Analytics for Competitive Advantage (Online)

Focus on the issues that drive innovation and value with a broad range view of business analytics. With the amount of internal and external information available today, successful managers need the ability to filter out the noise and hone in on the challenges that matter. This starts with asking the right questions. Many managers’ view of the world going on around them is limited to historical operational related data. Those who understand big data and how to use it have the ability not only to look at past performance and why it happened, but also predict future performance and continuously refine strategies to optimize and stay ahead of the competition.

In this eight-week 100% online course, you’ll explore why digitized business processes and data analytics are essential to the performance and competitive advantage of a modern corporation. You’ll refine your ability to ask the right questions to avoid wasted time and effort solving for the wrong issues. Discover different approaches for strategic data management and business analytics as you examine real-world cases of successes and failures with analytics-based business strategies.

What You’ll Learn

Competing With Analytics

• The way business analytics impacts organizational value creation
• Why it is important to have a strategic analytics orientation
• The role of a data scientist
• How to identify the stages of analytics evolution
• The challenges in creating an organizational analytics platform

Using Analytics to Create Value

• What you should know about the changing data environment and its implications for business
• The 4 Vs of data
• What the “Internet of Things” has to do with business analytics
• How analytics impacts industries and firms

Enterprise Data Management & Analytical and Modeling Tools

• The value of enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) and relational databases
• What a data management lifecycle consists of
• The differences between data storage and processing using structured vs. unstructured data
• Statistical and modeling techniques for data analysis
• Essentials of data mining

Value Chain and Business Analytics

• The role of KPIs and the relationship between KPIs and analytics
• Porter’s Five Forces Model and how it can be used to identify analytics activities
• Two strategic levers in applying analytics: changes in measuring customer engagement and computational computing
• Porter’s Value Chain

Marketing/Sales Valuation Processes

• How analytics has and will continue to enhance marketing and sales processes
• Specific marketing analytics activities that are increasingly used by many organizations today

Enterprise Risk, Supply Chain and HR Processes

Analytics value creation in the following areas:

• Enterprise Risk Management
• Finance
• Accounting
• Supply Chain
• HR

Identifying & Defining Organizational Problems and Opportunities

• Critical factors of enterprise analytics success
• How to evaluate an appropriate enterprise analytics structure
• How to manage an analytics project including value creation
• The privacy and security challenges associated with business analytics

Telling the Story of the Data – Communication and Visualization

• The importance of communication in the analytics process
• The critical role of visualization in analytics
• Different types of visualization approaches

Curriculum

8 Week Course

Competing With Analytics

• Course Introduction
• Introduction to Analytics
• Strategic Analytics Orientation
• Evolution of Analytics Within the Enterprise
• Role of a Data Scientist
• Data Scientist Skills Identification
• Enterprise Decision Making
• The Analytics Landscape
• Challenges in Creating an Analytics Platform

Using Analytics to Create Value

• Data and the Four Vs
• Data Volume
• Data Velocity
• Data Variety
• Data Veracity
• Internet of Things
• Analytics Transforming Industries
• Analytics Transforming Companies

Enterprise Data Management, Analytical and Modeling Tools

• Enterprise Data and ERP Systems
• Relational Databases and Multi-Dimensional Data Storage
• The Data Management Life Cycle
• Data Management Continued – Business Intelligence
• Data Storage and Processing Hadoop® and MapReduce
• Analytical and Modeling Tools
• Statistical and Programming Tools
• Data Mining Algorithms

Value Chain and Business Analytics

• Dashboards and KPIs
• Porter's Five Forces
• Five Forces and Analytics
• Structural Changes in Customer Engagement
• Computational Computing and Value Creation
• Using Computational Computing in Industry Applications
• Porter's Value Chain

Marketing/Sales Valuation Processes

• Introduction to Marketing and Sales
• Analytics and Customer Acquisition
• Search Engine Optimization
• Analytics and Marketing Segmentation
• Analytics and Customer Churn and Retention
• Enhancing the Customer Relationship and Web Analytics
• Analytics and Customer Lifetime Value
• Analytics and Social Media

Supply Chain, Enterprise Risk and HR Processes

• Enterprise Risk Management
• Finance
• Accounting
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• SCM Manufacturing
• SCM Logistics and Returns
• Human Resources
• Unique Applications

Identifying and Defining Organizational Problems and Opportunities

• Critical Factors in Enterprise Analytics Success
• Structuring Your Analytics Team
• Managing an Analytics Project: Part 1
• Managing an Analytics Project: Part 2
• Measuring Analytics Value Creation
• Personal Privacy: Part 1
• Personal Privacy: Part 2
• Securing Data

Telling the Story of the Data – Communication and Visualization

• Role as a Storyteller
• What is Visualization?
• Why Visualization is Important
• Visualization Touch Points in the Analytics Process
• Visualization Techniques to Tell Stories
• Challenges with Visual Information
• Software Tools for Visualizing Data
• Visual Displays for Sensemaking