Business analytics is the art of data-driven decision making. That’s a pretty broad definition, right? How does a business analytics beginner and an average decision maker know where to start unraveling this stuff? Can it benefit my business? Do I have the tools I need? Who can help me? Here are a few excerpts from my regular business analytics reading list that can help you get started, written for regular business people, not for mathematicians or IT people.
1. Subscribe to SASCOM for ideas about how analytics can help your business.
The folks at SAS produce a fantastic quarterly magazine chronicling the analytics projects of their customers. Even if you’re not a SAS customer, this is *the* place to learn about how the biggest, most successful companies in America use analytics techniques to change their business. Need project ideas? This is the place to start. And it’s free. (SAS is an industry leading business analytics software provider and a pioneer of the field.)
2. Subscribe to Information Week for the latest news on business analytics technology.
Okay, so not all of you are I.T. managers – but you can still learn a lot about analytics from Information Week, a weekly I.T. trade publication. Want to know which firms are investing in Big Data technology? Curious if your accounting software vendor will release a new predictive modeling package? This is the place to go. Every week, you’re all but guaranteed an article each about SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. It’s written for people who manage I.T., not necessarily I.T. people. And it’s free.
3. Read flowingdata.com and Visualize This for good ideas about how to tell stories with data.
Nathan Yau produces some of the best looking, most useful charts and graphs I’ve seen, and he happily shows you how he does it. On his blog. For free. In the process, he also throws open the shutters on the best data visualization practitioners in the country including the New York Times infographics people. You should also buy his book – “Visualize This.” When my clients start an analytics project, this is their first reading assignment. Nathan is a statistician, but his book is anything but…well…statistical.