1) What is Business Analytics?

Business analytics, or simply analytics, is the use of data, information technology, statistical
analysis, quantitative methods, and mathematical or computer-based models to help managers
gain improved insight about their business operations and make better, factbased decisions.

Business analytics is “a process of transforming data into actions through analysis and insights
in the context of organizational decision making and problem solving.”

2) What is meant by Data Analysis?

Data Analysis is the process of systematically applying statistical and/or logical techniques to
describe and illustrate, condense and recap, and evaluate data.

According to Shamoo and Resnik (2003) various analytic procedures “provide a way of drawing
inductive inferences from data and distinguishing the signal (the phenomenon of interest) from
the noise (statistical fluctuations) present in the data”

3) Define decision models?

A decision model may also be a network of connected decisions, information and knowledge
that represents a decision-making approach that can be used repeatedly (such as one
developed using the Decision Model and Notation standard).

Excepting very simple situations, successful action axioms are used in an iterative manner. For
example, for decision analysis, the sole action axiom occurs in the Evaluation stage of a four-
step cycle: Formulate, Evaluate, Interpret/Appraise, Refine.

Decision models are used to model a decision being made once as well as to model a
repeatable decision-making approach that will be used over and over again.
4) What do you mean by the term spreadsheet?
A spreadsheet, also called an electronic work sheet, is a computer program that organizes data
into rows and columns in the form of a graph. Each row and column can be manipulated with
formulas, commands, and formats. This tool is especially useful for accountants, financial
analysts, and business people to analyze business performance numbers and results.
The most common spreadsheet program that accountants use is Microsoft Excel. This product
was initially developed in the 1990s in the Office Suite program package and has since become
the industry standard.
5) Summarize any two advantages of spreadsheet?
a)Preset Functions
Formulas are among the most useful aspects of a spreadsheet, but one of the reasons for
their success is that you do not need to enter every formula manually. Spreadsheet programs
provide a range of preset functions that encapsulate common formulas, allowing users to
apply functions without having to type them in manually. Preset functions are accessible via
buttons in spreadsheet program user interfaces. Common functions include sorting and
filtering data as well as carrying out calculations such as sums and percentages.
b)Graphical Displays of Data
Spreadsheet programs can transform data sets into various types of graphical displays. In
Excel, the Charts section provides the ability to present a data set within a chart or graph. This
allows users to visualize and communicate their data sets within presentations, for example
using pie or bar charts. Visualizing data in this way can help you understand the data and
inform future planning decisions.
6) Define Datasets?
A data set is an ordered collection of data. While handling the data, the data set can be a bunch
of tables, schema and other objects. The data are essentially organized to a certain model that
helps to process the needed information. The set of data is any permanently saved collection of
information which usually contains either case-level, gathered data, or statistical guidance level
data.

Types of Data Sets

In Statistics, we have different types of data sets available for different types of information.
They are:

 Numerical data sets

 Bivariate data sets
 Multivariate data sets
 Categorical data sets
 Correlation data sets

7) What is noisy data?

Noisy data is data that is corrupted, or distorted, or has a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio. Improper
procedures (or improperly-documented procedures) to subtract out the noise in data can lead
to a false sense of accuracy or false conclusions.

Data = true signal + noise

Noisy data is data with a large amount of additional meaningless information in it called
noise. This includes data corruption and the term is often used as a synonym for corrupt data. It
also includes any data that a user system cannot understand and interpret correctly. Many
systems, for example, cannot use unstructured text. Noisy data can adversely affect the results
of any data analysis and skew conclusions if not handled properly. Statistical analysis is
sometimes used to weed the noise out of noisy data
 8) Summarize the concepts of data visualization?
Data Visualisation", in general, means the representation of data in a visual form such as a
chart, diagram, map and infographic. The aims of data visualisation are to effectively
communicate with the audience and facilitate further data analysis.

Data visualisation is indeed important for researchers. By using visual representations of

information, researchers can present an enormous amount of data in clear, cohesive and quick
ways. Readers can thus draw conclusions, and easily discover general patterns, outliers and
exceptions from the information.

4 Major Phases of Data Visualisation Cycle

 Data Extraction
 Data cleansing and data transformation
 Data analysis
 Data visualisaton

9) What are quartiles? Write its syntax?

A quartile is a statistical term that describes a division of observations into four defined

intervals based on the values of the data and how they compare to the entire set of
observations.

Quartiles often are used in sales and survey data to divide populations into groups. For
example, you can use

The QUARTILE function syntax has the following arguments:

 Array Required. The array or cell range of numeric values for which you want the
quartile value.
 Quart Required. Indicates which value to return.

10) List 2 uses of Pivot table?

A pivot table is a data summarization tool that is used in the context of data processing. Pivot
tables are used to summarize, sort, reorganize, group, count, total or average data stored in a
database. It allows its users to transform columns into rows and rows into columns. Run
automatic calculations on summed or counted values

 Create %’s of totals

 Segment data by date, user or other variable and calculate totals
  Organize data into columns and rows with automatic calculations that would otherwise
be impossible with Excel
11) Explain the different types of business analytics with examples? 

1. Descriptive Analytics
This can be termed as the simplest form of analytics. The mighty size of big data is beyond
human comprehension and the first stage hence involves crunching the data into
understandable chunks. The purpose of this analytics type is just to summarise the findings and
understand what is going on.
The two main techniques involved are data aggregation and data mining stating that this
method is purely used for understanding the underlying behavior and not to make any
estimations. By mining historical data, companies can analyze the consumer behaviors and
engagements with their businesses that could be helpful in targeted marketing, service
improvement, etc. The tools used in this phase are MS Excel, MATLAB, SPSS, STATA, etc.
 
2. Diagnostic Analytics
Diagnostic analytics is used to determine why something happened in the past. It is
characterized by techniques such as drill-down, data discovery, data mining and correlations.
Diagnostic analytics takes a deeper look at data to understand the root causes of the events. It
is helpful in determining what factors and events contributed to the outcome. It mostly uses
probabilities, likelihoods, and the distribution of outcomes for the analysis.
In a time series data of sales, diagnostic analytics would help you understand why the sales
have decrease or increase for a specific year or so. However, this type of analytics has a limited
ability to give actionable insights. It just provides an understanding of causal relationships and
sequences while looking backward.
A few techniques that uses diagnostic analytics include attribute importance, principle
components analysis, sensitivity analysis, and conjoint analysis. Training algorithms for
classification and regression also fall in this type of analytics
 
3. Predictive Analytics
As mentioned above, predictive analytics is used to predict future outcomes. However, it is
important to note that it cannot predict if an event will occur in the future; it merely forecasts
what are the probabilities of the occurrence of the event. A predictive model builds on the
preliminary descriptive analytics stage to derive the possibility of the outcomes.
The essence of predictive analytics is to devise models such that the existing data is understood
to extrapolate the future occurrence or simply, predict the future data. One of the common
applications of predictive analytics is found in sentiment analysis where all the opinions posted
on social media are collected and analyzed (existing text data) to predict the person’s sentiment
on a particular subject as being- positive, negative or neutral (future prediction).
Hence, predictive analytics includes building and validation of models that provide accurate
predictions. Predictive analytics relies on machine learning algorithms like random forests,
SVM, etc. and statistics for learning and testing the data. Usually, companies need trained data
scientists and machine learning experts for building these models. The most popular tools for
predictive analytics include Python, R, RapidMiner, etc.
The prediction of future data relies on the existing data as it cannot be obtained otherwise.  If
the model is properly tuned, it can be used to support complex forecasts in sales and
marketing. It goes a step ahead of the standard BI in giving accurate predictions.
 
4. Prescriptive Analytics
The basis of this analytics is predictive analytics but it goes beyond the three mentioned above
to suggest the future solutions. It can suggest all favorable outcomes according to a specified
course of action and also suggest various course of actions to get to a particular outcome.
Hence, it uses a strong feedback system that constantly learns and updates the relationship
between the action and the outcome.
The computations include optimisation of some functions that are related to the desired
outcome. For example, while calling for a cab online, the application uses GPS to connect you to
the correct driver from among a number of drivers found nearby. Hence, it optimises the
distance for faster arrival time. Recommendation engines also use prescriptive analytics.
12)Explain the importance of Business Analytics?

I m p o r t a n c e o f B u s i n e s s A n a l y ti c s
#1. It is a procedure to make a sound commercial decision. It impacts the functioning of
the whole organization. Therefore, it can help in improving the profitability of the
organization, boost its market share and revenue, and provide a better return on
investment.
#2. Helps in understanding the available primary and secondary data more
comprehensively, which, in turn, affects the operational effi ciency of several
departments in the organization.
#3. Helps in having a competitive edge. It incorporates the data available with several
thought models to enhance business decisions.
#4. It converts available data into valuable information and helps in attaining the
desired outcome and positive results for the organization.
A d v a n t a g e s o f B u s i n e s s A n a l y ti c s
Helps in curtailing risks
This is one of the most important reasons behind the growing importance of business
analytics. It helps in making the right choices based on factors like customer
preferences, changing trends, and performances. This, in turn, can help organizations to
avoid risks in the short and long term.
Helps in accurate decision making
It makes the decision-making process more accurate as it helps in understanding the
sentiments of the customers towards the company, its brand, and products. With
effi ciency in decision making, the organization can stay on top of their competitors. This
is one of the most useful advantages of business analytics.
Helps in achieving effi ciency
With the advent of business analytics, the effi ciency for businesses has been
consistently improving. This is one of the significant advantages of business analytics.
The importance of business analytics lies in the fact that it helps in gathering a large
volume of data at a much faster rate and present it in a visually captivating way. This
way, companies can achieve specified goals with better choices on matters like how and
where to take the business.
Helps in gaining valuable insights
This is one of the most remarkable advantages of business analytics since it helps in
taking care of how the data is presented to the analytics team. There are various
options like graphs and comprehensive charts that help to make decision-making more
interesting.