Oz Analytics

Day 2 Week 7 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-10-12T08:11:13+11:00

Continuing week 7 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

Week 7, Day 2

Theme: The S Word

Week 7, Tuesday

This week's theme is statistics - yes, the dreaded S word. This is what is at the heart of the mechanics of analysis. So assuming that you have a reasonable grounding in basic stats, this week we will look at some of the current issues raised when stats is applied in the real world.

READ Today's task: Why statistics rule

15 minutes

"Why Statistics Rule", article by Stathi Paxinos, The Age newspaper, June 29th, 2004.

Key takeout: Stats matter and you cannot be an effective analyst without a solid grounding in the subject. Most will be familiar with the book Moneyball by Michael Lewis - now an apparently very good film starring Brad Pitt "the man who made statistics sexy". Moneyball is the story of US baseball team Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players. This article shows how fundamental stats have become to sports - in this case in Australian AFL. Remember - this article is from 7 years ago, so it's more historical record than news now. Why should we care? Because the AFL is just one example among many industries where stats is an essential tool of management. In a way this is the justification for the whole of the CORTEX and this refresher course.

As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 25,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.

Day 1 Week 7 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-10-10T06:00:00+11:00

Welcome to week 7 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

The CORTEX

Master of Business Analytics

Week 7, Day 1

Theme: The S Word

Week 7, Monday

WATCH Today's task: Dance of the P Values

10 minutes

YouTube video by Emeritus Professor Geoff Cumming, Statistical Cognition Laboratory, School of Psychological Science at La Trobe University, and author of 'The New Statistics' book published in 2012 by Psychology Press and Routledge, and the free software package 'ESCI' (“ESS-key”, Exploratory Software for Confidence Intervals) running under Microsoft excel.

Key takeout: This video's message is to highlight how commonly accepted techniques can mislead. To me it is the analysts responsibility to choose the most appropriate measures and not just to frame outcomes as favourably as possible. In the short-term you may gain, but beyond that you will lose every time.

As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 20,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.

Day 5 Week 6 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-09-30T06:00:00+10:00

Continuing week 6 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

The CORTEX

Master of Business Analytics

Week 6, Day 5

Theme: Analytics In The Real World

Week 6, Friday

This week's theme is application - not in the sense of a computer program - rather in the sense of 'use it or lose it'. This week we look at how analytics is being applied in the real world.

WATCH Today's task: Making $79B Agile

15 minutes

'Making $79B Agile: How Procter & Gamble Handles BI', Patrick Kern, Director of Business Intelligence at Proctor and Gamble interviewed by Bruno Aziza, Director of Business Intelligence at Microsoft

Key takeout: This short interview contains a good overview of how one large company has addressed their business requirement for enterprise wide agile decision making.

Next installment of the MBAnalytics will be on Monday October 10th.

That's it for week 6. This time there is a long weekend in Australia and I think it's time for a 'half term break', so I will see you back on Monday October 10th for the next installment. As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 20,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.

Day 4 Week 6 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-09-29T10:49:16+10:00

Continuing week 6 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

The CORTEX

Master of Business Analytics

Week 6, Day 4

Theme: Analytics In The Real World

Week 6, Thursday

This week's theme is application - not in the sense of a computer program - rather in the sense of 'use it or lose it'. This week we look at how analytics is being applied in the real world.

READ Today's task Part 1: Data Mining At The ATO

20 minutes

'Data Mining in the ATO', presentation by Warwick Graco, Director Operational Analytics, Office of the Chief Knowledge Officer, ATO at a 2007 UTS Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) Research Seminar

Today's task Part 2: ATO No Longer Taxing

10 minutes

'No Longer Taxing, Using SAS to make it easier to interact with the Australian Taxation Office', SAS Case Study, 2007

Key takeout: The Australian Tax Office (ATO) is by most measures a pretty serious user of analytics. So it is interesting to see how both traditional big-vendor tools like SAS and open source Rattle and R are co-existing. Perhaps it's 'horses for courses'? Unfortunately, little is publicly known about how the SAS and R communities interact at the ATO? Perhaps a reader of this blog knows more?

As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 20,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.

The Data Journalism Process

2011-09-28T11:42:48+10:00

As a part of the the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX, I recently blogged about The Guardian newspaper's outstanding work leveraging data. I have done a bit of cutting and pasting and reconstructed the process referred to by Simon Rogers, Editor at The Guardian, in his talk on September 21st, 2011. The talk is available on my blog here.

Click on the image to display a larger version.

Yes, there is a lot of manual work, but it is interesting that The Guardian sees so much value being generated that they are prepared to invest the time and money. I recommend bookmarking their Data Store section.

Day 3 Week 6 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-09-28T06:00:00+10:00

Continuing week 6 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

The CORTEX

Master of Business Analytics

Week 6, Day 3

Theme: Analytics In The Real World

Week 6, Wednesday

This week's theme is application - not in the sense of a computer program - rather in the sense of 'use it or lose it'. This week we look at how analytics is being applied in the real world.

WATCH Today's task: Rich reward for data miners

10 minutes

'Rich reward for data miners', by Glenn Mulcaster, The Sydney Morning Herald, September 26, 2011

Key takeout: Why should an organisation pay for a small team of analysts when it can run a competition that attract some of the greatest analytic minds in the world. This is not a one-off example. Netflix and others have generated serious returns from other competitions.

As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 20,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.

Day 2 Week 6 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-09-27T06:00:00+10:00

Continuing week 6 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

The CORTEX

Master of Business Analytics

Week 6, Day 2

Theme: Analytics In The Real World

Week 6, Tuesday

This week's theme is application - not in the sense of a computer program - rather in the sense of 'use it or lose it'. This week we look at how analytics is being applied in the real world.

WATCH Today's task: Data-Driven Journalism at the Guardian Streamed

17 minutes

'Data-Driven Journalism at the Guardian', presentation at the Strata New York Summit 2011, Simon Rogers, Editor at The Guardian, September 21st, 2011

Key takeout: The Guardian has reinvented itself as one of the leading users of data analysis while keeping their website free to all. This talk gives you a good overview of how data is driving some of their journalism and how their readers engage with the newspaper.

As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 20,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.

Day 1 Week 6 of the CORTEX MBAnalytics

2011-09-26T06:00:00+10:00

Welcome to the start of week 6 - part of the 60 day information management refresher course from the CORTEX.

The CORTEX

Master of Business Analytics

Week 6, Day 1

Theme: Analytics In The Real World

Week 6, Monday

This week's theme is application - not in the sense of a computer program - rather in the sense of 'use it or lose it'. This week we look at how analytics is being applied in the real world.

WATCH Today's task: HSBC Streamed

11 minutes

Untitled set of 3 videos on YouTube,posted by Responsetek. This is an interview with Justin Kenny, HSBC eChannel Programme Director

Key takeout: I've started the week with these videos because they give you an insight into the world of large corporate use of analytics. It is not as 'sexy' as the examples the large BI vendors are always presenting but it is all the more realistic for that. This is the type of work that the vast majority of organisations are focussed on.

As always, comments, questions and ideas are all welcome.

The MBAnalytics is just one part of the Business Intelligence CORTEX - a community of Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, Analytics and Project Management professionals in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Membership is free and the forums are very active with over 20,000 posts offering a uniquely Australasian viewpoint.