The rapid development of information technologies facilitated continuous data inflow to institutions from their macro environment of other institutions, competitors, customers, stakeholders, and a variety of other market actors. Today's corporations need specialized managers equipped with knowledge that will transform large amounts of data into meaningful and effective strategies, and increase business performance.
Business Intelligence (BI) is mostly related to the evaluation of past performance, while Business Analytics (BA) is focused on prescriptive and predictive techniques that seeks the answers for questions such as œWhat should be done? and œWhat is going to happen?. Business Analytics often utilizes data mining practices in order to reach specific business goals, such as increasing profit. BI is a retrospective approach that is used to develop business strategies based on historical data. BI answers questions such as œWhat happened?, œHow many?, and œHow often?. On the other hand, BA applies statistical modelling techniques to predict future events in order to answer œWhy is this happening?, œWhat will happen if these trends persist?, œWhat is the best case scenario under current circumstances?.
Business Intelligence and Analysis degree program provides students with an opportunity to specialize in 3 distinct areas depending on the courses they take. These areas of specialization are:
- Marketing Analytics
- Data Science
- Data-driven Strategic Management