Today I had the pleasure of joining Matt Walsh and Ken Koffler from our SAP Analytics Center of Excellence as they presented to the University of Notre Dame MSBA class in Chicago. SAP was invited to speak about our view of the current state of the art and emerging issues in the analytics domain to the group of 35 students who are all working professionals enrolled in this one year graduate degree program. Matt and Ken shared some of the top trends in analytics and used several customer stories to illustrate key concepts related to Big Data and Business Intelligence.
The Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) is a one-year, 30-credit hour program designed to fit into the life of an actively employed working business professional, with courses taking place on alternating weekends at the downtown Chicago Notre Dame campus. Students master analytics techniques for “big data” including data mining, data storage and manipulation, data visualization, statistics, modeling, optimization, and simulation. Learning to apply these techniques in a variety of business areas such as finance, operations, and marketing, helps students to use data in complex business decision environments. After graduating, students will approach business decision-making more rigorously and confidently while effectively communicating data findings to inform strategic business decisions.
This particular class, Emerging Issues in Analytics is described as follows. Business Analytics is a relatively new area, and it is one where new technologies and approaches are constantly being introduced. This course exposes students to current issues confronting the use of analytics in businesses, and uses a series of invited guest speakers to address topics related to these issues. Topics to be coved include: Building organizational analytics maturity; Emerging technology trends and directions; and Practical challenges in implementing analytics.