The business world has changed dramatically over the past decade. This is largely due to the ever-expanding amount of information on the planet and how that information is gathered, interpreted, and used to direct business decisions in the future. Each of these processes that are so important to a business’ survival, make up what we currently understand as analytics. As Forbes writer, Bernard Marr attests in 4 Ways Big Data Will Change Every Business, analytics is not just for the multi-million dollar corporations as “even the smallest businesses generate data these days. If the business has a website, a social media presence, accepts credit cards etc., even a one-person shop has data it can collect on its customers, its user experience, web traffic, and more. This means companies of all sizes need a strategy for big data and a plan of how to collect, use, and protect it. This also means that savvy businesses will start to offer data services to even very small companies.”
The advent of mobile retail commerce has done much to advance and transform how business is done in recent years. Even the novice entrepreneur or craftsman has access to website designers and online commerce builders that offer analytics in the form of customer behaviors, region of sales, and viewing history built in to the very infrastructure of their programs. With the push of a button retailers can see what products are underperforming and where public interest lies. These analytics can help retailers make the needed adjustments in marketing and production to promote better communication with customers ultimately resulting in more sales in the future. Consumers also have instant access to many products and services through mobile devices that chart their purchasing and viewing tendencies to modify advertisements to sync with the consumer’s tastes. Many social media communities feature linked software that generates ads for items a consumer has recently purchased through another vendor.
The stakes are even higher for private and public corporations that rely on analytics to help make multi-million dollar decisions in the global marketplace. Companies will continue to rely on expertly trained employees who are well versed in areas like business intelligence and analytics, prescriptive analytics, predictive analytics, data management, data mining applications, and strategic database marketing. More and more MBA graduates will be expected to be competent in the areas of data use for decision making by their employers.
Business students seeking a thriving career in this dynamic field will want to consider a top online MBA in Business Analytics, designed to train them in the many facets of data acquisition and processing for decision-making in business. One such program is offered by Babson College’s F.W. Olin Graduate School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This 46-credit hour hybrid MBA program with a Business Analytics concentration offers graduate students the convenience of an online education with the networking power and interactive benefits of a cohort-based classroom degree. While the business school receives its exemplary business accreditation through the AACSB-International, it has also been recognized as one of the nation’s best online MBAs by such national ranking entities as the Princeton Review and U.S. News & World Report. Other benefits to the Blended Learning program include a 21-month finish time, two start times each year, and a GMAT waiver for qualifying students.
