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Introduction to Analytics

Would you like to be part of a domain that promises huge growth, rapid rises and, best of all, a shortage of demand for experienced resources in the US and India. Are you better at analyzing numbers than shooting e-mails? Then careers in a niche industry like Database Mining & Analytics may just help get you there.

Database mining and analytics are one of the new sunrise careers of not just the Indian economy but also the global digital economy. While careers in Database mining and analytics have typically been offered by the business process outsourcing sector under the sub-brand of Knowledge Process Outsourcing, increasingly robust demand for analytics professionals have prompted both Information Technology firms and domestic firms based in India.

Database mining and analytics are defined as using the power of hidden information locked in databases to reveal consumer and product insights, trends and patterns for future tactical and operational strategies.

A key differentiator between Analytics and Market Research is that analytics relies on data which is existing within a database while market research generally involves collection, collation and tabulation of the data. Market research involves mostly dealing with survey level data, as in questionnaires that measure consumer response to marketing stimulus. It includes link analysis for websites, manipulating data to be easy to read by softwares like SPSS, creating cross tabs and statistical analysis including factor analysis and cluster analysis. However, it is wholly centered on questionnaires and deals exclusively with customer level data that answers questions related to marketing. There is no market research in risk, credit, or collections. Thus, market research is limited in the kinds of analytical questions it tries to answer and, thus, the breadth of analysis as well.

Business Intelligence is defined as the seamless dissemination of information throughout the organization and is a broader term, which involves and includes analytics as well as reporting systems. It includes softwares like customer relationship management, supply chain management, planning as well as reporting systems. Business intelligence broadly includes analytics within a company but it can also include areas that deal more with flow of information or knowledge management as well. While database analytics assumes data is present, business intelligence focuses more on strategy.

The field of data analytics is vast and it comprises the following types. -

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* Ajay Ohri is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow, and has worked with some of the largest BPOs in India (including two BPOs listed on NYSE).
Currently, he is running his own database consulting firm, and is the founder of his website business
http://decisionstats.com.
The views expressed in the article are his personal views.