What Is Business Analytics Article Review

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analytics in business in 2016 is intrinsically tied into one of the most common business buzzwords of the new millennium, "big data." Whatever strategies were employed in utilizing the concept of analytics for business before the twenty-first century, it is clear that now analytics hinges almost entirely on the concept of big data. This is something that Duan and Xiong (2015) make clear in their journal article on "Big Data Analytics and Business Analytics" where the writers observe that

Any research progress in business, science, engineering, education, sociology and other areas is either driven or supported by data. Although data alone are cheap and ubiquitous, what makes data a valuable asset is the useful information hidden inside them. Since there are many different types of useful hidden information which require different analytical techniques to find, these analytical techniques become an indispensable complement to data. (1)

These analytic techniques are indispensible to business activity in the information age, quite obviously so because they hinge upon the possession of information and the ability to use it effectively.

To give an obvious example which will be familiar to many people, imagine purchasing a book on Amazon.com. Before allowing you to pay for your purchase, Amazon's website will frequently display a banner headline which says something like "People who purchased the items in your cart also purchased:" and this will be followed by a display of four or five different items that can be clicked on for additional purchase.
This is a display of the power of big data and analytics working hand-in-hand. Big data is Amazon's vast record-keeping of previous transactions, so that they know (for example) that consumers who purchased "Fifty Shades of Gray" on Amazon are more likely than other consumers to purchase "The Story of O" or "Venus in Furs." To be able to spot this connection in the midst of a vast sea of data requires analytics, but those analytics can propose a business strategy for maximizing profit -- before allowing the consumer to purchase "Fifty Shades of Gray" offer the consumer a chance to buy "Story of O" or "Venus in Furs" as well. Data analytics have already told you that this particular consumer is more likely than any others to want to purchase those items -- the chance is significant that Amazon will double its sales, simply by knowing what to offer to the particular….....

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