BDA811 Business Analytics for Competitive Advantage

[3–0, 3 cr.]

Business Data Analytics (BDA) is emerging as an essential driver of competitive advantage, and in today’s dynamic business environment, success in the market and achieving sustainable competitive advantage require understanding the fundamentals of collecting data, describing and developing insights from data sets, and presenting and communicating results.

The goal of this course is to equip participants with fundamental data analytics skills needed to optimize business processes and gain insights that inform business decisions. In an era where data are considered a corporate asset, it is crucial to learn how important it is today for decision makers to convert raw data into insight, solve problems, and seize opportunities. Topics include importance of business analytics, types of analytics – descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive -, data visualization, and reporting. Using case studies, group problem solving, and lab sessions, students will get hands-on learning through the deployment of a variety of powerful software and computer-based data analytics and visualization tools, including advanced Excel, SPSS, and Tableau. Students will also learn how to make more powerful presentations by understanding and implementing the key principles of report and visual presentation of data.