Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics

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D I R E C T E D S T U D I E S P R O J E C T 2 0 1 2
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN
BUSINESS ANALYTICS
Faculty Advisor: Tom Jopling
Sponsor: Karen Plesner
Prepared By: Bea Badilla, Joe Zhang, April Zhang
May 14th
, 2012

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 1
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND..................................................................... 2
INTRODUCTION TO THE MARKETING RESEARCH PROGRAM .................... 3
BACKGROUND.........................................................................................................................3
OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................................................3
PHASE ONE: SECONDARY RESEARCH ............................................................................3
OBJECTIVES..........................................................................................................................3
SUB-OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................4
METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................4
LIMITATIONS........................................................................................................................4
KEY FINDINGS......................................................................................................................4
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE MODEL..................................................................................8
TRENDS..................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................15
PHASE TWO: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH......................................................................16
OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................................16
TOPICS..................................................................................................................................16
METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................16
LIMITATIONS......................................................................................................................17
KEY FINDINGS....................................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................21
RECOMMENDATIONS .........................................................................................................21
TARGET MARKET....................................................................................................... 23
ORGANIZATION .......................................................................................................... 24
VISION......................................................................................................................................24
MISSION...................................................................................................................................24
STAKEHOLDERS...................................................................................................................24
COMMITMENTS TO THE STAKEHOLDERS..................................................................25
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ORGANIZATION...............................................................25
ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES........................................................................................26
PROPOSED COURSES/ TOPICS ........................................................................................26
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS ......................................................................................... 26
MARKETING STRATEGY.......................................................................................... 27
BRAND STRATEGY...............................................................................................................27
VISUAL IDENTITY ................................................................................................................28
CAMPAIGN THEME..............................................................................................................28
MARKETING CHALLENGE................................................................................................28
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES.......................................................................................... 29
MARKETING OBJECTIVES...............................................................................................29
COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................29
MARKETING COMMUNICATION TOOLS......................................................................29
FUNDRAISING ....................................................................................................................29

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CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE WEBSITE.............................................................................29
SOCIAL MEDIA ...................................................................................................................30
SYMPOSIUM........................................................................................................................31
DIRECT MAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN.......................................................................31
CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOWS ..............................................................................31
WEBINARS...........................................................................................................................32
INFO SESSIONS...................................................................................................................32
IMPLEMENTATION AND BUDGET ..................................................................................33
Appendix.......................................................................................................................... 34

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A marketing strategy plan has been created for the Centre of Excellence in
Business Analytics at the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s School of
Business. The plan addresses the fact that the Centre of Excellence in Business
Analytics is still at the concept stage and, as such, faces the significant
challenges of raising awareness, establishing relationships with industry partners,
and becoming financially self-sufficient. To address these issues, the marketing
plan is broken down into two main sections: marketing research findings and
marketing strategy. The marketing research section presents the results of
research conducted to gather information to help guide the development of a a
marketing strategy for the Centre. The Marketing Strategy itself contains a
marketing campaign to raise awareness of the Centre of Excellence in Business
Analytics and create a unique brand that is supported by BCIT’s and the School
of Business’ core strengths.
The marketing research process consisted of two phases: secondary research
and qualitative research.
Key findings from the secondary research showed that Business Analytics is an
opportunity that schools and businesses alike are actively pursuing. Both the
academic and business worlds are taking action to provide business analytics
courses and organizations are now buying business analytics software
companies to push and expand this high margin business.
The second phase of the marketing research process was the qualitative
research, which involved in-depth interviews conducted with key informants from
within BCIT’s School of Business. The participants were chosen for their
anticipated knowledge and unique perspectives on business analytics, course
development, and program management. Conclusions from these interviews
supported the findings from the secondary research, including recognition of the
growing demand for business analytics education in today’s economy.
Recommendations offered after a thorough analysis of all the information
gathered in the marketing include:
• Initiating a fundraising program that will help raise awareness and financial
resources to get the Centre up and running
• Creating a website for the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics to
provide more information about the program, courses, staff etc.
• Hosting a symposium to launch the Centre to the public, introducing the
course and branding the program. Symposiums should be hosted annually.
• Attending conferences to help promote the Centre in professional
associations such as IIBA and TDWI

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• Creating on-going marketing initiatives that will promote the Centre
onwards such as info-sessions, direct mail marketing, social media,
webinars etc.
• Proposing projects for students to keep interaction with the industries that
have interest in business analytics
• Providing internship program for students to be able to apply their skills
• Selling training programs for companies who are interested in learning
about Business Analytics
The marketing strategy addresses the challenge of creating a unique brand
image and value proposition to attract sponsors and prospective students. The
plan proposes attracting a minimum of five industry sponsors by the end of year
one, increasing to at least eight sponsors by the end of year two. Further, it
proposes that the Centre offer a minimum of three to five courses that are fully
subscribed in each term of year one. One of these courses should be a
Fundamentals of Business Analytics course. By the end of year two, a minimum
of five to seven courses should be offered each term. The communication
objective is to create a unique image for the Centre of Excellence in Business
Analytics as the place for students and industry professionals to be trained in
Business Analytics contributing to their career advancement business success.
The strategy that is envisioned for the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics
revolves around the Centre’s ability to deliver the highest return on the students’
and companies’ investments. It will emphasize BCIT’s proven track record of
success in delivering the highest quality of learning experience. The campaign
will position the Centre as hands-on, applied learning experience, consisting of
faculty members with relevant industry experience and expertise and strong
industry ties, which in the end will lead to a great career.
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
BCIT was founded in 1960 as the British Columbia Vocational School. BCIT was
the very first provincial institution devoted to advanced technical education in BC.
The school was established by the provincial government to support BC’s
economic and social growth by combining education and applied learning. Today,
BCIT is known for its high job placement rate, strong ties with various industries
and is recognized as a leader in delivering applied learning. Currently, BCIT has
five campuses located within the Metro Vancouver Region and offers a variety of
credentials including certificates, diplomas, bachelor and master degrees that
lead to rewarding careers. Currently, there are about 19,894 students enrolled
full-time and 35,174 students enrolled part-time with an average growth of 2%
per year.

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INTRODUCTION TO THE MARKETING RESEARCH
PROGRAM
BACKGROUND
The School of Business at the British Columbia Institute of Technology is
currently considering the development of a virtual (online) Centre of Excellence in
Business Analytics. The field of business analytics is growing at a rapid pace in
response to the acquisition of large amounts of data by organizations in a wide
variety of industries. Essentially, computing systems and other business tools
have made it possible for organizations to collect data on their customers,
competitors, and industries, and they require staff with the skills and knowledge
necessary to work with that data to identify important trends and opportunities.
OBJECTIVES
Gather information that will help the Centre of Excellence development team
better understand the following:
• Current market offerings in business analytics courses and programs,
• Identify and profile key competitors
• Determine resources that will be necessary to develop and support the
Centre
• Ways in which the Centre can be most effectively marketed to potential
clients.
Lastly, develop a detailed marketing strategy for the Centre based on the key
findings of this research.
PHASE ONE: SECONDARY RESEARCH
The first phase of the research plan consisted of an extensive online search of
post-secondary institutions outside of British Columbia and the rest of Canada
and the United States that currently offer courses and programs in business
analytics.
OBJECTIVES
The primary objectives of this research were to identify and profile competitors to
BCIT’s proposed Centre of Excellence and to identify courses that are currently
in demand in the marketplace. Also included in this research was the
identification and profiling of Centres of Excellence outside Canada that are
considered market leaders. These Centres were studied as examples upon
which BCIT’s Centre can model itself.

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SUB-OBJECTIVES
• Identify trends in business analytics in both the academic and business
worlds
• Identify trends in virtual or online education
• Identify the skill sets that Canadian employers outside of British Columbia
require for positions related to business analytics, business intelligence,
competitive intelligence, and marketing research
METHODOLOGY
The key sources of information for this phase of the research plan were the
websites of post-secondary institutions outside of British Columbia, the rest of
Canada, and elsewhere that offer programs and courses in business analytics.
Information regarding business analytics skills currently in demand were
gathered from online job ads/descriptions posted on credible websites such as
bcjobs.ca, workopolis.com, wowjobs.ca, monster.ca etc. Other research
information such as trends of business analytics and virtual education was
obtained from BCIT’s online databases and other credible websites.
LIMITATIONS
The most obvious limitation for the secondary research is the number of schools
that were studied. For this report, although a lot of schools outside BC and
Canada have been researched, there might be still more schools with better
match for the report objectives. By doing more research, more valuable
information might be discovered, and which may help improve the research
results. Different than primary research, secondary research is mainly done
online, which indicates another limitation. Websites as the primary resources for
the secondary research may not include all the information. Further information
about the objective will need more work offline. There are also limitations for the
trends. As trends are time sensitive, some trends might be outdated, especially
business analytics is technology related.
KEY FINDINGS
COMPETITOR PROFILE
The following are the top competitors outside of BC and the rest of Canada and
the United States:
1. York University- Schulich School of Business- Executive Education Centre
The Schulich School of Business- Executive Education Centre of York University
is considered to be one of our major competitors in Canada. The Executive

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Education Centre under the Schulich School of Business partners with University
of Winnipeg, Saint Mary’s University, Memorial University, University of
Saskatchewan, Carleton University, University of Prince Edward Island,
University of New Brunswick, and Learning and Performance Institute offers a
Masters Certificate in Business Analysis program.
The Master’s Certificate in Business Analysis program targets business analysts
from all industries, as well as business consultants, product managers, quality
assurance professionals, project managers, business or IT professionals. There
is no university level prerequisite to register this program. The duration of the
program is 18 days over five months. The tuition of the program is $9,450 CAD.
The Masters Certificate in Business Analysis program consists of 9 in class
modules that are aligned with the latest version of the International Institute of
Business Analysis.
The program schedule is as follow:
(Alternate Friday/ Saturday Sessions)
Module 1 One Day
• Program Introduction and Business
• Analysis Framework
Module 2 Two Days
• Enterprise Analysis
Module 3 Two Days
• Creativity and Critical Thinking
Module 4 Two Days
• Planning, Validating and Managing
• User Requirements
Module 5 Two Days
• Communications Inputs: Questioning, Listening, Facilitating and Managing
Conflict
Module 6 Two Days
• Eliciting User Requirements
Module 7 Three Days
• Modeling the Business Problems and Solution
Module 8 Two Days
• Communications Output: Planning, Writing and Presenting
Module 9 Two Days
• Final Exam and Simulation Execution
The Executive Education Centre at the Schulich School of Business also offers a
three day Business Analyst’s Course on-campus or in-company. The total cost of
the courses is $2,395. The content of the courses covers the essentials of
business analysis, including key roles and responsibilities as well as
understanding all of the steps in the business requirements process.

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Courses included in this program are:
• The Role of the Business Analyst
• The Business Requirements Process
• Business Process and Data Modeling
• Project Management Providers
• Critical Thinking Skills
• Maintain On-Going Customer Feedback and Involvement
2. McGill University
McGill University in Montreal is another main competitor of BCIT Center of
Excellence in Business Analytics. A Comprehensive Business Analysis program
is offered under their School of Continuing Studies. The potential students of this
program are business analysts, project managers, project team members, team
leaders, consultants, process analysts, enterprise analysts, QA primes, subject
matter experts, and working professionals who wish to enter the world of
business analysis.
The program is designed for working professionals, but there is no prerequisite to
enroll in the program. The program is offered in class, and consists of 20 three
hours sessions and 2 eight hours workshop sessions. The tuition of the program
is $2,650 CAD. The credit of the program is worth of 8 Continuing Education
Units.
Topics covered include:
• Enterprise Analysis
• Stakeholder Analysis
• Business Analysis Planning
• SMART Requirements& Attributes
• Requirements in the Project Life Cycle
• Requirements Elicitation Techniques
• Interactive Communication for Success
• Facilitating the Requirement Workshop
• Introduction to Modeling
• Business Process Modeling Techniques
• Use Cases
• Business Rules& Data Models
• Requirements Verification& Validation
• Solution Assessment& Transitioning to Deployment
• Presenting Requirements
• Lean 6 Sigma in the Business Analysis World
• The Agile Business Analyst
• Business Standards: IIBA, BABOK, CBAP, CCBA
• Business Analysis Workshops- Case Study

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3. Stanford University
One of our main competitors in the United States is Stanford University located in
Stanford, California. The Stanford Center for Professional Education offers a data
mining and applications program to industry and business professionals such as
strategy managers, scientific researchers, medical researchers, social sciences
researchers, data analysts and consultants, and advertising and marketing
staffing.
The successful applicants to this program must meet the requirements of a
background in probability and matrix algebra (minimum of one course at the
undergraduate level or above) and an undergraduate degree with minimum GPA
of 3.5 or equivalent. Students will be given 3 years maximum to complete the
program. The tuition is $10,080- $11,880 USD (9 units). The average completion
length is 1 to 2 years. A graduate certificate is offered upon completion.
Three courses are required to complete the program:
• Data Mining and Analysis (STAT 202)
Elective Courses (Two from the following):
• Paradigms for Computing with Data (STAT 290)
• Modern Applied Statistics: Learning (STAT 315A)
• Modern Applied Statistics: Data Mining (STAT 315B)
Graduates gain the skills and knowledge of using statistical methods to extract
meaning from large datasets; developing and using predictive models and
analytics; and understanding and using strategic decision-making applications.
4. New York University- Stern School of Business
Another important competitor in the United States is New York University (NYU)
located in New York City. The Stern School of Business at NYU offers a Master
of Science in Business Analytics program. The one-year program is designed for
full-time working professionals. A wide range of industries could benefit from
taking this program, such as, financial services, communications, consulting,
health and pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, energy, nonprofit/NGO, education,
IT by unlocking the potential of big data.
To apply to the Master of Science in Business Analytics program, the applicants
must have a Bachelor degree and strong GPA; demonstrated high aptitude for
quantitative analysis and academic success as evidenced by undergraduate and
graduate coursework as applicable. Moreover, the applicants must have at least
five years’ work experience. The program is comprised of five modules with in-
class sessions held between New York and Shanghai. Tuition of this program is
$63,500 USD (includes course materials, some meals and official events.) Hotel

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and travel expenses are not included. Students need to spend approximately 20
hours per week on pre-and post-module tasks over 12 months.
The modules and courses schedule is as follow:
Module 1: New York
• Data Visualization
• Operations Analytics
• Decision Models
• Managing for Quality
• Data Mining for Business Analytics
Module 2: New York
• Data Driven Decision Making
• Applied Stochastic Processes for Finance
• Social and Digital Media Analytics
Module 3: Shanghai
• Prediction
• Advanced Decision Models
• Digital Marketing
Module 4: Shanghai
• Special Topics in Analytics: Revenue Management& Pricing
• Business Metrics
Module 5: Closing- New York
• Strategic Capstone
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE MODEL
Villanova School of Business - Center for Business Analytics
This school has six centers of excellence in total, with business analytics being
one of them, and the other five including the center for global leadership, center
for entrepreneurship, center for marketing and public policy research, center for
the study of church management, and center for real estate. The School means
to cover all the business categories by using different centers of excellence.
The mission of the Center has two main focuses: education and business. For
the education part, it is working to lead the development of the analytical
capabilities of all the Villanova School of Business (VSB) students. While also
help cross-disciplinary faculty and staff become recognized for excellence in
analytics education, practice, and research.
For the business part, the Center provides resources and a forum for member
companies to address their business analytics needs. By using applications of

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information technology, the Center addresses the integration of the following
areas
• Advanced Analytics (decision optimization, statistical models, predictive
analytics, forecasting)
• Business Intelligence (alerts, queries, standard and reports)
• Business Performance Management (KPIs, scorecards, dashboards)
• Business Process Management (process and value stream mapping, lean,
six sigma)
In addition, the Center addresses the introduction and acceptance of Business
Analytics within the managerial team to drive fact-based information and
analytics as the basis for how decisions are made.
For the businesses, the Center also provides ways for the companies to interact
with the center. The list below is the ways that companies can be involved with
the Center:
• Join the Center of Business Analytics
• Become a guest speaker of the Center
• Request faculty participation in business partner analytics issues
• Sponsor research projects
• Request continuing education in analytics for professionals, managers,
and executives
• Join the roundtable of the center, share best practices
• Offer internships, opportunities for job placement for the students
• Mentor an undergraduate
• Host an information session at your company for the students
• Host an information session at your company for the students
There are two people managing and organizing the activities inside and outside
the Center:
• Director: Matthew Liberatore, PhD
• Associate Director: Thomas Coghlan
TRENDS
Rapid developments in computing technology are not only improving the
operating speed of devices, but also changing the speed of data transmission.
Under the high-speed growth pace, development of computing hardware is
doubling year over year as stated by Moore’s law; however, the growing pace of
the data capacity is even faster. According to “Big data is Scaling BI and
Analytics”, recent IDC research on digital data indicates that in 2010, the amount
of digital information in the world reached beyond a zettabyte in size. That’s one
trillion gigabytes of information. In other words, a zettabyte is roughly the size of
125 billion 8GB iPods fully loaded1
.
1
Rogers, S. (2011, October). Big data is scaling BI and Analytics. Information Management , 21 (5), pp. 14-18.

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Trends in Business Analytics: Academic World
Like business, higher education is using analytics to ensure organizational
success at all levels. Natsu reported that analytics could help education leaders
improve teaching and learning. She stated that the use of predictive analytics
could range from “improving efficiencies to saving money to enhancing student
achievement” and included examples such as planning courses, recruiting and
retaining college students, optimizing the scheduling of classrooms, and
maximizing alumni donations2
.
Analytics allows instructors to predict which students are in academic difficulty,
so faculty and advisors can customize learning paths or provide instruction
tailored to specific learning needs. Moreover, interpretation of a wide range of
data produced by and gathered on behalf of students can help assess academic
progress, predict future performance, and spot potential issues.
At the school level, analytics can be used to examine test scores and other
student indicators over time to help administrators determine the impact of
policies. In educational data mining, analytics techniques often used to extracting
an underlying pattern, which might be partly or nearly completely hidden by data
that does not contribute to the pattern3
Business Analytics Trends in Online Education
Online education is certainly not new, but what about classes with tens of
thousands of students, participating from locations all over the world? That’s
MOOC (Massive Online Open Education) – and it’s opening new doors for data
analytics4
.
With MOOC and analytics tools, analyzing student answers on assignments and
tests revealed patterns that would never have been noticed in conventional
classes. Daphne Koller, a professor in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, explains in a recent interview that “the availability of these really
large amounts of data provides us with insights into how people learn, what they
understand, what they don’t understand, what are the factors that cause some
students to get it and others not that is unprecedented, I think, in the realm of
education.” In turn, this information can be used to improve instruction at every
level, in every class size5
.
2
Angela, B, Kimberly, A & John, C. (2012, January), Analytics in Higher Education: Establishing a Common
Language, from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3026.pdf
3
U.S. Department of Education. (2012, April 10), Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Educational Data Mining
and Learning Analytics, Page 33, from http://evidenceframework.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/EDM-LA-Brief-
Draft_4_10_12c.pdf
4
Tibco (2012, May), Big Data Goes to School, from http://spotfireblog.tibco.com/?p=11886#more-11886
5
Tibco (2012, May), Big Data Goes to School, from http://spotfireblog.tibco.com/?p=11886#more-11886

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MOOC is one of the hottest topics in higher education today – and it offers
significant opportunities for big data management and analytics. Students
interact extensively online, not only with the course material, but also with each
other, using social network groups, microblogging, social bookmarking systems,
and much more. So students produce a huge number of “data trails” that can
yield invaluable information. Educators in high schools and colleges worldwide
hold virtual office hours on Facebook and Twitter; post assignments on more
education-oriented networks like Edmodo; and build dialogs and discussions
through services like ePals and School Town.
Trends in Business Analytics: Business World
In the business world, business intelligence and analytics are in high demand as
organizations seek to use information assets to improve business outcomes,
customer relationships, and operational efficiency. There are three main trends,
flexibility, efficiency and predictability.
The notion of “big data” has recently hit the mainstream, but companies like
Amazon, eBay, Google and Target have been using business analytics
successfully for years to exploit the value locked in large volumes of data6
. Big
data refers to very large data sets, particularly those cannot fit into traditional
data warehouse. Web browsing data, social media feeds and server logs, as well
as data from supply chain, industrial, environmental and surveillance sensors all
make business data more complex than it used to be7
.
Flexibility
From the macro perspective, what is really changing business analytics are
business dynamics. Non-technical users are exposed to business analytics tools
that give them the capability to access, analyze and share data on their own.
Users of business analytics are increasingly knowledgeable, and many are
comfortable doing their own analysis as producer-consumers, instead of relying
on other departments. As users across organization have varying degrees of
experience with data, they need the flexibility to justify the tools for their own
requirements. Today, data discovery technology is leading the way toward
making it possible for users to determine their own business intelligence
requirements by authoring reports, assembling their own dashboards, and so on.
The new tools in the market are putting pressure on market-leading business
intelligence systems to catch up. But the result is a positive trend for users
toward greater self-service and more business intelligence agility without
sacrificing analytical flexibility and depth8
.
6
Mchenry, Diana, (2010, March), Chain Store Age; Mar2010, Vol. 86 Issue 3, p36-36, 1p
7
David F., C. (2012, March 23). 5 Business Analytics Tech Trends and How to Exploit Them,
http://www.cio.com/article/702779/5_Business_Analytics_Tech_Trends_and_How_to_Exploit_Them?page=5&taxono
myId=3002
8
David, S (2011, November 9). Five Emerging Trends in Business Intelligence and Analytics, TDWI Research.

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Efficiency
In the world of big data, speed wins the competition; companies analyzing sales
data in a warehouse are missing the opportunity to take into account the treasure
trove of information that can be gleaned from data in motion. A recent Aberdeen
Group study of 63 companies finds that the top performing companies have an
83% success rate for delivering information quickly enough to meet user demand.
According to the same study, 35% of all active business data in these companies
was immediately available for queries and analysis9
. With the adoption of cloud
computing and mobile devices, mobile computing is also affecting the businesses.
In order to be quick and efficient in analyzing data, the number of people doing
work off of iPads and other mobile devices is exploding. This trend will accelerate
and change how the software companies interact with their computing resources
in an enterprise10
. The more integration happening between the technologies, the
better efficiency will be in the future.
Predictability
With the explosion of Facebook, Twitter and other social media, it is the social
media age. Customers are using social networks to influence others and express
their shopping interests and experiences. The information exchanged by the
customers on social networks can be rich with clues about the success or failure
of certain products and services. More companies want to analyze the data those
sites generate. Business intelligence technologies that uncover relationships and
patterns within large volumes of data are highly used by the companies to predict
behavior and events that will happen in the future. Rising interest in social media
analysis is putting the spotlight on business analytics. Text analytics, which is the
critical technology for understanding “sentiment” in social media, as well as
customer reviews and other content sources, is becoming important. Like data
mining, the text mining and analytics category stretches to include a range of
techniques and software. New analytics applications have emerged to support
statistical techniques such as natural language processing, sentiment analysis,
and network analysis11
.
Noticing the importance of business analytics in the business world, International
Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has started moving forward in this area. From
the latest business news, “Update: IBM buys Varicent Software to boost business
analytics”, IBM agreed to acquire Varicent Software Inc., which is a company
provides software that analyze compensation and sales performance. By doing
this, IBM is able to push to expand into complex, high-margin business-analytics
9
Mchenry, Diana, (2010, March), Chain Store Age; Mar2010, Vol. 86 Issue 3, p36-36, 1p
10
myId=3002
11
myId=3002

13
business field. According to the same article, IBM is expecting revenue from its
business-analytics segment to reach $16 billion by 2015, which will be happening
in the near future12
.
By quoting Les Rechan, general manager of business analytics at IBM, which
really indicating the trends of business analytics in business world.
“For the thousands of sales organizations still relying on silos of data,
spreadsheets and email to manage sales, there is an enormous opportunity to
apply analytics to this vital area of business and uncover new, untapped growth
opportunities.”
JOB SKILL SETS
Business analytics, business intelligence, competitive intelligence
Roles:
Job titles for business analytics practitioners include business analyst (BA),
business intelligence analyst, competitive intelligence analyst, and process
analyst, all of whom play the roles of data scientists and strategists. They collect
and analyze data to track business processes, provide suggestions on business
decision-making, and define solutions to maximize the value delivered by the
organization.
Because business analysts work across all levels of a company, they are
required to master the skills of business development and abilities to use data,
statistics, and modeling. Business analysts will be involved in tracking business
performance, defining strategy, creating the enterprise solution, applying strategy
to projects, and may at times take a leadership role by defining the requirements
and goals for projects, as well as supporting continuous improvement in its
technology and implement processes.
Based on job ads within Canada excluding BC in on variety of recruitment sites,
business analyst related jobs require qualified candidates to have specific skills
and qualifications as follow:
• Up-to-date knowledge of client/ server networking concepts
• Up-to-date knowledge of developments in relational database and
client/server networking technology
• Understand and have a desire to work at bringing consumer insights and
behaviors into fruition.
12
Jones, K. (2012, April 13). UPDATE: IBM Buys Varicent Software To Boost Business Analytics. From The Wall
Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120413-707954.html

14
• Demonstrated capability in performance-based project management
(Such as implementation of performance metrics or quality assurance
programs)
• Ability in leading and developing project deliverables using formal/
structured methodology
• Skills in report design and dimensional modeling
• Ability to work with business intelligence infrastructure
• Ability of implementing and/ or using applications
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks and effectively manage time
• Skills of critical thinking
• Ability of estimating the budget for projects
• Developed communication skills (written and verbal)
Backgrounds of finance, marketing, IT, or technology would be considered as
assets, but it all depends on what type of business a BA works with.
Organizations demand at least 3 to 5 years’ related experience when they
recruit a business analyst. The experience includes:
• Experience in supporting business intelligence or decision support
solutions
• Experience in using analytic tools in certain areas
• Experience in leading and developing projects
• Experience in working with business intelligence infrastructure
• Experience in working with business and end user communities
• Experience in report design and modeling
• Experience in developing solutions with business intelligence software
suite
Moreover, business analysts should acknowledge the use of business analysis
software and tools to analyze data and develop solutions. The most used
business analysis software and tools include Microsoft SQL Server, QlikView,
OBIEE, SSAS, SSRS, SharePoints, and TSQL.
The education requirement for business analytics job positions is Bachelor’s or
Master’s degree in engineering, finance, business, IT, or marketing related
disciplines.
Marketing research
Marketing research is a systematic process of gathering, recording, and
analyzing of data relating to marketing products and services. The roles of
marketing research staffing have been changed from just dealing with providing
information to managerial decision making. Tasks of marketing researchers

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include creating surveys to understand the target market and applying the
findings to gain competitive advantages as well as supporting sales and
marketing team of an organization.
Based on the marketing research related job ads within Canada excluding BC,
the skills and qualifications for marketing researchers include:
• Strong analytical and modeling skills
• Skill in analyzing and interpreting data to identify patterns and solutions,
including surveys and focus group transcripts
• Ability to use statistical software to manage and organize information
• Ability to monitor the process of research projects
• Skills in undertaking and conducting qualitative and quantitative
researches
• Skills in managing budgets
• Ability to advise clients/ senior management on how to best use research
findings
• Skills in critical thinking
• Ability to stay self-motivated
• Developed communication skills (written and verbal)
The experience requirement of marketing research staffing is not as strict as
business analysts. Organizations require marketing research candidates to have
related experience in marketing research, analysis, and project development and
management.
CONCLUSION
Business analytics is an opportunity that schools and businesses are trying to
seize currently. Famous universities such as McGill University, Stanford
University, New York University are all providing business analytics programs or
courses. Interestingly enough, many schools are cooperating with other schools,
or even international partners in order to provide better curriculum and
experiences for the students. After thorough assessments of the competitors’
profiles, the Centre would have a competitive edge by offering more applied
learning experience, as the courses offered by most competitors are more on the
theoretical side. Moreover, going beyond industry projects to interact with
businesses by providing practicum opportunities and being proactive by
attending conferences of professional associations, hosting symposiums
annually, starting a social media initiative etc., will further strengthen the Centre’s
industry ties and relationships. From the strategy point of view, creating
synergies seems to be a popular trend. The competitors are combining
complementary strengths, a win-win situation for the schools involved. This
means that the Centre needs to convey BCIT and the School of Business’ core

16
strengths to be able attract prospective students. On the other side, businesses
are also paying close attention to business analytics field. Big companies are
taking actions now, for example, IBM bought Varicent Software, a business
analytics software company to push to expand this high margin business. As it
comes to the job roles that related to the business analytics industry, skills are
highly required by the companies, which in this case is the skills to use the
business analytics software. Overall, business analytics is a hot topic that is
getting even more popular.
PHASE TWO: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
In the second phase of the research plan, in-depth interviews were conducted
with key informants from within BCIT’s School of Business. These individuals
were chosen for their anticipated knowledge and unique perspectives on
business analytics, course development, and program management.
OBJECTIVES
The primary objective of this phase of the work plan was to identify resources
internal to BCIT that can be used to develop and support the proposed Centre of
Excellence and gather opinions from BCIT faculty and staff regarding the most
appropriate structure for the Centre of Excellence to take.
TOPICS
The topics in the in-depth interviews consisted of, but were not limited to the
following:
• Determining the staff and faculty’s opinion about BCIT’s consideration of
developing a Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics
• Assessing the potential demand for Business Analytics
• Identifying resources internal to BCIT that can be used to develop and
support the proposed Centre of Excellence
• Suggestions for an appropriate structure for the Centre of Excellence
• Ways to best market the Centre to its intended target audiences
METHODOLOGY
A questionnaire was developed by the student team and was approved by the
team’s advisor, Tom Jopling before being submitted to our client, Karen Plesner,
for final approval. The advisor and client will propose the names of the
interviewees. The in-depth interviews were conducted in person at the School of
Business at times most convenient to the interviewees’ schedules.

17
LIMITATIONS
Due to the differences in schedules, there was a very limited time spent with the
interviewees. A few of the participants did not have enough time to spend
answering the questions. As such, probing for specifics was a bit challenging and
there was limited amount of information gathered during the process. In addition,
a couple of participants were not fully aware about the School of Business’ plan
of developing a virtual centre for Business Analytics. A couple of them also did
not have any opinions on some of the questions in the questionnaire. Because
the faculty members who were being interviewed did not have very much time to
spare, a couple asked for the questionnaire to be sent via email.
KEY FINDINGS
QUESTION 1: What is your first Impression of this idea?
Answer: Excellent idea. All of the interviewees think that developing a Centre of
Excellence in Business Analytics at BCIT is a great opportunity for the School of
Business considering other schools in BC such as Simon Fraser University and
University of British Columbia are already offering Business Analytics courses
making the opportunity limited. Most of them thought, “if we do not take action,
we will be missing a great opportunity.” There are an increasing number of
industries that require new hires to have Business Analytics skills, another
reason why the School of Business should jump on board.
QUESTION 2: What sort of demand currently exists for Business Analytics
courses in British Columbia?
Answer: Moderate. Although there was a consensus from all the interviewees
that the demand for Business Analytics is increasing, some participants
mentioned that a number of people, usually those who have worked or are
working in small to mid-size businesses do not fully understand the value
proposition of it yet answering Q3 of the reason why the demand is less than
very strong. But all the interviewees agreed that it is a growing field, one of them
mentioned that with technology constantly evolving, Business Analytics might
become a necessity for the survival of businesses.
QUESTION 4: What types of companies and/or industries do you think would be
most interested in having employees trained in business analytics? Put another
way, what do you think is the strongest market for the Centre’s courses?
Answer: Not limited to any type of industry or business. Most of the interviewees
agreed that Business Analytics is a great tool for almost all businesses,
especially companies dealing with large amounts of data that do not know what
to do with it but have sufficient funding in place to analyze it. A few interviewees
were a bit more specific. For example, someone mentioned that certain

18
businesses i.e. warehouses to utilize it for inventory management, or operating
management would be particularly interested. Also for retailers, Sales, Marketing
and CRM Management will be the main reason using Business Analytics as well
as accounting or financial companies.
QUESTION 5: Which of the following types of courses do you believe should be
offered through the Center? CHECK ALL THAT APPLY. (Course list from
interviewees and who they have in mind to take these courses)
Answer: ALL.
QUESTION 6: Courses offered by the Centre could be run online only, primarily
online with some in-class instruction, or in-class only. Which of these methods do
you believe would work best for students?
Answer: Primarily online with some in-class instruction. Most of the interviewees
agreed that courses offered by the Centre should be run primarily online with
some in-class instruction. The reason behind it is that if courses are only offered
online, students might be too theoretical, such as university students when they
get hired, they cannot do the actual work. That being said, courses offered in-
class are really important in order to let students be more practical and ready for
work.
QUESTION 7: Which of the following types of certifications do you believe the
Centre should offer?
Answer: Certificates. The interviewees all agreed that the Centre should start
small and offer 5 courses, just to test the waters. Then maybe offer diplomas,
post diploma and post degree. If BCIT can offer masters, it will be good as well
but probably not PhD.
QUESTION 8: What types of qualifications do you think it would be necessary for
instructors to have if teaching courses through the Centre?
Answer: Master’s Degree with industry experience. The instructors should have
business experiences and technical background. They also must have a master’s
degree to teach at BCIT, PhD may be too theoretical. The interviewees thought
that the qualification of instructors should be considered at first and then be able
to teach after although they all agree it would be really hard to test qualifications.
QUESTION 9: What do you think is an appropriate maximum number of students
for each class if they were only offered online?
Answer: 20 – 25.

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QUESTION 10: What do you think is an appropriate maximum number of
students for each class if they were only offered in-class?
Answer: 20 – 25. They believed this number was appropriate because of
computer classroom capacity.
QUESTION 11: At what times of the year do you think the Centre should offer its
courses? CHECK ALL THAT APPLY.
Answer: All year. This would allow for more convenience and flexibility for
students. Part-time studies will consist of smaller module that can be finished in a
shorter period of time i.e. one week. There can be a difference in delivery. One of
the interviewees mentioned that in-class courses should be offered the same
time as the other programs, in the fall and spring term.
QUESTION 12: In your opinion, under whose leadership should the Centre be
operated?
Answer: A dedicated Centre manager. Most of the interviewees did not have an
opinion of who should run the Centre although a few mentioned the Dean of the
School of Business or a director determined by faculties, and the Business
Analytics department within the School of Business.
QUESTION 13: In your opinion, should students be able to take courses from the
Centre through Part-times Studies only, Full-time Studies only, or through either
these?
Answer: Full-time and Part-time. There was a consensus that courses should be
offered both Full-time and Part-time, depends on the student.
QUESTION 14: Should international students be given access to business
analytics courses offered by the Centre?
Answer: Yes. International students should be given access to the Business
Analytics courses. But if the students were not in BC then the access would
depend on the software company, and also the country policy. There are some
countries where people do not have access to certain software. It will also
depend on BCIT’s policy.
QUESTION 15: How do you think BCIT should promote the Centre of Excellence
in Business Analytics once it has been established?
Answer: BCIT must have the website for Business Analytics right away. The
School of Business should host a symposium. The Business Analytics program
should be also included in the course calendar. People should be active in
professional associations such as IIBA and TDWI to promote and build

20
awareness for the program. There can be promotional videos about the Centre,
showcasing it to the professionals. The School of Business should commit
enough resources to manage the Centre. SEO should also be considered when
the people are searching business analytics courses.
QUESTION 16: Do you have any other suggestions to offer regarding the
establishment and management of the Centre?
Answer: BCIT needs to come up with a compelling story of why the Centre of
Excellence in Business Analytics should be put down the road and what
Business Analytics is to attract sponsors and raise money. There must be
enough resources to actually let the world know. After BCIT successfully raises
funds for the Centre, the School of Business should make it running as soon as
possible so BCIT will not miss a major opportunity as the other school are
already doing it.
QUESTION 17: How do you envision the Centre to do the projects?
Answer: The Business Analytics Centre should do projects for small and
medium business, teaching them how to use the right tools. BCIT should bring all
the technologies together so there will be better performance for the projects,
which will include the media center and the computer science engineering
departments.
QUESTION 18: How do you envision the Centre to interact with industries?
Answer: It will be mainly about consulting, and education system. The school
can also set up internship and hopefully the companies will hire students from
BCIT. Students’ projects for Directed Studies can be more technical in IT
including sales and marketing in marketing management program. BCIT can also
host more networking events i.e. industry minglers.
The Centre should promote faculty projects and let industries pay for them. But
this will require BCIT to hire someone to teach because other instructors have to
do projects for the companies. BCIT can also target industries by teaching
corporate courses. The school can also sell training programs for the company.
QUESTION 19: Suggested topics for the symposium.
Answer:
• Introduction of BA
• What do we teach in BCIT of BA
• Why BA is in demand
• How well will it make your business more profitable: feature success
stories for example one of the interviewees mentioned that a company

21
who was in the verge of losing a big account but implemented Business
Analytics and ended up saving $900,000 worth of business.
QUESTION 20: If you were attending the symposium, what would you expect to
learn?
Answer:
• Gain a better understanding of what BA can do for business
• Gain a clear understanding of what courses that we should deliver, and
why
• Gain a clear idea whether or not we should deliver a program
• What does industry want from BCIT
CONCLUSION
Most of the interviewees seem to agree that there is an increasing demand of
Business Analytics although a lot of small to medium size business do not know
its full potential. Business Analytics is a great tool for all businesses especially
companies dealing with large data and do not know what to do with it and with
sufficient funding. A few interviewees were a bit more specific. For example,
someone mention that certain businesses i.e. warehouses to utilize it for
inventory management, or operating management. Also for retailers, Sales,
Marketing and CRM Management will be the main reason using Business
Analytics as well as accounting or financial companies. There are no industries
untouched by it. With technology constantly evolving, Business Analytics might
become a necessity for the survival of businesses. That being said, the Centre of
Excellence in Business Analytics is a wonderful opportunity for BCIT to raise its
competitive edge. The establishment of the Centre is feasible if there are
financial resources coming from sponsors and prospective students who want to
have the right skill sets and learn Business Analytics. There is no argument that it
is a growing field and it is just a matter of having to right strategy to attract
sponsors in order to have the resources to get the Centre up and running. With
BCIT’s indisputable reputation and strong industry ties, there is no doubt that the
Centre will do extremely well.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the analysis of the results of secondary research and qualitative
research, the recommendations on overcoming the current issue, promoting the
Centre and interacting with the industries are as follows:
Fundraising Program
Since a lack of financing is one of the key challenges in the establishment of the
Centre, a fundraising program is needed to help the Centre start up. Fundraising

22
could be conducted through events and direct fundraising. The respondents of
the in-depth interviews through direct fundraising could be an effective way to get
financial resources. The person in charge of the Centre should contact the
potential sponsors with interest in and have already used Business Analytics.
Another benefit the fundraising program could bring to the Centre is increasing
the awareness of the BCIT’s Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics program.
Website Establishment
Majority of the respondents of in-depth interviews pointed that website would be
the most effective way to promote the Centre and reach the potential students
and financial sponsors. It’s important to list the strengths of the Centre and the
instruction of the Business Analytics program on the home page. The link of the
website of the Centre should be embedded in the website of BCIT. A detailed
course brochure should be added onto the website. The IT department of BCIT
will be responsible for creating the website of the Centre.
Social media buttons of Linkedin, Twitter, and Google+ will be integrated on the
website of the Centre to encourage the visitors clicking on and participating our
social media communities. Because the Centre of Excellence will target working
professionals, the selection of the social media channels are more credible and
professional.
Paid online advertising, like Google Adword and Adsense should be used to
optimize the traffic to the website and increase the Centres online presence.
Symposium & Conference
With technology constantly changing, a symposium should be held annually. This
will also help increase awareness of the Centre. The symposium is an effective
method to promote the Centre, its programs and new courses being offered.
Attendees will get an opportunity to further understand the Centre and what it can
offer. In addition, attending conferences has similar impact on the Centre, as it
can also be used to create awareness and build relationships with professionals
in various industries. It is a very good opportunity for the Centre to build its
network. With a large industry network, it will increase the probability of getting
sponsors and funding for the Centre. Furthermore, by attending the professional
conferences, the Centre of business analytics can also build its credibility and
maintain a positive brand image.
On-going Marketing Initiatives
On-going marketing initiatives will keep the Centre sustainable. By using tools
such direct mail, social media, the center is able to get feedback from students
and industry professionals immediately, while also helps build sustainable
relationship between the center and the customers.

23
Industry Projects and Practicum
By providing industry projects for students, the Centre is able to build
relationships with industries that have interest in business analytics. In addition,
practicum opportunities will also help strengthen these relationships. Practicum
and industry projects will give students opportunities to apply their skills and
ensure they are job ready.
Training Program
For companies who want to implement business analytics, selling training
programs is a great way for the Centre to generate revenue. Providing onsite
training programs to companies is a way for the Centre to promote its program
and help raise awareness.
TARGET MARKET
The Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics will target three different market
segments:
SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS. The Centre will target people who create, develop,
and program Business Analytics software who work in various industries such as
healthcare, finance and accounting, human resource, customer support or
transportation, etc. The courses offered by center will help them keep up with
trends in business analytics and enhance their skills and ability in developing
Business Analytics software that will provide optimizing solutions for companies
that help propel businesses forward.
USERS. The second target audience is the users of Business Analytics. Senior
management and high-level executives who deal with large database and have
to analyze the data collected to make strategic decisions and implement it would
need the right skills provided by the Centre to make smart business decisions
leading to success.
BUSINESSES. Businesses that are looking to implement Business Analytics into
their organization but do not have the know-how can also benefit from the
courses offered by the Centre. This is not limited to large organizations but
includes small to medium size businesses that do not know the full potential of
Business Analytics and how it can take their business to new heights. The
program will equip these businesses with the right skill set in order to
successfully analyze data, predict and succeed.

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ORGANIZATION
The Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics is a virtual learning Centre
created with the purpose of educating individuals to become experts in analyzing
data and making smart, strategic business decisions. Therefore, transforming the
company’s overall business. The Centre will offer experienced instructors who
will help students meet the challenge of staying on top of the rapidly changing
needs and demands of today’s consumers.
VISION
To be recognized by companies and students as BC’s leading Centre for world-
class education in Business Analytics.
MISSION
The mission of the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics is to deliver world-
class educational opportunities in business analytics. Delivered by industry
professionals using the latest tools and technologies, the Centre will guide
students to succeed in this fast-paced industry.
STAKEHOLDERS
• Faculty and Staff
• School of Business
o Broadcast and Media Communications
o Business Administration
o Financial Management
o Marketing Management
o Operations Management
o Venture Development Centre
• School of Computing
• Students
• Industry partners
o Bell Canada
o Oracle
o Microsoft DreamSpark/Great plains
o Chartered Accountants/Certified General Accountants Association of Canada
o SAP
o IBM
• Potential customers such as Government Department and Ministries,
large corporations, small and medium enterprises, and so on
• Businesses involved in BCIT Business Consulting Projects

25
COMMITMENTS TO THE STAKEHOLDERS
The Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics is committed to:
• Providing a high quality professional education that will help students to
advance and succeed in their careers.
• Delivering success to employers by educating, training and preparing
students to excel in their respective roles and responsibilities, therefore,
offering the highest return on their investments
• Employing exceedingly qualified faculty and staff members with relevant
industry experience and expertise
• Being receptive and adaptive to the changing needs and demands of the
economy
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ORGANIZATION
The Centre will have three main administrative personnel who will be committed
to helping students advance their careers. There will be a Director to facilitate
and manage the Centre and two administrative assistants to help manage
student applications, inquiries, and so on. The instructors are going to be hired in
a contractual basis after qualification test.
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE MANAGER
One dedicated faculty or staff member. This individual will be chosen for his or
her anticipated knowledge and unique perspectives on business analytics,
course development, and program management.
MANAGER’S ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The roles and responsibilities of the Centre Manager are but not limited to the
following:
• Connecting and networking with industry
• Participating in industry sponsored events and conferences.
• Communicate success stories relevant to Business Analytics to different
industries
• Face to face interaction with potential clients
• Head fundraising initiative to help raise funds for the Centre

26
ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES
Type of resource Estimated Cost
Website development $3,500 – $5,000
Website maintenance $150 - $500
Social Media Initiative (twitter, linkedin, google+) free
Faculty and Staff (contract) $4,000 per course
Centre Manager $90,000 - $100,000
Administrative assistant (two) $40,000 - $45,000
Equipment $25,000
Software programs $25,000
Software licensing fees $25,000 per year
PROPOSED COURSES/ TOPICS
• Visualization and digitalization of information
• Budget benchmarking
• Data management (extracting, transforming and loading)
• Three sides of business analytics (top user, business side and technical side)
• Information lineage
• Presentation Skills (how to use data in presentations)
• Data governance
• Tool and Technology training
• Legalities regarding data ownership and privacy
• Designing of business metrics
• Creation and understanding of different reports (i.e. Sales or online)
• Use of data in adverting (to make a difference in your strategy)
• Business math and statistics
• Basic set theory and basic game theory
SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS
Developing a virtual Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics is a great
opportunity for the School of Business to expand its current offerings, but first it
must succeed in securing funding for its development and operational support.
The development of the Centre is the School’s way of responding to the growing
demand of skill sets in Business Analytics in various companies and industries.
Although the Centre presents a great opportunity and will give BCIT a
competitive edge, the School of Business has yet to surmount its biggest
obstacle, which is the lack of sponsors and funding.

27
Because the Centre is still at the concept stage, there is no awareness of it
among the target market and potential sponsors. Creating a unique brand image
that will attract potential students will be challenging. The School of Business will
need to capitalize on its proven track record of accelerating students’ success,
giving real experience and real results, and BCIT’s indisputable reputation for
providing the highest quality of learning experience. The School will need to
translate that image to the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics for the
Centre to be attractive.
MARKETING STRATEGY
The School of Business’ overall strategy is to increase awareness of the Centre
of Excellence in Business Analytics by creating a unique brand image and value
proposition for the Centre, a focused differentiation strategy to attract potential
sponsors and prospective students.
The marketing strategy will emphasize the strengths of the School of Business’
ability to accelerate students’ success and BCIT’s indisputable reputation of
providing the highest quality of learning experience and translating this image to
the Centre. The campaign will aspire to give the sponsors and prospective
students a unique perception about the Centre of Excellence in Business
Analytics, setting the Centre apart from its competitors. This will be accomplished
by creating a unique brand image and value propositioning of the Centre as the
place for students and industry professional to advance and succeed in their
current and future careers. The Centre will be promoted as a part of the School
of Business, which has the ability to uniquely provide hands-on, applied learning
experience, consisting of faculty members with relevant industry experience and
expertise and strong industry ties, which in the end will lead to a great career.
BRAND STRATEGY
Secondary research shows that BCIT has made a substantive contribution to
British Columbia’s economy. For over 40 years, the Institute has developed a
very desirable reputation, built on its core strengths of quality learning experience
for students and on-the-job-performance of its alumni. BCIT provides a high
quality professional education that makes its graduate the first choice for
employers. These competitive strengths will continue to be the main reason as to
why the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics will be the first choice for
prospective students. The brand image will focus on BCIT’s core strengths and
the Centre’s marketing positioning of providing students and employers optimal
return on their investments. The key message of the Centre of Excellence in
Business Analytics will deliver to its target market is that the Centre is the leader
providing the right tools for students to succeed in their careers and for
companies to take advantage of BCIT’s training in business analytics to propel

28
their business to new heights. This message will help differentiate the Centre of
Excellence from its competitors.
VISUAL IDENTITY
The visual logo will be the brand image and identifier of the Centre of Excellence
in Business Analytics. Having a logo that is an extension of the BCIT logo will
position the Centre as part of the Institute, will further enhance the brand
because of BCIT’s undisputable reputation of providing quality learning
experience. “Analyze. Predict. Succeed.” was chosen as the Centre’s main
tagline as it showcases the steps students will take when taking the program.
The program will help student be able to analyze data then be given the skill to
predict what is likely to happen and succeed by optimizing your opportunities by
making the right decisions at the right time.
CAMPAIGN THEME
The theme of the campaign is “Evolve your thinking with Business Analytics.”
The theme basically invites prospective students to heighten their way of thinking
through Business Analytics. The campaign will also convey the message of
providing quality learning experience and accelerating students’ success thereby
delivering the highest return on the students and companies’ investments. The
theme will be focused on attracting the Centre’s target audience and potential
sponsors. The content of each marketing communication tool will explain how the
Centre will equip students with the right tools to help them succeed and for
companies to transform their businesses through Business Analytics.
Because we have identified three target market segment, the campaign tagline
will be personalized to each of the segments. There will also be a campaign
theme targeting potential sponsors for the Centre. Please refer to the marketing
communication tools section for more information.
MARKETING CHALLENGE
The marketing initiatives will need to convey a unique brand image and value
proposition of the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics. It will also need to

29
describe how the Centre can help prospective students to advance and succeed
in their careers.
The major challenge will be creating a unique brand image and value proposition
to attract sponsors and prospective students.
CAMPAIGN OBJECTIVES
MARKETING OBJECTIVES
Attract a minimum of five industry sponsors by the end of year one, increasing to
at least eight sponsors by the end of year two. Further, the Centre should seek to
offer a between three and five courses that are fully subscribed in each term of
year one. One of these courses should be a Fundamentals of Business Analytics
course. By the end of year two, a between five and seven courses should be
offered each term.
COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVES
Create a unique image of the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics as the
place for students and industry professionals to learn more about Business
Analytics to help them advance and succeed in their careers.
MARKETING COMMUNICATION TOOLS
FUNDRAISING
The School of Business will initiate a fundraising program to help raise funds for
the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics. The faculty and staff members
with the help of marketing students will go to prospective sponsors to help fund
the Centre. It will be an ongoing program until the Centre has achieved financial
sustainability. The program will go hand-in-hand with other marketing
communication tools directed specifically to attract potential sponsors. The
fundraising program will be a one on one interaction with the potential sponsors
instead of a big event. It will allow for a personalized presentation and more time
to answer questions.
CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE WEBSITE
The Centre’s website will be one of the most important tools with which to market
itself. Individual pages for the Centre should be launched under the main BCIT
website, and it should have a short URL so that people can easily remember
itThe website will serve as the hub for disseminating information about the

30
Centre and its programs and courses. Keywords such as business analytics will
be used frequently on the webpages, and taglines will be created for each
section. The whole purpose is making the webpage better ranking on Google
once people search business analytics. Program benefits will be placed on the
main page to help gain attention. Then further descriptions and details about the
Centre will also be available in a clear manner, so that people can easily find the
information they want. The website will also integrate social media buttons as
stated above, Twitter, Linkedin and Google + to encourage interactions withthe
target audience. Furthermore, links to professional communities will be included
to demonstrate the Centre’s credibility. Links to the webpage should also be
advertised through communities such as the International Institute of Business
Analysis (IIBA), to help the Centre generate qualified traffics.
SOCIAL MEDIA
The following social media platforms will be used to help raise awareness and to
give current and relevant information about the Centre of Excellence in Business
Analytics.
TWITTER
Businesses have been using Twitter as part of their marketing tools in the social
media landscape. The Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics can use
Twitter to attract and influence its target audience. The Centre can post
information about its programs and new courses being offered. The Centre can
also post relevant information that will showcase the benefits of Business
Analytics and success stories of organizations that have used Business Analytics
and have been able to transform their businesses.
LINKEDIN
LinkedIn has grown beyond its initial purpose of connecting professionals with
potential clients and employers. Not only is it used for building valuable business
connections, but LinkedIn has also become an excellent business-to-business
marketing tool. It is a great way for the Centre to promote itself and its program
offerings to different industries by having valuable content such as special events,
and content relevant to Business Analytics that will attract businesses. In addition,
it is likely that recommendations on the Centre’s LinkedIn page will be taken into
consideration for search engine rankings in the future, similar to how Tweets and
Google +1s are today.
GOOGLE+
The Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics can use Google+ as a marketing
tool to share important content relevant to the different target audiences and
raise awareness by promoting the Centre by giving people the option to put the

31
+1 button to recommend the Centre to their friends, family, coworkers etc. The
+1’s will also help with search engine rankings, showcasing the Centre on top of
the search page when people search for relevant keywords. Using the search
option, the Centre can also get a better understanding of what people are saying
about its brand and even go as far as answering questions and inquiries.
SYMPOSIUM
With technology constantly changing, a symposium should be held annually. This
will also help increase awareness of the Centre. The symposium is an effective
method to promote the Centre, its program and new courses being offered.
Attendees will get an opportunity to further understand the Centre and what it can
do to help propel businesses forward.
DIRECT MAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN
The Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics will send out personalized direct
mail campaigns to the different target audiences. The direct mail will have a call
to action to scan a QR code directed to a promotional video that will showcase
the benefits of Business Analytics and why the School of Business’ Centre of
Excellence in Business Analytics is the right choice for students and companies.
It will also help direct the targeted individuals to the Centre’s website to find out
more information about the program.
Because we have identified three categories of our target market, the campaign
tagline will be personalized to each of the categories. Below are the taglines for
each target market category:
Developers: “Create. Build. Business solutions that works”
Users: “Make smart business decisions. Optimize opportunities.”
Businesses: “Be the Business. Be one step ahead.”
Feature success stories: “ My company saved $900,000 worth of business
because of Business Analytics”
CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOWS
Conference and trade shows will be mainly used to build awareness among the
businesses. By attending conferences and trade shows of professional
associations such as The Data Warehousing Institute and International Institute
of Business Analysis, the Centre can promote the BA program. By taking a pro-

32
active role in meeting professionals who have interest in business analytics, the
Centre will build real relationships and reinforce credibility. The more
conferences attended by the center, the bigger the network will be created
between the Centre and professionals in an array of industries. It also helps the
center to get a feel for the current trends current in the field, so projects can be
adjusted to better fit industry needs. The Centre will also give presentations
during the conferences to introduce the center, and provide information for the
potential customers.
WEBINARS
As business leaders continue to suffer from jam-packed schedules and limited
time, the use of online seminars has become a valuable way to get in front of
potential customers and promote new business opportunities. Webinars would be
a good communication tool for the Centre to promote the Business Analytics
program, and to make presentations about BA and how it can take businesses to
new heights. The Centre can provide means for participants to pre-register in
order to have a contact list to follow up. This can be done through the Centre’s
website through an email opt-in option or give clients the option to call and pre-
register. The Centre should do a follow up notification to registered attendees
one week before the event and the day prior to the event. The event should not
last more than one hour including questions and answers.
INFO SESSIONS
TAKE THE EXTRA STEP. ADVANCE YOUR CAREER.
Students and/or industry professionals who want to advance/enhance their
careers can now attend information sessions about the Centre of Excellence in
Business Analytics to help them further succeed in their current and future
careers.
WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?
• Learn more about the program and the courses offered
• Find out more about Business Analytics and why it will help you advance
your career
• Hear great success stories about people who used Business Analytics to
succeed
• Get answers to any other questions you may have
FORMAT
There will be a one-hour information session that will be scheduled six times per
year in the evening at 6pm in the Burnaby campus.

33
REGISTER
To reserve a seat for an upcoming information session, students can register
online in the Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics website.
For students who want to speak to someone in person about the program, they
can call to schedule an appointment with the program advisor.
IMPLEMENTATION AND BUDGET
The complete finished website of center of business analytics must be the first
step towards launching the marketing campaign. Design of the website should be
done a few months prior to the campaign launch to ensure the functionality of the
objectives. The estimated price for the website design will be $4,000, which will
be developed by BCIT’s very own IT department with the help of a marketing
communications student(s).
Social media will be used as a supporting tool to direct audiences to the website,
and providing valuable contents for the target market. All the special events or
promotion that occurs at the center of business analytics will also be updated in
social media. The social media initiatives will be maintained by one or two
designated faculty members, which are going to be the Administrative
Assistant(s) of the Centre.
In order to host webinars, the Centre can use software such as WebEx,
Gotomeetings etc. companies that provide on-demand collaboration, online
meeting, web conferencing and videoconferencing applications. Having this kind
of software would be the most cost effective way for the Centre to host unlimited
meetings for one flat rate per month costing about $40 - $50.
For conferences, trade shows and info session, all the costs will be mainly
related to preparing and setting up the actual event, such as printing brochures
and information cards, renting equipment. Especially for the info session, which
will be held six times per year at Burnaby campus, there will be a lot more work
involved. The total estimated costs for conferences, trade shows and info session
would be $30,000.

34
Appendix
Courses Description of Competitors
Schools in United States
1, Stanford University
Data Mining and Analysis
STATS202
Description
In the Information Age, there is an unprecedented amount of data being collected and stored —
by banks, supermarkets, internet retailers, security services, etc. So, now that we have all this data,
what do we with it? The discipline of data mining and analysis provides crunchers with the tools
and framework to discover meaningful patterns in data sets of any size and scale. It allows us to
turn all this data into valuable, actionable information. In this course, learn how to explore,
analyze, and leverage data.
Topics Include
Decision trees
Neural networks
Association rules
Clustering
Case-based methods
Data visualization
Assignments & Grading
Grades based on 3 components: 6 weekly homework assignments, a midterm, and a
comprehensive final.
Technology Requirements
For the midterm and final, you will need a basic calculator which has logarithm functionality. To
complete homework assignments you will need Internet access, excel and the R statistical
package (free download).
This course has limited enrollment.
Paradigms for Computing with Data
STATS290
Description
This course provides a practical introduction to modern techniques for computing with data,
teaching advanced use of the R system and exploring connections to other environments such as
C, python, Java, and databases. Students learn and practice the use of R for serious applications.

35
The examples in this course are motivated by actual problems in the field. Therefore, students
gain knowledge of many different tools that can be combined to solve real problems.
Topics Include
• Hands-on practice with all the paradigms, including parallel, cluster and map/reduce style
computations
• Balasubramanian Narasimhan's experience in Bioinformatics
• Important modern approaches to large-scale data analysis from such fields as genomics
and Internet systems
Assignments & Grading
Assignments will be given during the course, roughly every 1-2 weeks.These will normally
involve programming or otherwise applying the course material.
The final project will be to create an R package on a topic you propose and we approve. Students
are encouraged to choose a topic of interest to their own work or research. An early assignment
will be to submit a short outline of the proposed project. The project should show that the student
can plan and execute some nontrivial software. It is less important to complete all details than to
show a good design and some working pieces of the implementation.
There will be no final exam. The final grade will be assessed based on the assignments and the
final project.
Modern Applied Statistics: Learning
STATS315A
Description
The meteoric rise in computing power has been accompanied by a rapid growth in the areas of
statistical modeling and data analysis. New techniques have emerged for both predictive and
descriptive learning that were not possible ten years ago, using ideas that bridge the gap between
statistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. In this two-part series we cover many of
these new methods, with emphasis on the statistical aspects of their application and their
integration with more standard statistical methodology.
Predictive learning refers to estimating models from data with the specific goal of predicting
future outcomes, in particular regression and classification models. Regression topics include
linear regression with recent advances to deal with large numbers of variables, smoothing
techniques, additive models, and local regression. Classification topics include discriminant
analysis, logistic regression, support vector machines, generalized additive models, naive Bayes,
mixture models and nearest neighbor methods.
Objectives
• To learn some of the traditional as well as the more recent tools for classification and
regression
• To understand these concepts from within a statistical decision theoretic framework
• To learn some of the statistical inference tools for model selection and inference
• To get hands-on experience in using some of these techniques, through the homework
assignments
Topics Include

36
• Linear regression and related models
• Model selection, least angle regression, lasso and stepwise methods
• Classification
• Linear discriminant analysis
• Logistic regression
• Support Vector Machines (SVMs)
• Basis expansions, splines, and regularization
• Kernel methods and Kernel smoothing
• Generalized additive models
• Gaussian mixtures and the EM algorithm
• Crossvalidation and the bootstrap
• Pathwise coordinate descent
• Sparse graphical models
Modern Applied Statistics: Data Mining
STATS315B
Description
Second course in two-part sequence. This course covers new techniques for predictive and
descriptive learning using ideas that bridge gaps among statistics, computer science, and artificial
intelligence. Emphasis is on statistical aspects of their application and integration with more
standard statistical methodology. Predictive learning refers to estimating models from data with
the goal of predicting future outcomes, in particular, regression and classification models.
Descriptive learning is used to discover general patterns and relationships in data without a
predictive goal, viewed from a statistical perspective as computer automated exploratory analysis
of large complex data sets.
Instructors
Jerome Friedman, Professor Emeritus, Statistics
2, University of California San Diego
Introduction to Statistics
Gain a comprehensive introduction to the concepts and techniques of elementary statistics as
applied to a wide variety of disciplines. This course emphasizes problem solving, statistical
thinking, and result interpretation. Topics include: descriptive statistics, basic probability,
probability distributions, sampling distributions, confidence intervals, one and two sample
hypothesis testing, categorical data analysis, correlation, and regression.
Data Mining I: Basic Methods and Techniques
Large databases of information create great opportunities for the application of data mining
methods. This course provides students with a foundation in basic data mining, data analysis, and
pattern recognition concepts and algorithms. It will begin with an overview of the data mining
process and approaches. Practical exercises include various data analysis and machine learning
techniques for model and knowledge creation through a process of inference, model fitting, or
learning from examples.
Note: "Introduction to Statistics" or knowledge of basic probability theory and basic linear
algebra assumed. Highly recommended: "Predictive Analytics", "Intro to Data Warehousing" or
"Into to SQL programming concepts" or equivalent knowledge.

37
Data Preparation for Data Mining
An essential, yet often under-emphasized step in the data mining process is data preparation.
Habitually, people are more inclined to focus on knowledge discovery, but without sufficient
preparation of your data, return on effort is certain to be limited. This class offers in-depth
coverage of data preparation techniques and a step-by-step approach through a variety of tools
while providing practical illustrations using real data sets. Your projects are sure to demonstrate
improved evaluation and performance and more beneficial results.
Note: "Data Mining I" or equivalent knowledge required.
Data Mining II: Advanced Methods and Applications
Examine advanced data mining, data analysis, and pattern recognition concepts and algorithms.
Course content builds upon Data Mining I and includes input/output models, machine learning
algorithms, advanced methods, and applications. Coursework will include learning from massive
datasets, including methods like neural networks and support vector machines.
Note: "Introduction to Statistics" or knowledge of probability theory, linear algebra and "Data
Mining I" required. Highly recommended: "Intro to Programming" or one of the following: SAS,
R, Matlab, Octave, or Java.
Data Mining III
Data Mining III combines and builds upon Data Mining I, Data Prep for Data Mining, and Data
Mining II. This class is designed to give students in-depth knowledge of practical data mining
and predictive modeling, provided they have acquired the necessary theoretical knowledge of
data mining and machine learning techniques, as well as data preparation techniques. Students
will go through several data mining projects, planning and executing each of the data preparation
steps: analysis, learning and modeling, and identifying the predictive/descriptive model that
produces the best evaluation scores at the end. This is a challenging class that will ensure
preparedness for complex real-life data mining tasks.
Note: Prerequisite, Data Mining I, Data Prep for Data Mining required. Data Mining II
recommended.
Data Mining for Scientific Applications
A large volume of scientific data has been stored and is continually collected daily. This class is a
shorter, less in-depth version of the Data Mining I class custom-made for the world of science.
Get an overview of the basic methods, techniques and the process of data mining, with the
emphasis on the scientific applications. Explore a variety of scientific case studies and successful
applications of the data mining techniques in mining various scientific data. Learn how data
mining could be applied to successfully mine and make meaningful conclusions, predictions and
classification of your data. Hands-on exercises included.
Note: "Biostatistics" or equivalent knowledge is required. This course is application-focused and
does not require prior programming experience.
Introduction to Programming
Statistical computing is employed within a diverse range of industries. In recent years, an open
source project, R, has emerged as the preeminent statistical computing platform. With its
unsurpassed library of freely available packages, R is capable of addressing almost every

38
statistical inference problem. In this course, you will learn to create R programs that access data
from multiple sources, including flat files, spreadsheets, and relational databases. Also covered is
the complete foundational skill set for R programming, including matrix operations, conditional
and repetitive execution, functions, and graphical output. Lastly, a sampling of statistical
problems and their implementations in R will be introduced.
Predictive Analytics
As an increasing volume of customer, product, and industry data is being collected by businesses,
leading companies are apply intelligent methods to convert the large information repositories into
effective decision making. This course covers the basics of predictive analytics and data mining
methods for business applications, gives an overview of the basic tools and techniques, and
includes case studies and exercises. You will learn what data mining can do to enable business
intelligence and how to build analytical capabilities. Explore examples of the applications of
predictive analytics, including a variety of successful real-life projects that focus on the analysis,
prediction, marketing, investments, and business practices that enable educated decision-making
to drive revenues, reduce costs, and provide competitive advantage.
SAS Programming
SAS is widely used in business, government, and academia to manage and analyze data. This
course provides the tools necessary to write SAS programs to perform elementary data
management, analysis, and reporting all while stressing good programming practices. The
primary objectives are to provide the skills necessary to create and document data sets, manage
and reshape data, write simple reports, and compute basic statistics on data set variables. A
secondary objective is to provide the basis for more advanced work, including data analysis,
advanced programming techniques for data management, and interactive applications
development.
Note: Students will be required to download and install an application (not available on a Mac)
which will provide free access to the SAS software. Instructor will provide details during the
course.
Text Mining
With experts claiming that unstructured data comprises more than 80% of the stored business
information (primarily as text), text mining has emerged as a critical leading-edge technology.
This course will describe practical techniques for text extraction and text mining in a data mining
context, including document clustering and classification, information retrieval, and the
enhancement of structured data. An emphasis on practical use of text mining in a business context
will be evident throughout. In addition, basic concepts of textual information such as tokenization,
part-of-speech tagging, and disambiguation will be covered.
Note: Open source text mining software will be used for in-class demonstrations and homework
assignments.
3, Central Connecticut State University (No Detail Available)
Required Courses (12 Credits)
Stat 521 Introduction to Data Mining (4 credits)
Stat 522 Data Mining Methods and Models (4 credits)
Stat 523 Applied Data Mining (4 credits)
Elective Courses (6 Credits) Choose two of:

39
Stat 525 Web Mining
Stat 526 Data Mining for Genomics and Proteomics
Stat 527 Text Mining
Stat 529 Current Issues in Data Mining
Some other graduate-level data mining or statistics course, with approval of program coordinator.
4, New York University Stern School of Business
Module I: New York
Data Visualization
This course is an introduction to the principles and techniques for data visualization.
Visualizations are graphical depictions of data that can improve comprehension, communication
and decision-making. In this course, students will learn visual representation methods and
techniques that increase the understanding of complex data and models. Emphasis will be placed
on identification of patterns, trends and differences from data sets across categories, space and
time. The ways that humans process and encode visual and textual information will be discussed
in relation to selecting the appropriate method for the display of quantitative and qualitative data.
Graphical methods for specialized data types (times series, categorical, etc.) are presented. Topics
include tables, graphics, semi-graphics, effective presentations, multimedia content and animation,
etc. Examples and cases will be used from dozens of industries. Throughout the course, several
questions will drive the design of data visualizations some of which include: Who’s the audience?
What’s the data? What’s the task?
Operations Analytics
This course serves as an introduction to operations, viewed from the perspective of the general
manager, rather than the operations specialist. The coverage is very selective; the course
concentrates on a small number of themes from the areas of operations management and
information technology that have emerged as the central building blocks of world-class
operations. It also presents a sample of key tools and techniques that have proven extremely
useful. The topics covered are equally relevant to the manufacturing and service sectors.
Decision Models
This course trains students to turn real-world problems into mathematical and spreadsheet models
and to use such models to make better managerial decisions. This is a hands-on course that
focuses on modeling business problems, turning them into Excel spreadsheet models and using
tools like Solver and Crystal Ball to obtain solutions to these managerial problems. The course
focuses on two classes of models: optimization and simulation. The application areas are diverse
and they originate from problems in finance, marketing and operations. We cover problems such
as how to optimize a supply chain, how to price products when faced with demand uncertainty
and how to price exotic financial options using Monte Carlo simulation.
Managing for Quality
This course introduces the basic principles and techniques of managing for quality. Students learn
the most important principles and tools with which organizations create value for their customers,
including quality measurement and assessment, quality planning, quality control, quality
improvement and quality strategy.

Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics

Centre of Excellence in Business Analytics

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