing of finished goods and after-market services to
create maximum efficiency, lower cost and net value.

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HR analytics can be used to predict the demand for hourly employees for a year by
using historical data to identify trends and patterns. This data can include things like
past hiring numbers, employee turnover, and economic indicators. By analyzing this
data, HR professionals can get a better idea of how many hourly employees they will
need to hire in the coming year.
Here are some specific steps that HR analytics can be used to predict the demand
for hourly employees:
1. Identify the relevant data.
The first step is to identify the data that will be relevant to the prediction. This could
include things like past hiring numbers, employee turnover, and economic
indicators.
2. Clean and prepare the data.
Once the data has been identified, it needs to be cleaned and prepared for
analysis. This includes removing any errors or duplicates and formatting the data in
a way that is easy to analyze.
3. Analyze the data.
The next step is to analyze the data to identify trends and patterns. This could
include looking at things like the average number of hires per month, the average
employee turnover rate, and the impact of economic indicators on hiring.
4. Make a prediction.
Once the data has been analyzed, it can be used to make a prediction of the
demand for hourly employees for the coming year. This prediction should be based
on the trends and patterns that were identified in the data analysis.
5. Monitor the prediction.
It is important to monitor the prediction over time to make sure that it is still
accurate. This is because the demand for hourly employees can change due to a
variety of factors, such as economic conditions, changes in the business, and new
technologies.
By following these steps, HR analytics can be used to predict the demand for hourly
employees for a year. This information can be used to make informed decisions about
hiring and staffing, which can help businesses to improve their efficiency and
profitability.

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
• The term logistics refers to the activities involved in moving goods from the
point of origin to the point of consumption. It involves things like transportation,
packaging, and warehousing. And logistics management is a part of the supply chain
process that plans the efficient flow and storage of goods from one place to another
to meet customer requirements.
• On the other hand, Supply chain is a network of manufacturers, suppliers,
wholesalers, retailers, etc. to produce and distribute products to the final customer.
And supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services,
including the process of turning raw materials to the final products. It is a concept
that links together multiple processes to achieve competitive advantages.

APPLICATION OF ANALYTICS IN HR
HR analytics allows the HR department to cut through this complexity. For example,
HR managers can analyze the profiles of their top performers, identify their
characteristics (e.g., they have MBA's, were involved in high-level athletics, or are
introverts) and align their staffing process
The kind of data collected for HR analytics includes:
• Employee performance data including low and high performers.
• Salary and promotion history.
• Demographics.
• Onboarding and training engagement.
• Overall employee engagement.
• Employee retention and turnover.
• Employee absenteeism.
What are the analytical methods in HR?
There are 4 types of HR analytics methods that HR professionals can use,
namely, descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. This article will
discuss each of these types and their application in HR.

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Why is HR analytics important?
HR analytics aims to provide insights into how to manage employees and reach
business objectives. The availability of so much data makes it imperative for HR teams
to determine which data is most relevant and how to utilize it best. It can be achieved
with HR data analysis.

The role of HR Analytics in an organization

Identify underlying causes and trends of employee attrition by analyzing past data
Collect data on HR productivity and engagement Using data analysis to understand
new employee behavior Identify insights from the data and report them to
management Understanding patterns behind important concerns like low employee
performance, compensation revisions, etc., through the correlation of various types
of data Developing predictive models to understand employee behavior and
performance Making decisions and developing HR strategies to improve overall
performance and employee satisfaction.

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Benefits of HR Analytics
This benefits both the organization and the employees.
For an Organization
High-Quality Recruitment: Tracking data on recruitment metrics such as cost per
hire, application completion rates, quality of hire and source, and candidate
experience provides the HR world insights into the hiring process. Making changes
based on these findings will positively impact the business. Using algorithms, HR
analytics can identify the best potential candidates based on their skills and
abilities. As a result, the recruiters will save time and money while increasing the
chances of making the right hire the first time.
Achieves Employee Trust: When you implement a new strategy and want to know
what employees think, HR analytics can assist by collecting data about employee
reactions. The HR management can boost employee satisfaction based on the data
and analysis. In addition to helping formulate effective HR policies, this creates a
sense of belonging in employees and makes them start trusting their employers.
For the Employees
• Healthy Work Culture: This data analysis helps to create a healthy work
environment for employees and prevents workplace misconduct. HR Analytics
provides useful information on trends or frequent occurrences of misconduct. With
this information, you can identify areas where training can prevent misconduct in the
future.
• Ideal Work Opportunities: Employees can search for a job on the
organization’s website based on location, skills, and interests. HR analytics collects all
the information regarding the above criteria and displays it on the website’s
dashboard. These data help job seekers to find a relevant job at their desired
location.

HR leaders can spearhead effective predictive HR analytics through the following

tips:
• Define business objectives. HR leaders & their teams should collaborate to
identify long-term company goals
• Ensure a thorough understanding.
• Address ethical considerations.
• Harness the power of predictive analytics.

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Why should HR leaders care about predictive HR analytics?
Predictive HR analytics assists organizations in anticipating challenges so they can,
• Avoid risk
• Reduce human error
• Forecast the typical employee profile that’ll thrive in the organization
• Enhance recruitment practices
• Encourage optimal work performance

SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYTICS

• Supply chain analytics refers to the processes organizations use to gain insight
and extract value from the large amounts of data associated with the procurement,
processing and distribution of goods. Supply chain analytics is an essential element
of supply chain management (SCM).
• The discipline of supply chain analytics has existed for over 100 years, but the
mathematical models, data infrastructure, and applications underpinning these
analytics have evolved significantly. Mathematical models have improved with better
statistical techniques, predictive modeling and machine learning. Data infrastructure
has changed with cloud infrastructure, complex event processing (CEP) and the
internet of things. Applications have grown to provide insight across traditional
application silos such as ERP, warehouse management, logistics and enterprise asset
management.
• An important goal of choosing supply chain analytics software is to improve
forecasting and efficiency and be more responsive to customer needs. For example,
predictive analytics on point-of-sale terminal data stored in a demand signal
repository can help a business anticipate consumer demand, which in turn can lead to
cost-saving adjustments to inventory and faster delivery.
• Achieving end-to-end supply chain analytics requires bringing information
together across the procurement of raw materials and extends through production,
distribution and aftermarket services. This depends on effective integration between
the many SCM and supply chain execution platforms that make up a typical
company's supply chain. The goal of such integration is supply chain visibility: the
ability to view data on goods at every step in the supply chain.

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FEATURES OF SUPPLY CHAIN ANALYTICS
Supply chain analytics software usually includes most of the following features:
• Data visualization. The ability to slice and dice data from different angles to
improve insight and understanding.
• Stream processing. Deriving insight from multiple data streams generated by,
for example, the IoT, applications, weather reports and third-party data.
• Social media integration. Using sentiment data from social feeds to improve
demand planning.
• Natural language processing. Extracting and organizing unstructured data
buried in documents, news sources and data feeds.
• Location intelligence. Deriving insight from location data to understand and
optimize distribution.
• Digital twin of the supply chain. Organizing data into a comprehensive model
of the supply chain that is shared across different types of users to improve predictive
and prescriptive analytics.
• Graph databases. Organizing information into linked elements that make it
easier to find connections, identify patterns and improve traceability of products,
suppliers and facilities.

Supply chain analytics uses

• Sales and operations planning uses supply chain analytics to match a
manufacturer's supply with demand by generating plans that align daily operations
with corporate strategy. Supply chain analytics is also used to do the following:
• improve risk management by identifying known risks and predicting future
risks based on patterns and trends throughout the supply chain;
• increase planning accuracy by analyzing customer data to identify factors that
increase or decrease demand;
• improve order management by consolidating data sources to assess inventory
levels, predict demand and identify fulfillment issues;
• streamline procurement by organizing and analyzing spending across
departments to improve contract negotiations and identify opportunities for
discounts or alternative sources; and
• increase working capital by improving models for determining the inventory
levels required to ensure service goals with minimal capital investment.

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What can HR leaders do to implement a successful predictive HR analytics system?
HR leaders can spearhead effective predictive HR analytics through the following tips:
• Define business objectives. HR leaders and their teams should collaborate to
identify long-term company goals. Furthermore, team members should determine
the relevant metrics that support the achievement of these objectives.
• Ensure a thorough understanding. Predictive HR Analytics is a complex field;
HR professionals unfamiliar with data science can feel intimidated. However,
providing consistent and diverse learning options for HR professionals can mitigate
their discomfort with the foreign subject, elevate their understanding, and encourage
continual employee development. HR professionals should understand the
fundamental reasoning driving each analytics algorithm. HR can also involve a data
scientist to ensure optimal functioning of the predictive analytics process.
• Address ethical considerations. To avoid unfair discriminatory treatment of
employees, predictive analytics teams should pre-empt possible ethical issues that
could arise. Companies could intentionally or unintentionally mistreat specific
demographics within the workforce or perhaps show favoritism to employees due
to illegitimate data-driven reasoning. Thus, transparently adhering to the company
code of conduct and the HR code of ethics is paramount. Employees need to know
that their employers are treating them fairly to feel engaged and motivated to thrive.
• Harness the power of predictive analytics. HR leaders can maximize predictive
analytics by applying it to specific objectives. For example, HR leaders can incorporate
predictive analytics to design an effective career development program that
addresses competency gaps and future competency needs, allowing them to train
employees in the desired learning trajectory.

How can predictive HR analytics improve company culture?

• Predictive HR analytics offers a way to help leaders make informed decisions
that nurture an enthusiastic and high-performing workforce. Effective and ethical use
of HR analytics can empower companies to identify, hire, engage, and retain quality
employees who align with the company culture and are excited to contribute to its
growth.

Predictive analytics in practice (CASE STUDY)

Say there is a playground next to your house. For the past two weeks, you wrote
down if there were kids playing on the playground or not. You also wrote down if it
was sunny, rainy or cloudy, the temperature and the humidity. Based on the data you
collected, would you be able to predict if kids will be playing on the playground on a
specific day?

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Table with data Your Weather spreadsheet
This is a tricky question. Obviously, these weather conditions have something to do
with whether kids are playing outside or not. If the weather forecast is rainy, it will
probably rain, meaning that kids are less likely to play outside. When it is hot, kids
probably will play outside. But does your spreadsheet with information of fourteen
consecutive days hold sufficient data to make an accurate prediction on whether or
not kids will play outside?

Predictive analytics in practice

Say there is a playground next to your house. For the past two weeks, you wrote
down if there were kids playing on the playground or not. You also wrote down if it
was sunny, rainy or cloudy, the temperature and the humidity. Based on the data you
collected, would you be able to predict if kids will be playing on the playground on a
specific day?

This is a tricky question. Obviously, these weather conditions have something to do

with whether kids are playing outside or not. If the weather forecast is rainy, it will
probably rain, meaning that kids are less likely to play outside. When it is hot, kids
probably will play outside. But does your spreadsheet with information of fourteen
consecutive days hold sufficient data to make an accurate prediction on whether or
not kids will play outside?

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Making predictions using a decision tree
A common and rather simple method of creating a predictive model is the decision
tree. A decision tree is a tree-like model consisting of decisions and their possible
consequences. In the decision tree, every node represents a test on a specific
attribute, and each branch represents the possible outcomes of this test.
I made a decision tree on our weather data set by applying some simple data mining
techniques. The decision tree was computed using a specific decision tree algorithm,
called C4.5. This decision tree model fits the data well: it is able to predict whether
kids will play on the playground with a 71% accuracy. This is much better than
guessing, which has a 50% accuracy.
The decision tree is self-explanatory if you take a closer look. I asked our designer to
make this a pretty picture – the original output is a much more boring black-and-
white version.

There are two strong predictors in the decision tree. The outlook is the first predictor.
Kids will play on the playground 4 out of 5 times when the weather outlook is sunny.
When the forecast is rainy, the kids do not play outside. In case the outlook is cloudy,
humidity is the second predictor. Kids are not likely to play outside if humidity is high
(which it usually is when it rains). However, when humidity is normal, kids are likely
to play outside.

In other words: the weather forecast and humidity can be used to predict whether
kids will play on the playground outside accurately. Of course, in an organization,
you’re not interested in predicting these specific outcomes. Rather, you will use HR
metrics to predict business outcomes.

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 UNIT V
MARKETING & SALES ANALYTICS

MARKETING AND SALES ANALYTICS

Sales and marketing analytics comprises the systems and processes that allow your
team to evaluate the success of their initiatives by measuring performance using
important business metrics, such as marketing attribution, ROI, and overall sales and
marketing effectiveness.

MARKETING STRATEGY
• Marketing strategy is an organization's promotional efforts to allocate its
resources across a wide range of platforms, channels to increase its sales and achieve
sustainable competitive advantage within its corresponding market.
4 Types of Marketing Plans and Strategies
• Market Penetration Strategy.
• Market Development Strategy. ...
• Product Development Strategy. ...
• Diversification Strategy.

What Are the Four Ps of Marketing?

The four Ps of marketing is a marketing concept that summarizes the four key factors
of any marketing strategy.

The four Ps are: product, price, place, and promotion

A marketing strategy is a business's plan for reaching customers. A successful

marketing analytics strategy includes:
 Collecting accurate and timely data
 Analyzing the data to identify trends and patterns
 Acting on the insights gleaned from the data

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A marketing strategy can include:
 A value proposition
 Key messages
 Information about the target market, including where they shop and what
drives them to make a purchase

Business analytics can help businesses understand why customers do what they
do by analyzing customer data and behavior patterns. Marketers can use business
analytics to:
 Set a goal for a campaign or product launch
 Track the goal against metrics like clicks, conversions, or user behavior
The biggest challenge of the analysis process is understanding and utilizing the
immense quantity of data marketers. Marketers must determine how to best
organize the data into a digestible format to derive actionable insights.

A MARKETING MIX is a combination of factors that a company controls when

creating a marketing strategy. The four primary elements of a marketing mix
are: Product, Price, Placement, Promotion.
These elements are often dependent on each other. The goal of a marketing mix is to
create a comprehensive plan to distinguish a product or service from
competitors. The four elements work together to help brands create brand
positioning, marketing plans, and advertising strategies.
Marketing mix modeling (MMM) is a process where marketers factor in variables
such as traditional channels, promotions, seasonality, and other variables. Once data
is collected from various sources, advanced statistical analysis and artificial
intelligence (AI) are applied to the data. Developing an optimized marketing mix
model requires advanced analytical and modeling skills.

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CUSTOMER BEHAVIOR analytics is the process of collecting, analyzing, and
interpreting data about how customers interact with a company. This data can
include how often customers make purchases, how they respond to marketing
campaigns, and how long it takes them to adopt a feature.
Customer behavior analytics can help businesses understand their customers' needs,
wants, and desires. This information can be used to create effective strategies for an
eCommerce business.

Customer behavior is influenced by many factors, including:

Situational factors, Psychological factors, Environmental factors, Marketing factors,
Personal factors, Family, Culture.

There are four types of consumer behavior:

 Habitual buying behavior
 Variety-seeking behavior
 Dissonance-reducing buying behavior
 Complex buying behavior
The type of consumer behavior is determined by the type of product a consumer
needs, the level of involvement, and the differences between brands.

What do you mean by consumer behavior?

• Consumer behavior is the study of how people make purchase decisions to
satisfy their needs, wants, or desires and how their emotional, mental, and
behavioral responses

What are the 4 types of consumer behavior?

• Experts agree that there are four main types of consumer behavior: complex-
buying behavior,
 dissonance-reducing buying behavior,
 habitual buying behavior, and
 variety-seeking buying behavior.
 influence the buying decision.

Consumer behavior in marketing

• Consumer behavior is important in marketing because it explains how
consumers make decisions about what products to buy when to buy them, and from
whom to buy them. Marketers can develop effective marketing strategies that target
the right consumers with the right message at the right time by understanding
consumer behavior

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Here are some examples of how consumer behavior affects marketing:
Segmentation
• Consumer behavior research helps marketers behavioral segment markets.
Marketers can modify their marketing messages and strategies to better appeal to
each demographic by recognizing these segments.
Product design
• Understanding consumer behavior can also aid in product development.
Marketers can create products that better meet consumer needs and preferences by
analyzing customer requirements and tastes, leading to increased sales and customer
satisfaction.
Pricing Strategies
• Marketers can use consumer behavior data to determine the price points at
which customers are willing to pay for a product, as well as the pricing strategies
most likely to appeal to each market segment.
Branding
• Consumer behavior research helps in the development of branding strategies.
Marketers can create brand messages and strategies that resonate with consumers
and build brand loyalty by understanding consumer attitudes and perceptions of
brands.

A SALES PROCESS is a series of steps a salesperson takes to build a business

relationship with a prospective customer. The steps in a sales process are usually
broken down into eight main categories:
Prospecting, Qualifying, Presenting, Handling objections, Closing, Following up,
Feedback.
The first step in the sales process is prospecting, where the salesperson identifies
potential customers. The sales process can consist of 5-7 steps. A clear and effective
sales process is crucial to helping your sales team effectively nurture leads through
the sales funnel.
The four major types of selling in the IT industry are: Transactional selling, Solution
selling, Consultative selling, Provocative selling.
Each type has its own unique set of characteristics and works best in specific
situations.

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SALES PLANNING is a set of strategies that are designed to help sales teams reach
their target sales quotas and help the company reach its overall sales goals. Sales
planning helps to forecast the level of sales you want to achieve and outlines a plan
to help you accomplish your goals.

Types of sales plans

Sales plan for specific sales. ...
Territory Sales Plan. ...
Market Expansion Plan. ...
New Product Sales Plan. ...
Sales Training Plan. ...
Sales Budget Plan.

Sales planning is the process of creating a strategy to meet sales goals and achieve
sales and marketing results. It involves setting goals, identifying target markets,
analyzing customer needs, and developing plans to guide the sales team. Sales
planning helps sales teams reach their target sales quotas and helps the company
reach its overall sales goals.

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The sales planning process includes the following steps:
 Gather sales data and search for trends
 Define objectives
 Determine metrics for success
 Assess the current situation
 Start sales forecasting
 Identify gaps
 Ideate new initiatives
 Involve stakeholders
Sales planning is important because it helps sales teams improve their performance
and increase the company's revenue. It also helps sales representatives be more
effective and productive

BUSINESS ANALYTICS
can help companies improve their sales, marketing, and operations. It can be used to:
 Understand target audiences and their interests
 Evaluate how well a product or marketing strategy is performing
 Optimize marketing campaigns
 Improve supply chain management
 Enhance product development
 Predict demand
 Identify fraud
 Target the most profitable consumers
Business analytics can help organizations modify their strategies and implement
better planning. For example, sales analytics can help boost sales productivity,
identify new sales opportunities, and plan effective sales targets. Marketing analytics
can improve lead generation by providing insights into customer behavior and
preferences.

DATA ANALYTICS USED IN SALES AND MARKETING

 Here are some of the benefits of data analytics for sales and marketing: - Data
analytics can help you understand your customers better.
 You can segment your customers based on their demographics, behavior,
preferences and needs.
 You can also track their journey across different channels and touchpoints.

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How Data Analytics Can Boost Your Sales and Marketing Performance
Here are some of the benefits of data analytics for sales and marketing:
Data analytics can help you understand your customers better.
• You can segment your customers based on their demographics, behavior,
preferences and needs.
• You can also track their journey across different channels and touchpoints.
• This can help you create personalized and relevant messages and offers that
resonate with your customers and increase their loyalty.
Data analytics can help you measure your performance and identify areas of
improvement.
• You can track and analyze key metrics such as conversion rates, customer
acquisition costs, customer lifetime value, retention rates and churn rates.
• You can also compare your performance against your goals and benchmarks.
• This can help you evaluate your effectiveness and efficiency and adjust your
tactics accordingly.
Data analytics can help you discover new opportunities and trends.
 You can use data to identify patterns, correlations and causations in your data.
 You can also use data to test hypotheses and experiment with different
scenarios.
 This can help you uncover new insights and opportunities that can give you a
competitive edge and drive innovation.
Data analytics is not a one-time activity but a continuous process that requires
constant monitoring, updating & refining.
To succeed in data analytics, you need to have a clear vision, a data-driven culture,
a skilled team and the right tools.

APPLICATIONS OF ANALYTICS IN MARKETING

Marketing analytics provides insights into customer behavior and preferences.
Businesses can then tailor their marketing initiatives to meet the needs of individual
consumers. Marketing analytics enables real-time decision support as well as
proactive management.
APPLICATION OF ANALYTICS IN SALES
Sales analytics allows you to better gauge team performance and uncover areas for
improvement, too. Understanding those strengths & weaknesses leads to better
training, more attainable goals, & a cohesive team.

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PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS is the process of using data to predict future outcomes. In
marketing and sales, predictive analytics uses statistical models and machine learning
algorithms to analyze data such as:
 Sales data
 Customer information
 Market trends
 Past customer behaviour

Predictive analytics can help businesses understand customer behavior and

improve customer satisfaction and loyalty. For example, businesses can use
predictive analytics to:
 Identify & segment customers based on their characteristics, behaviors, needs.
 Understand who their customers are, what they want, and how they interact
with their products or services
Predictive analytics is based on the idea that customer behavior patterns change over
time. For example, a customer's "segment route history" is an important factor in
predicting how they will behave in the future

What is predictive analytics for customers behavior?

Predictive customer analytics refers to the process of analyzing your customers' past
behavior and predicting their actions in the future. It involves using historical data,
statistical algorithms, and machine-learning techniques.

How is predictive analytics used in marketing?

Predictive analytics helps marketers better understand the behavior of individuals
and more accurately predict which messages are most likely to resonate with which
customers, which platforms are best for effectively reaching customers, and when to
launch campaigns or send offers.

What is the role of predictive analytics in marketing and sales?

Predictive analytics allows companies to foresee the outcomes of a marketing
campaign and make relevant decisions faster.
By analyzing historic customer data, marketers can better understand each
customers' needs and wants, create personalized messages and offers, and thus
improve customer engagement.

What are examples of predictive analytics in sales?

A typical example of predictive sales analytics is lead scoring. In most sales situations,
there is a long list of leads in the databases. Sales reps' day-to-day job is to plan
follow-ups on those leads, make phone calls, send emails, use their own subjective
judgments to qualify leads, & so.

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How to Analyze and Predict “The Behavior Of Consumers”
Customer behavior Analysis and purchase is not a new concept. Before the advent of
the Internet, to predict it, marketers would study a customer’s behavior to determine
what products they would be interested in buying. This was done through customer
surveys, which were costly and time-consuming. With the power of data analytics
though, some businesses are now able to predict consumer behavior by analyzing
past purchases, search history, or even social media profiles. For example, if a person
searches for animal-related items such as fish or birds, it may lead to the purchase of
pet supplies.

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