There is a growing shortage of people with analytical skills to work with big data. As data volumes increase exponentially, new types of jobs in data science, business analytics, and business intelligence are emerging. Educational institutions are developing interdisciplinary programs to teach skills like data collection, mining, analysis, and interpretation to prepare students for these roles. Examples of master's programs from top Indian and international schools are provided.

1. EMERGING TRENDS – BUSINESS ANALYTICS
By 2018 US alone would have a shortage of 1.4 lacs to 1.8 lacs people with analytical skills. Data
Scientist, Business Analyst, Business Intelligence are all alternate nomenclature for a similar skill
set.
The Need:
The amount of data being generated globally increases by 40 percent a year, according to the
McKinsey Global Institute, the consulting firm’s research arm. Gartner predicts that data will grow
800 percent over the next five years and 80 percent of the data will be unstructured.
International Institute for Analytics predicts that “Big data analytics will top all other areas of
growth in analytics during 2012 due to the rapid expansion of social, mobile, location and
transaction-based data taken in by various industries.”
As the volume of enterprise data sky-rockets, an industry is growing up around using this
flood of information to help companies operate more efficiently and sustainably. Companies
increasingly will be deploying sophisticated software as a key component of their sustainability
strategy. Mu Sigma, for example, an Indian firm providing data analytics and decision support
services for global enterprise, secured a $108 million investment round led by General Atlantic.
“My smartphone produces a huge amount of data, my car produces ridiculous amounts of really
valuable data, my house is throwing off data, everything is making data,” said Erik Swan, 47, co-
founder of Splunk, a San Francisco-based start-up whose software indexes vast quantities of
machine-generated data into searchable links. Companies search those links, as one searches
Google, to analyze customer behavior in real time. Splunk is among a crop of enterprise software
start-up companies that analyze big data and are establishing themselves in territory long
controlled by giant business-technology vendors like Oracle and I.B.M. Founded in 2004, before
the term “big data” had worked its way into the vocabulary of Silicon Valley, Splunk now has
some 3,200 customers in more than 75 countries, including more than half the Fortune 100
companies.
The Usage:
Here’s an unsubstantiated anecdote: “There’s a cell service provider in Japan that collects GPS
data from cell phone users. The cell provider collects the data in real time, and keeps track of
which people are walking the furthest. Once a month, the cell provider gives an award to the
walker who covered the greatest distance. In a way, cell phones are working like sensors to
collect and analyze streaming big data.”
“Imagine a consumer walking around downtown in a city, shopping. Now imagine letting a
shopping service know where he is, plus maybe the kinds of goods he is looking for. As I walk,
the GPS coordinates could stream to the shopping service, and it could point him to stores that
match his interests.”
“A lot of people know how to work with data,” observed Anand Rajaraman, “but now there is a lot
more data so the kinds of things you can do with it and the way you work with it can are very
different.” The founder of companies which have been acquired by Amazon and Walmart,
Rajaraman is now senior vice president at Walmart Global e-commerce and co-founder
@WalmartLabs, and a professor at Stanford.
Traditional users of large amounts of Data — retail, telecom and intelligence — are already
comfortable with it. The next big set of users is in mobile-social, especially incorporating geo-
location. Some areas have been underserved, such as health care, which is described as the

2. third rail because it has been too hard and too slow. But now health care is experiencing a
fundamental change similar to what retail felt when customers came in armed with smart phones
and had more information than sales people. Patients are starting to acquire more information
and health care providers are developing more analytics.
The Education:
To arrive at solutions on how to perceive, derive, collate, store, sort and use data for business
decisions is Data Analytics. All areas of commerce, business, economics and sciences are using
data analysis to arrive at solutions. To do this there is a certain skill set that has to be created, the
science of teaching this has grown into what academic institutions call Data Analytics or Business
Intelligence programs.
The institutions that have taken on the mantle of teaching data analytics are the management
institutions with inputs from their engineering, mathematics and statistics departments creating
interdisciplinary programs to acquire data mining and interpreting skills. Most management
institutions are at the forefront on this learning derivative because business now believes that this
skill will be critical to improving their penetration and profitability.
The Education programs train students on:
Data Collection and Integration Statistical Methods and Models
Processes for Enterprise Decision Making Predictive Analytics
Advanced Data Analysis Advanced Statistics
Database Management Financial Analysis
Web Analytics Predictive Modeling
Marketing Analytics Data Warehousing
Process Optimization Data Mining Techniques
Text Mining Mining Genomics Data
The Nomenclature of Education Programs:
Masters of Science in Analytics
Masters of Science in Predictive Analytics
Masters of Science in Business Intelligence
Masters of Science in Business Analytics
Masters of Science in Data Mining
Certification in Data Analytics
Duration of the Program: 10 months to 18 months

3. Some of the Indian Institutions that are helping students gain data analytic skills are:
Institutions Location Program Program Contact Details
Name Length
Indian Institute of Science Bangalore Master of 24 Months Department of Management
http://www.mgmt.iisc.ernet.in Management (Full Time) Studies
IISC Bangalore 560 012
Phone: +91-80-2293 2567
(Office) Fax: +91-80-2360 4534
E-mail:
office@mgmt.iisc.ernet.in
Indian Institute of Bangalore Certificate 12 Months The Administrative Officer
Management Bangalore Programme (Part Time) Executive Education
http://www.iimb.ernet.in on Business Programmes
Analytics and IIM Bangalore, Bannerghatta
Intelligence Road, Bangalore 560 076
Phone : +91-80-26993475
/3660/ 3264 /3742
Fax : +91-80 – 26584004 /
26584050
E-mail : openpro@iimb.ernet.in
Indian School of Business Hyderabad Part of the Analytics Admissions Office
http://www.isb.edu/ MBA Labs (only Indian School of Business
program for enrolled Gachibowli, Hyderabad-500032
MBA Phone: +91 40 2318 7474
students) /7484 /7494
Fax: +91 40 2300 7099
Praxis Business School Kolkata Post 12 Months Admissions office Address:
http://praxis.ac.in Graduate (Full Time) Praxis Business School, Next to
Program in Akademia International School,
(Knowledge Partners PWC Business Bakrahat Road, P.O.
and ICICI) Analytics Rasapunja, Kolkata – 700104
Phone: +91 98368 77599/
+9133 24980553/4
E-mail:
admissions@praxis.ac.in
Some International Programs offering Business Analytics:
1. In 2007, North Carolina State University began offering the first graduate degree in
Analytics. In just 10 months, students can earn a Master of Science in Analytics through the
university’s Institute for Advanced Analytics. The degree program addresses data collection
and integration, statistical methods and models and complex processes for enterprise
decision making.
2. In 2010, DePaul University announced a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics (MSPA)
through its Center for Data Mining and Predictive Analytics, a joint venture between the
School of Computing and the School of Marketing. The DePaul program covers data mining,
predictive analytics and business intelligence.
3. Northwestern University will begin its first MSPA degree program in the fall of 2011. The
new MSPA degree provides core basics such as data mining concepts and applications, and
extends into advanced data analysis, advanced statistics, database management, financial
analysis, web analytics, predictive modeling and marketing analytics.

4. 4. Students can earn a Master of Science in Business Intelligence (MSBI) from Saint Joseph’s
University. The program offers evening classes and addresses technology integration,
quantitative skills and analytics within a business context.
5. The University of Denver also offers an MSBI degree program through the Daniels College
of Business. The program focuses on how to gather and leverage information to lead
organizations and guide decisions. The cross-functional coursework covers data
warehousing, marketing, finance and operations and incorporates real project work.
6. The University of Tennessee Knoxville offers a Master of Science in Business Analytics
through the College of Business Administration. The program provides students with an
understanding of business and helps them learn the analytical skills needed to solve
business problems. Students can choose one of three areas of concentration: Applied
Statistics, Process Optimization or Business Intelligence.
7. Since 2003, Central Connecticut State University has offered a Master of Science in Data
Mining degree. The program helps students master the cross-industry standard process for
data mining, become proficient with leading data mining software, and to understand and
apply a wide variety of mathematical and statistical techniques. It also introduces students to
the latest data mining techniques and applications such as text mining and mining genomics
data.
Student Educational Backgrounds:
Any student comfortable with Mathematics and Statistics can opt for these programs.
Companies In India hiring for Analytics:
Target, Dell, IBM, HP (analytics), Citi, ICICI, PWC, Accenture, etc.