T4 - Business Analytics Flashcards
What is the difference between Business intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA)?
- BI involves the acquisition of data and information (eventually knowledge) from a significant variety of sources, promoting its organization in data warehouses and its use to support decision making.
- Business Analytics supplies the analysis models and the procedures for Business Intelligence.
What is a multidimensional database?
A multidimensional database is structured around measures, dimensions, hierarchies, and cubes rather than tables, rows, columns, and relations.
And what is the purpose of multidimensional models?
Multidimensional models support BA by providing the organization analysts with data optimized for manipulation and analysis.
What are aggregates in cubes?
- An aggregate is a value formed by combining values from a given dimension or set of dimensions to create a single value.
- This is often done by adding the values together using the sum aggregate, but other aggregation calculations can also be used.
What are preprocessed aggregates and why do we have them?
- Cubes with X dimensions and X hierarchies require quite a few aggregate calculations as the user navigates through the cube.
- This can slow down analysis significantly.
- To combat, the possible data aggregates are calculated ahead of time & stored within the cube.
- These stored values = preprocessed aggregates.
What are the different possible OLAP operations?
- Slice - a subset of a multidimensional array
- Dice - a slice on more than two dimensions
- Drill-Down - navigating among levels of data ranging from the most summarized to the most detailed
- Roll-Up - computing all of the data relationships for one or more dimensions
- Pivot - used to change the dimensional orientation of a report or an ad hoc query-page display
What are Drill-Down and Roll-Up?
Data can be disaggregated and aggregated along a dimension according to their natural hierarchy
What are “Slicing and Dicing“ the Data?
Choosing a range out of each dimension
What is Rotating the Data?
Different users will require different views of the multidimensional cube – OLAP allows easy rotation of data
What is Location-Based Analytics (and examples)?
- Geospatial Analytics
- Geocoding
- Visual maps
- Postal codes
- Latitude & Longitude
- Enables aggregate view of a large geographic area
- Integrate “where” into customer view
What are two approaches to location-based analytics and what falls into each of these?
- Organization oriented
- Geospatial static approach: examining geographic site locations
- Location-based dynamic approach: live location feeds, real-time marketing promotions
- Consumer oriented
- Geospatial static approach: GPS Navigation and data analysis
- Location-based dynamic approach: historic and current location demand analysis, predictive parking, health-social networks
What is a Geographic Information System (GIS) used for and how?
- System designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage, and present all types of spatial or geographical data.
- GIS applications are tools that allow users to create interactive queries (user-created searches), analyze spatial information, edit data in maps, and present the results of all these operations.
- Combined with integrated sensor technologies and global positioning systems (GPS)
What is Location Intelligence (LI)?
Interactive maps that further drill down to details about any location
What are examples of location analysis capabilities?
- overlay analysis
- proximity analysis
- network analysis
What is meant with Real-Time Location Intelligence?
- Many devices are constantly sending out their location information
- Cars, airplanes, ships, mobile phones, cameras, navigation systems, …
- GPS, Wi-Fi, RFID, cell tower triangulation
- Cars, airplanes, ships, mobile phones, cameras, navigation systems, …
- Reality mining?
- Real-time location information = real-time insight
- Path Intelligence (pathintelligence.com)
- Footpath – movement patterns within a city or store
- How to use such movement information
