Description: Definitions, and the understanding of their meaning, are foundational to building a knowledge base.  The definition of “business analytics” is from Wikipedia and is presented for discussion as we begin to study this topic.  Business analytics is defined in this source as the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive modeling, and fact-based management to drive decision making. Analytics may be used as input for human decisions or may drive fully automated decisions. Businesses analytics represent a subset of business intelligence. The other part of business intelligence is querying, reporting, OLAP, and “alerts”. The questions that business analytics can answer represent more proactive and higher value questions than questions other business intelligence tools can answer. In other words, querying, reporting, OLAP, and “alert” tools can answer the questions: what happened; how many, how often, where; where exactly is the problem; what actions are needed. Business analytics can answer the questions: why is this happening; what if these trends continue; what will happen next; what is the best that can happen.

Source: Wikipedia

Date: 11/26/2010

Link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_analytics

Discussion Questions:

1. What are some business applications for business analytics?