Global Business Analytics Models: Concepts and Applications in Predictive, Healthcare, Supply Chain, and Finance Analytics

1. Introduction to Business Analytics

1.1 The Origin and Evolution of Business Analytics

In the era of knowledge economy, getting the right information to decision makers at the right time is critical to their business success. One such attempt includes the growing use of business analytics. Generally speaking, business analytics refers to a broad use of various quantitative techniques such as statistics, data mining, optimization tools, and simulation supported by the query and reporting mechanism to assist decision makers in making more informed decisions within a closed-loop framework seeking continuous process improvement through monitoring and learning. Business analytics also helps the decision maker predict the future business activities ...