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Foundations of Information Systems

Summary

Foundations of Information SystemsSummary

8.1 The Business Analytics Process

  • Analytics 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 are three distinct eras in the evolution of big data. The current era is Analytics 3.0, which uses traditional analytics to analyze big data. Big data allows organizations to gain a comprehensive understanding of their target market and customer base.
  • Challenges of working with big data include its volume, its quality, governance of the data, and the extraction of actionable insights.
  • The collection of big data occurs through web scraping, sensor data collection, social media, data marketplaces and APIs, and internal data sources.
  • The business analytics process involves defining the problem, preparing the data, running statistical analysis, interpreting the results, and implementing changes.

8.2 Foundations of Business Intelligence and Analytics

  • With BI, organizations can identify trends, patterns, and correlations to understand customer behavior, market dynamics, and operational performance.
  • Organizations harness BI to gain an edge with tools to aid in marketing, predictive analytics, and financial analysis.
  • Business and data analysis tools include tools for visualization, data mining, and predictive analytics.
  • Business intelligence reporting focuses on transforming raw data into meaningful information and insights through interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations.
  • Organizations that collect and store data must adhere to legal and ethical guidelines to balance the protection of individuals’ privacy with the usefulness of the data.

8.3 Analytics to Improve Decision-Making

  • Data analytics involves the systematic collection, interpretation, and analysis of vast amounts of data to uncover valuable insights and patterns.
  • Analytics tools such as regression, decision trees, and clustering models aid in deriving actionable data.
  • Regression is a statistical method used to analyze the relationship between one dependent variable and one or more independent variables.
  • Decision trees split the dataset into subsets based on the most significant attribute at each step.
  • Clustering models group similar data points into clusters based on certain features or characteristics.
  • Analysts need to consider ethical and social considerations and ensure compliance with privacy regulations and protect sensitive information.
  • Using these techniques in the decision-making process can lead to greater chances of success in business.

8.4 Web Analytics

  • Web analytics is a powerful tool that provides valuable insights through the collection, measurement, analysis, and reporting of data related to website usage and user interactions.
  • Web analytics tools collect data through page tagging, log file analysis, JavaScript events, and cookies.
  • Businesses leverage various web analytics techniques to enhance site visibility and drive sales, highlighting the pivotal role of data-driven insights in optimizing online strategies and fostering customer engagement for improved performance.
  • Web analytics tools provide insight into customer behavior, opportunities for improvement, and bounce rates.
  • Incorporating SEO into an organization’s web analytics strategy enhances visibility and drives organic traffic by optimizing keywords, improving site rankings, and analyzing user engagement metrics for targeted content refinement.
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