Advanced Business Analytics: Essentials for Developing a Competitive Advantage

The present book provides an enterprise-wide guide for anyone interested in pursuing analytic methods in order to compete effectively. It supplements more general texts on statistics and data mining by providing an introduction from leading practitioners in business analytics and real case studies of firms using advanced analytics to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. In the era of “big data” and competing analytics, this book provides practitioners applying business analytics with an overview of the quantitative strategies and techniques used to embed analysis results and advanced algorithms into business processes and create automated insight-driven decisions within the firm. Numerous studies have shown that firms that invest in analytics are more likely to win in the marketplace. Moreover, the Internet of Everything (IoT) for manufacturing and social-local-mobile (SOLOMO) for services have made the use of advanced business analytics even more important for firms. These case studies were all developed by real business analysts, who were assigned the task of solving a business problem using advanced analytics in a way that competitors were not. Readers learn how to develop business algorithms on a practical level, how to embed these within the company and how to take these all the way to implementation and validation.