At the beginning of the class, I knew that companies used BI to learn more about customer behaviors and market trends, but didn't know much about how that was accomplished. Our textbook, The Data Warehouse Toolkit, made me fearful that this would be another class in which I had to do battle with SQL. Thankfully it wasn't, and I can say with confidence that I learned a lot of really useful skills and that my perspective on Big Data has matured. I hadn't spent much time thinking about how quickly we generate data or how much space that data uses. The first lecture on this topic captured my attention right from the start, and I began what became an ongoing conversation about data with several friends and co-workers. At first I presented stats about data that occurs every 60 seconds:
- 100,000 new tweets
- 400,000 Skype calls
- 700,000 Google queries
- 2,000,000 emails sent
- 1500 blog posts
- 100 domains registered
- 80,000 wall posts on Facebook
- 1000s of YouTube videos posted (Ram, 2014, p. 4)
The following week, Dr. Ram tweeted a link to http://pennystocks.la/internet-in-real-time/ which shows the Internet in real time.
Now I had a visual aid, and kept it available on my phone to show anyone who asked questions about my current class. I would pull it out and say that I'm learning what we can learn from all of this activity that occurs every minute online. Several people asked when the timer started on that link. When I would reply that it started the moment I opened the page, the "are you serious?!" face that followed was priceless.
As we progressed on to dashboards and balanced scorecards, I was excited to learn more about tools I use in my job every week. The KPI selection process was new to me, but I could immediately see where my company could do better in this area. I'm still planning to take an opportunity to try to present a revised District scorecard at work. I believe our current model could be improved upon based on what I learned in Lecture 4: "The balanced scorecard should tell the story of the strategy" (Ram, 2014, p. *). We're in the ballpark now, but there is too much unnecessary information presented and it's all presented in the same format. It's at once distracting and disengaging. Now that I know what a balanced scorecard is capable of, I could potentially help my boss revise ours to focus on strategy and true KPIs.
The web and social media analytics portion of the class were my favorite. I enjoyed manipulating Google Analytics to learn more about the Eller MIS Online website visitors, and analyzing the results to make recommendations. Using LinkedIn InMaps showed me valuable information about my own professional network, and showed me the importance of understanding the data to which I have access. This played out on a far larger scale when I used Netvizz and Gephi to analyze my Facebook friends for the final assignment. I'll admit, I had so much fun tinkering with my visualization Gephi that I actually lost track of time. Each time I applied one of the various tools for stats or partitions or layouts, I found a new way to analyze my own social network. It was so interesting, I actually posted my finished product on Facebook, and discussing and explaining what I learned in class this week has been downright entertaining.
When I told my favorite undergrad professor I was returning to school to pursue a Master's degree, she congratulated me and said "It will change the way you think." Dr. Deirdre Pettipiece holds a PhD in English Literature, and is currently the Dean of Arts and Humanities at CUNY and has never given me bad advice. It hasn't occurred in every class, but each time I learn something that changes the way I think, I smile because Dr. Pettipiece was right again. This class was exceptional in terms of changing the way I think, and has provided me with new insight about how I hope to direct my career once I complete the program in December. Much has been written about how to convince a boss or CEO to implement Business Intelligence; my goal is to be the type of leader who doesn't need convincing. BI has captured my interest and attention, and I can clearly see how that will help me set myself apart from other managers moving forward.
References
Elliot, T. (2014). Business intelligence cartoons: 6 of the best. Retrieved from http://www.matillion.com/insight/business-intelligence-cartoons-6-of-the-best/
Ram, S. (2013). Introduction to big data and business intelligence [PDF document]. Available from https://blackboard.eller.arizona.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-521118-dt-content-rid-4449378_1/courses/MIS_587-910-142-MISO/Lecture_Notes/Lecture2.pdf
Ram, S. (2013). Introduction to balanced scorecard [PDF document]. Available from https://blackboard.eller.arizona.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-521123-dt-content-rid-4449381_1/courses/MIS_587-910-142-MISO/Lecture_Notes/Lecture4.pdf
