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Merging the Insights: A Final Comprehensive Look at Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, and Their Applications

As I wrap up MIS 587, Business Intelligence, I reflect deeply on how its principles align with my professional journey and the broader challenges organizations face in today’s data-driven landscape. This course has been a transformative experience, not only reinforcing my foundational knowledge of big data but also introducing advanced concepts and techniques that are both inspiring and practical. Through this blog, I aim to weave together the themes explored in my previous posts—big data, data visualization, web analytics, and predictive modeling—while linking them to real-world applications and organizational challenges. By exploring the human, technical, and ethical nuances of these topics, I’ll highlight how organizations can evolve and thrive in the age of business intelligence (BI). Big Data and Business Intelligence: Unlocking Potential and Navigating Challenges Integrating big data with BI has fundamentally reshaped industries by enabling more precise insights and empowering da...
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Exploring the Fascinating World of Networks: Insights and Personal Reflections

Summary of the Lecture Material Networks are the invisible frameworks that define how the world operates, from social interactions to technological ecosystems. A network consists of entities, called vertices or nodes, and their relationships, referred to as edges or links. These relationships can vary in direction, weight, and type, creating a complex web of connections that influence everything from information diffusion to customer behavior. As the lecture notes reveal, networks are used in critical applications, such as analyzing misinformation on social platforms or optimizing recommendation systems on e-commerce websites. From simple friendship networks to intricate two-mode networks (like those involving people and organizations), networks shape much of our digital and physical lives. Network visualization adds a fascinating layer to understanding these structures. Layouts like force-directed, geographic, and hierarchical designs help uncover patterns that might otherwise remain ...
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Website Analytics (Small Business Websites, Google Data Privacy, and Bots!)

 Hi Everyone, Back for Week 5 of MIS 587, we are talking about Website Analytics. Summary of the Material Web analytics are about understanding how visitors interact with a website to improve its performance and user experience. The first set of slides breaks down the essentials of web analytics, starting with its definition: measuring, collecting, and analyzing data to optimize web usage. It introduces the "Five W's"—what visitors do, who they are, when they visit, where they come from, and why they act. These insights, combined with key metrics like bounce rate, exit rate, and types of traffic (direct, organic, referral, and campaign), help businesses refine their websites to better meet user needs and achieve organizational goals. The second set of slides shifts focus to Google Analytics, a widely used tool for tracking website performance. Google Analytics offers robust features like customizable dashboards and detailed audience reports that cover everything f...
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Learning Insights from STAR Schema, Data Visualization, Data Profiling, and Warehouse Design

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Hello Everyone,  It’s been three weeks since my initial post and there has been a lot of information to cover and review. In our recent lectures, we’ve explored data visualizations, data quality, data analysis, and the design principles for data warehouses. These topics highlight the importance of using data in ways that will be useful and actionable, specifically through visualization and data profiling. Additionally, throughout these three weeks, we revisit the importance of data warehouse strategies in business intelligence efforts.  Review of Lectures and Supplementary Articles To review specifically what we covered in the lectures, let’s start with how the STAR Schema aligns with the overarching business intelligence goal of connecting data structures to business goals. Surrogate keys, role-playing dimensions, junk dimensions, and fact tables ensure that models are accurate and adaptable to change, supporting overarching business intelligence objectives of enabling data-b...
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Online Business Intelligence Fall 2024

     Hi, my name is Evan, and this blog will cover material from MIS 587 - Business Intelligence, my final class in the Masters of MIS program at the University of Arizona’s Eller College of Management. I have a B.S. in Information Science and Technology from the University of Arizona School of Information and currently work as a senior COTS software support and deployment analyst. I currently focus on Manufacturing, Operational, and Supply Chain applications for a large aerospace engineering company with a large presence in Tucson. I have previous experience in Help Desk support, IT management, Engineering Product Data Management (PDM), and COTS deployment/support. I am proficient in Python, SQL, and R with working knowledge of C and Java.      The lecture presentation and Decision Foundry article introduce the concepts of Big Data and Business Intelligence by describing their potential impact on information processing and analysis. Both emphasized the imp...
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