Identify and explain the value of business analytics to your chosen organisation in relation to the following areas: Customers, Forecasting .
This assignment is an individual assignment.
This assignment requires you to use the company assigned to you by your lecturer in the first attempt : (Airline, Car manufacturing & Hotel industry in UK) and write a report which answers the following questions:
1. Identify and explain the value of business analytics to your chosen organisation in relation to the following areas:
a. Customers
b. Suppliers
c. Forecasting
[30 marks]
2. Identify and explain the appropriate types of data (minimum of 3) that would be needed by management to assess the performance of the sales department in your business.
[30 marks]
3. Reviewing the current operations of your chosen company, recommend a mimimum of three changes that are needed for your company going forward to fully maximize the benefits of business analytics.
[40 marks]
This assignment is designed to assess learning outcomes:
LO1. Define and evaluate key concepts of business analytics.
LO2: Critically apply business analytical skills in business cases.
LO3: Critically apply and interpret the outputs of data mining models and forecasting results for end-users.
LO4: Solve managerial problems and make systematic decisions by applying business data analysis techniques.
Business analytics plays an important and multi-faceted role within an organization. It provides support for strategic planning, delivers tactical value, and creates competitive advantage. What is the value of business analytics? Well, first we should establish that the cornerstone of business analytics is pure analytics. A broad definition of analytics would be to consider any data-driven process that provides insight. It can encompass historical and predictive information, and ultimately, its goal is to transform data in to information that aids the organization. In order to get a more thorough understanding of business analytics, it is important to look at the three important things it provides: strategic planning, deliverance of tactical value, and creation of competitive advantage.
First, let’s look at strategic planning. Strategic planning involves targeting opportunities for the growth of an organization based on innovation and marketplace impact, as well as differentiation from competitors. Some good questions to ask, when getting specific about applying strategic planning, are: what are the industry trends that indicate opportunities/need for change? Looking to your competitors on a regular basis is important in order to stay informed and alert about keeping up with your consumer expectations and competition. But, don’t just isolate your analysis to your industry. Consider other related industries that could provide insight, you never know where inspiration might come from.
Second, let’s look at delivering tactical value. To successfully deliver tactical value, it is important to focus on types of initiatives it would be possible to deliver. It is important to map out the creation of tactical value by utilizing business analytics to establish a balance between the need for immediate value and competitive advantage. To do this it is essential to define the direction that needs to be taken, prioritize the activity that will result in delivering tactical value, and identify how these activities will be maintained and evolve in to a competitive advantage.
Lastly, let’s look at creating competitive advantage. Looking to the future of the organization, by understanding the organization’s history and goals, can help establish what is needed to create a competitive advantage. To do this, it is important to keep up with competitors and industry trends. Using business analytics can help an organization prepare for potential scenarios in which they will need to respond to change or implement new strategies.
Business analytics (BA) is a set of disciplines and technologies for solving business problems using data analysis, statistical models and other quantitative methods. It involves an iterative, methodical exploration of an organization’s data, with an emphasis on statistical analysis, to drive decision-making.
Data-driven companies treat their data as a business asset and actively look for ways to turn it into a competitive advantage. Success with business analytics depends on data quality, skilled analysts who understand the technologies and the business, and a commitment to using data to gain insights that inform business decisions.
Before any data analysis takes place, BA starts with several foundational processes:
Initial analysis is typically performed on a smaller sample data set of data. Analytics tools range from spreadsheets with statistical functions to complex data mining and predictive modeling applications. Patterns and relationships in the raw data are revealed. Then new questions are asked, and the analytic process iterates until the business goal is met.
Deployment of predictive models involves a statistical process known as scoring and uses records typically located in a database. Scores help enterprises make more informed, real-time decisions within applications and business processes.
Different types of business analytics include the following: