MSA 500 - Introduction to Business Analytics (3 cr.)

Business Analytics uses data sources and quantitative techniques to generate insights and valuable information used in business decision making. The course provides an overview of the business analytics process. The three areas of descriptive, prescriptive and predictive analytics will be presented. Topics covered include problem definition, data preparation, technical analysis and modeling, evaluation of results and implementation. The development and use of data warehouses and data marts to support business analytics is discussed. Examples of applications of analytics in different business domains (finance, marketing, healthcare, etc.) will be discussed. Also, students will be introduced briefly to the SAS and IBM analytical tools used throughout the program.
Prerequisite(s): Knowledge of introductory statistics, introductory algebra and some coding experience (e.g., in SAS, R or Python).