What is Analytics ?

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 strategy. 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.

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.

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

Types of Analytics

Reporting or Descriptive Analytics – Each organization relies on series on management information systems (commonly called MIS) to gather the current state of business as well as any emerging trend. This typically involves sales, finance, customer and competitor data, which is presented within spreadsheets and presentations. Reports tend to be either regular (like monthly and quarterly) or ad-hoc (for special investigative analysis). This is known as descriptive analytics simply because it describes the data which is present. While reporting or descriptive analytics is often the starting point in analytics careers, a proper grounding in this domain is necessary both to build an eye for detail in dealing with large amounts of data and for polishing the presentation skills for presenting insights from the data.
Modeling or Predictive Analytics – Predictive Analytics refers to the art and science of using statistical tests, hypotheses and methods to build up predictive recommendations. These recommendations can range from which type of customer to call by phone for a credit card or insurance, to which type of mobile scheme to offer to a cell phone customer by a short message (sms) or to what kind of customers are likely to default on the loans they have taken. Predictive analytics includes techniques like segmentation, and regression modeling. It is generally considered both high value and a background in statistics helps in preparing for predictive analytics careers.
Data-Driven Strategy – This is also called test –control or champion-challenger testing. This is done by segmenting the data population into test (on which a new strategy called the challenger strategy is to be tested) and control (which uses existing strategy called champion strategy). Building association rules which describe which parts of the product or customer data are clustered or co-related together are also part of analytics.

Basic Domains within Analytics

Data driven analytics by definition thrives in industries, which have large amounts of data, and high volume transactions, which need systematic and scientific analytics to cut costs and grow sales. The following domains offer employment opportunities to both new comers and experienced analytics professionals. These can be both in domestic firms, captive outsourcing firms or third party business process outsourcing companies.

Retail Sales Analytics

Retail sales analytics deals with the handling of vast amounts of Point of Sales data, inventory data, payment data and promotional data to help increase sales in retail stores especially in organized retail. The use of RFID’s, Electronic Payment and Bar Scanning helps capture the data better and store it in vast databases. An example of this is the famous Thursday baby diaper-beer sales phenomenon. A big retailer found that on Thursday evening sales of beer and baby diapers were highly co related. It then found that is was due to young couples preparing for the weekend by buying supplies of diapers and beer. Thus by placing diapers and beer closer together sales could be boosted up. This is an example of market basket analytics in which a large amount of data is scrutinized to see which products sell well together. Wal-Mart, the American Retail Giant established a competitive edge over its rivals by proactively using data driven analytics to cut costs and thus offer goods cheaper than others. Another example of a big retailer is Target which has it’s own captive back end analytics in India.

In India, since Reliance Retail, Future Group, Walmart-Bharti have started setting up shop this is a sector that is bound to grow even within the domestic sector, as these high volume retailers need data driven decisions to squeeze the maximum from their retail stores.

Financial Services Analytics

Financial services use analytics extensively. This is because they are in a very competitive field, have millions of customers and a lot of transactions. It is extremely important for them to store data for billing purposes and to recover the money they lend out as well the deposits they collect. An incremental gain of a few basis points (one hundredth of 1 percentage is a basis point) in profitability can lead to millions of dollars in aggregate profits. Within financial services analytics the broad sub categories are –

1. Risk and Credit Analytics – Risk and Credit functions measure the ability of a customer to pay back loans or debt owed by them. Delinquent customers are those that have fallen behind in paying back debt as per agreed schedule. Debt can be fixed installment like EMI’s for a personal loan, and debt can be revolving as in variable amounts that can be paid for credit card outstanding including the minimum balance. Debt can also be secured debt as secured against houses, consumer durables ,two wheelers, automobiles as collateral or it can be unsecured as in personal loans or credit card debt that have no collateral or backing. A risk analyst develops scorecards that help measure the risk worthiness of both new and existing customers. As financial service instruments are priced against risk, the riskier the customer the more they are charged in terms of interest rate. But this has to be balanced with total repaying ability of the customer, including sources of income and current leverage .In addition the income of customers especially in India is changing rapidly and there is also

un-declared income as black money. Doing the analysis for millions of customers is what make risk and credit analytics one of the hottest sectors to be in as credit analysts are in demand with all banks, outsourcing corporate and finance companies. ICICI has a big analytics unit (called Business Intelligence Unit) and Citigroup has both domestic analytics (in Chennai) and international analytics centers (in Bangalore).

1. Marketing Analytics- Marketing analytics helps in customer acquisition and retention. It does so by helping choose more responsive customers and selling through a wide variety of channels like call centers, direct mail, sms through mobiles, and email. It is marketing analytics which helps to bring in new customers by giving inputs to the marketing team and feedback to sales and distribution channels.

1. Collections –Collections Analytics focuses on recovery from delinquent customers using optimized efforts like telephones, direct mails, emails, or visits. Its aim is to maximize recovery at minimum costs.
2. Fraud –Fraud Analytics seeks to build in triggers or automated alarms if there is any unusual trend or behavior in spending by the customer especially in credit cards.
3. Pricing – Pricing Analytics tries to give the most optimized price, adequately compensating for risk as well as the competition. Pricing Analytics is a vast field and is also a part of financial services analytics especially in products like insurance.
Telecommunications – Telecom Analytics has the fields of marketing analytics defined above, but an important part is also attrition modeling or churn analytics. It also analyzes the wide variety of pricing schemes and options and the customer response to them. In addition it has delinquency analytics as well.
Pharmaceutical or Clinical Analytics –Clinical trials depend on test and control of thousands of patients on new drugs. Clinical trial analytics focuses on large number of variables that may or may not affect the drug response.
Supply Chain Analytics – Supply chain analytics comprises inventory optimization, tracking turn-around time, multiple reports, and how to minimize the distribution costs.
Transportation Analytics- Transportation analytics while covered more extensively in the field of operations research seeks at minimizing route length or fuel costs, or pricing of fares.
Online or Website Analytics – Website analytics focuses on analyzing traffic to the website from sources, and how to retain them on the website for longer time or purchase more goods. It also involves a bit of search engine optimization to make sure the website is relevant in searches by search engines.

Vote for Monica Lewinsky

1) She has more experiences with Bill Clinton than Hillary.

2) She is younger , and a good first female President

3) Has seen tougher times than Hillary

4)She is also fresh enough to guarantee the politics of hope and “grope”

5) Has lesser negative approval ratings

6) She had bi partisan support in the 90’s

7) The economy was strong and HARD when she was in the OVAL Office.

8) Likely to be more pro gay, pro abortion (?), less reliant on lobbyist money

9) Her surname isnt Bush or Clinton. That makes a big change since 1988.

10) Al Gore and George Bush may just both endorse her.

http://www.famouspictures.org/index.php?title=Bill_and_Monica_Hug

Funny Story from College

This actually happened to me in Business School. At the end of year 1, we do summer internships. Some of the lucky ones then get job offers from the companies that they worked with in Summer.

Well I and two other batchmates worked with a company called G… So when G… came back on campus to take interviews from summer internships for the next year, they pre announced that they will give job offers or pre placement offers to 2 summer interns . We were thrilled. 2 out of 3.

Then comes my Placement Chairman, Professor M. He comes to me, shakes hands and congratulates me…saying hey Ajay, great job, You just got a job offer from company G… All my batchmates back slap me, some even give me job bumps .

2 hours later Professor M comes back, aplogizes and says he got the names wrong. I am the 1 out of the three who didnt get the job offer.

Leaving me awestruck, and my friends too embarassed to say anything.

Professor M, avoided me out of embarrassment ( I used to go out of my way to wish him Good Morning, Sir ) till end of second year , till I finally landed a job.

Ah ! College days!

Old Movie Review:Golmaal

Amol Palekar (as Laxman Prasad)

Gol Maal could be translated as “Risky/Crooked Business” or “Hanky Panky”. It is the story of a fun loving and happy-go-lucky guy Ramprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma (Amol Palekar), who is a chartered accountant and is looking out for a job. His uncle advises him to seek employment at his friend Bhavani Shankar’s (Utpal Dutt) firm who is a very strict person and has a fascination for Indian values and the “moustache”. He believes that a moustache represents one’s conscience. Mr Shankar is ready to pay a few hundred rupees as salary to a young, inexperienced man as long as he fits his values. On his uncle’s advice Ramprasad gets a job by exaggerating his Indian values (by wearing an excessively short kurta pajama instead of his usual flashy shirts, using his full name without abbreviations, feigning ignorance of music and sports and demonstrating professionalism.)

Bindiya Goswami (as Urmila)

He once takes leave by pretending that his mother (who passed away many years ago) has taken ill, and goes to watch a hockey match. Unfortunately, Bhavani Shankar, who also attended the match, sees him there. The next day Bhavani summons Ramprasad to his office and asks him about the hockey match. Remembering the plot of a movie a friend of his is shooting, Ram convinces Bhavani Shankar that he had seen his “moustache-less” identical twin Lucky (alias Lakshmanprasad Dashrathprasad Sharma) at the stadium.

Amol Palekar (as Ram Prasad)

Bhavani Shankar buys his argument. Ramprasad offers to resign since he has lost the confidence of his boss. Bhavani Shankar feels bad about accusing him and decides to make amends by hiring Lucky to teach his daughter Urmila (Bindiya Goswami) music. Ramprasad reluctantly shaves his mustache to become Lucky and starts to mentor Urmila. He is helped by his actor friend Deven Verma (playing himself) in securing a fake moustache and spirit gum. And thus begins Gol Maal – the comedy of errors. In all the confusion Ram finds that he also has to arrange for a mother, a role filled by Mrs Srivastav (Dina Pathak) a socialite with an acting hobby, deal with Urmila’s love to Lucky and hatred towards Ramprasad, and come out unscathed in the end.

From Wikipidea

Old Movie:Let it go my friend , Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro

Professional photographers Sudhir Mishra and Vinod Chopra open a studio in the prestigious Haji Ali area, and hope to make enough money to keep it running. After a disastrous start, they are given some work by the editor of “Khabardar”, a publication that exposes the scandalous lives of the rich and the famous. They accept it and start working with the editor herself, Shobha Singh. They also decide to enter their name in a contest to win Rs.5000/- and take a number of photographs all over the city. In one of the photographs they see a man with a gun. Upon enlarging it, they find out that the killer is none other than builder Tarneja.

Upon further investigation they find out that he has killed Municipal Commissioner D’Mello and left his body behind some bushes. Before the duo could get to the body, it disappears. Disappointed the hapless duo continue working with Shobha. They locate it and take a number of photographs of the corpse, and wheel it with them with the hopes of exposing Tarneja. Suddenly the body disappears. Later they find out that the body is with Tarneja’s rival builder, Ahuja who had accidentally carries the coffin tied to his car and shift it to his farm house. They provide this information to Shobha, who in turn starts to blackmail Tarneja for a ransom amount. He invites Shobha and her associates to crack a deal and plants a bomb to kill them.

Unfortunately the bomb explodes right in the face of Tarneja and his employees and the trio escape from the scene. Then the duo take the corpse, and wheel it with them, but not before Tarneja, Ahuja, the new Mun. Comm. Srivastava, Shobha and others also get involved – resulting in a comic mix-up with burkha-clad woman.

The climax is set upon a stage dramatization of Mahabharat, which hilariously turns into the ill-fated romance of Salim and Anarkali – with the corpse taking the part of Draupadi and Anarkali, and the vile Duryodan pledging to save Drupadi’s honor at any cost! What will be the fate of the corpse and our hapless heroes must be seen to be believed!

True Corporate Story

From a news story

American Apparel chief executive Dov Charney is facing a sexual harassment trial. He denies the charges.

Dov Charney, founder and chief executive of casual fashion giant American Apparel, acknowledges that he has appeared in his underwear many times in front of male and female employees.

And yes, on a few occasions during work meetings, he donned a skimpy garment that barely covered his genitals.

But those events, he said, have to be understood in the context of the fashion industry

“I’m the CEO of a public company,” he said in a recent interview. “I manage 7,000 employees in 14 countries. . . . Could I have done all this where I’m inappropriate all the time? Where I’m running around in my underwear all the time?”

As creative director of the company, he appointed himself fit model, the person who tests the look and size of his men’s line. He has even appeared in the ads. “I weigh 155 pounds, I’m five-10. Am I not fit? Is there any job that is not appropriate for me to do?” he said. “All the big guys did exactly what I do. Versace — they all wore their own bathing suits.”

In a deposition, he said that during the time of Nelson’s employment he “frequently had been in my underpants . . . because I was designing an underwear line.”

“I’m very proud of the underwear,” he added.

In an interview, he also defended appearing in front of Nelson with just his genitals covered. “The demonstration of the” garment, Charney said, “was a product we were considering — and I was in fit condition for it.” He ultimately decided against putting it in the American Apparel line

IWANNACRIB: What do you call a Boss who wears underwear in front of everyone?

ANSWER :Superman CEO

A Dog's Life:Corporate Tale

It’s a Dog’s Life-:

A butcher watching over his shop is really surprised when he sees a dog coming into his shop. He shoos him away but the dog is back after some time. So he goes over to the dog to chase him out, and notices that the dog has a note in his mouth.

He takes the note and it reads: ” Can I have 12 sausages and a leg of lamb please? The dog has money in its mouth, as well”.

The butcher looks inside and lo and behold there is a $10 note there. So he takes the money and puts the sausages and the lamb in a bag, placing it in the dog’s mouth.The butcher is so impressed, and since it’s about closing time, he decides to shut the shop and follow the dog.

So off he goes and follows the dog. The dog is walking down the street and when it comes to a level crossing, the dog puts down the bag,jumps up and presses the button. Then it waits patiently, bag in mouth, for the lights to turn.They do, and it walks across the raod, with the butcher following him all the way.

The dog then comes to a bus stop and starts looking at the timetable. The butcher is in awe as the dog stops a bus by pulling it’s left leg up.Then it gets into the bus.The dog then shows a ticket which is tied to its belt, to the bus conductor. The butcher is nearly fainting at this sight, and so are the other passengers in the bus. The dog then sits near the driver’s seat looking outside. As soon as the stop is in sight, the dog stands and wags its tail to inform the conductor. The, without waiting for the bus to stop completely, it jumps out of the bus and runs to a house very close to the stop.

The dog nudges open the big iron gate and rushes towards the door. As it approaches the wooden door, the dog suddenly changes it’s mind and heads towards the garden.It goes to the window, and beats it’s head against it several times, walks back, jumps off and waits at the door.

The butcher watches as a big guy opens the door, and starts abusing the dog,kicking him and punching him, and swearing at him.

The butcher is surprised at this and runs up to the big guy and asks him:
” What in heaven’s name are you doing? The dog is a genius. He could be on TV, for the life of me!”.

To which the guy responds: “You call this clever? This is the second time this week that this stupid dog’s forgotten his key”.

Moral of the Story:

You may continue to exceed onlookers expectations but shall always fall short of the boss’s expectations.

It’s a dog’s life after all……………………….”

Types of Analytics

Basic Domains within Analytics

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