Making Sense of Data Overload
Stephen France and student Tyler Ash discuss the many ways marketing professionals apply analytic skills.
This fall, the College of Business will begin offering a new undergraduate program to meet the demands of the ever-changing marketplace. A minor in Business Analytics will be available to interested students.
“There is a real need at the moment for employees who have the ability to help companies manage and analyze the data that they are receiving,” says Stephen France, Assistant Professor of Quantitative Analysis, who helped design the new minor. “Analytic methods have become core skills for marketing professionals who need to analyze data from online reviews, social media platforms and customer data in order to track customer needs, reactions and opinions. In addition, analytics are increasingly being utilized by a wide variety of business units, including HR, finance and accounting. In particular, accounting is moving from being reporting based to analytics based with exciting opportunities in the area of fraud prevention.”
To meet this growing need for analytics expertise, the College of Business has developed the Business Analytics minor. The program was piloted last year at the graduate level with students in the Adkerson School of Accountancy.
“The curriculum involves widely used public domain software,” states France. “It is designed to be very practical, not theoretical. The focus is on building skills in the area of analytics with insight into a wide range of business problems and scenarios.”
The successful completion of five classes is required for undergraduates (three core and two optional) and three classes for graduate students to attain the minor. With application across many areas of business and other fields of study, the minor will be open to students from all colleges on campus.
