Types of analytics
Saif Ullah, Luqman Anjum and Umair Khalid
University of Central Punjab, Pakistan
Abstract - In the field of information technology, big
amount of information now available to decision makers
on hand. The degree of difficulty to handle data is goes
high due to its size, heterogeneity and velocity and it is
not easy to analyze such big data through traditional
tools and approaches. In order to analyze and discover
knowledge from such dataset is a challenging task. The
objective of the paper is to review different sorts of
analytics approaches that helps to decision makers to
analyze and discover knowledge from big data. In the
end of the paper, we have presented a comparison of
different analytical approaches based on certain
attributes.
Index Terms – Big Data, Analytics, Predictive, Descriptive,
Perspective.
1 INTRODUCTION
The size and heterogeneity of data generated and shared by
social networks, businesses, industry, and research has
tremendously increased (Agarwal & Dhar, 2014). This data
contains different types of contents such as textual or
multimedia in the form of structured or unstructured. The
researcher (Dobre & Xhafa, 2014) stated that each day 2.5
quintillion data bytes are generated in the world and the ratio
of unstructured data is 90%.
Over the decades, authors and researchers provide slightly
different definitions of analytics. Analytic can be is the
procedure of forms the actionable recommendations based
on historical information. Several Organizations stated
different interpretations and motivations, such as INFORMS
stated, analytics are the collaboration of different
technologies (computer, statistical and management science
technology) to solve issues. Another organization, SAS
stated analytics contains multiple phases that starts from
standardize reports through a computer framework. The
generated reports illustrates current state inside organization.
To create reports on ad-hoc basic, additional technologies
are may integrate to generate custom reports. Through
integration of analytics techniques, it takes us towards
OLAP that allows the users to go inside the data at
granularity level and discover particular knowledge and
concerns.
These types of technologies enabled to set up an automatic
alert system such as weather or revenue alerts. More briefly,
an alert system based on analytics can be setup for inventory
store that alarms when sales goes down from a certain
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threshold or when inventory items goes down form certain
threshold in the stock. The analytics approaches enables to
analyze and inquires on organization data and make decision
based on results. In addition, analytical approaches provides
a way to understand patterns to make predication models
such as buyer response based on particular marketing
campaign or analyze customer behavior based on previous
data. While an organization or company has an eye on what
is happening and what will happen in future, it leads the
management to make best decision according to
environment.
2 WHAT IS DATA ANALYTICS
To inspecting crude information with the reason for reaching
determinations about that data is called Data Analytics. This
is utilized as a part of numerous enterprises to enable
organizations to settle on better business choices and in the
sciences to confirm or invalidate existing models or
hypotheses. To imply the right set of analytics approaches, it
leads the organization to go inside the data at granularity
level and discover interesting and meaningful patterns.
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4 TYPES OF ANALYTICS
Today people, technology and tools in a company altogether
contribute to the huge data explosion through various
channels. Leveraging this data, creating data insights
driving to smart decisions and becoming a data driven
organization would be a long leap in the competitive market.
Data driven decisions make a huge difference in the ROI’s of
the companies. These decisions can be evident in lowered
operating costs, improved revenues, optimized supply
chains, and can also see a change in improved customer
service with timely & smart decisions and product mix that
meets customer’s demand. However, companies attempting
to optimize their performance in the competitive landscape
need capabilities to analyze historical data, forecast what
might happen in the future. The list of business value
analytics can create can be longer. Though, these types of
analytics can be categorized into three distinct types at a
higher level. Each of the options is important and is not
comparable with the other. All the three co-exist
complementing each other.
 4.1 Descriptive Analytics
Descriptive examination are the most straightforward type of
BDA strategy, and includes the rundown and depiction of
information designs utilizing basic factual strategies, for
example, mean, middle, mode, standard deviation,
fluctuation, and recurrence estimation of particular occasions
in BD streams (Rehman et al., 2016). Regularly, huge
volumes of historical information is utilized as a part of
enlightening investigation to distinguish designs and make
administration reports that is worried about displaying past
conduct (Assunção et al., 2015). Watson (2014) affirms that
elucidating investigation, for example, revealing,
dashboards, scorecards, and information perception, have
been broadly utilized for quite a while, and are the center
utilizations of conventional business insight. Clear
investigation are viewed as in reverse looking and uncover
what has just happened.
Notwithstanding, a pattern that is being received in
predictive analytic now is to make utilization of the
discoveries from prescient investigation, for example,
gauges of future incomes, on dashboards/scorecards. Spiess,
T'Joens, Dragnea, Spencer, and Philippart (2014) features
underlying driver examination and diagnostics are also
cform of spellbinding investigation which include both the
detached perusing and translation of information, and in
addition starting specific activities on the framework under
test, and perusing out the outcomes. The creators talk about
that main driver examination is an intricate procedure of
ceaseless digging into information, and corresponding
different experiences, for example, to decide the one or
numerous fundamental reasons for an occasion (Spiess et al.,
2014).
Another type of descriptive investigation, brought up by
Banerjee, Bandyopadhyay, and Acharya (2013) is the
utilization of dashboard kind of use when a business
routinely produces diverse measurements including
information to screen a procedure or different procedures
crosswise over circumstances. For instance, this kind of
utilization could be valuable to comprehend as far as the
money related quality of a business at a given purpose of
time or to contrast it and others or its own particular
crosswise over various purpose of time. In distinct
investigation, there is a requirement for experts to sustain the
aptitude of perusing actualities from figures, interfacing
them with the pertinent basic leadership process lastly taking
an information driven choice from a business point of view.
The greater part of the BDA is generally elucidating
(exploratory) in nature and the utilization of distinct
measurable strategies (information mining apparatuses)
enables organizations to find valuable examples or
unidentified relationships that could be utilized for settling
on business choices
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4.2 Predictive Analytics
To form forecasting and statistical models to identify future
events or possibilities, predictive analytics are considered.
Predictive analytics follows machine learning approaches,
the learning approaches may be supervised, unsupervised or
semi-supervised (Waller & Fawcett, 2013). These types of
analytics follows the statistical model principles in order to
discover new patterns and analyze relationships between
variables such as Bayesian Networks. In 2015, the
researchers (Gandomi & Haider) classifies predictive
analytic in two sorts: 1) regression approach, 2) machine
learning. Regression approaches includes multinomial
models while machine learning includes neural networks.
The researchers presented some examples of predictive
analytics such as determine new patterns from historical
information for future decision making, linear regression
leads to record dependencies among data variables and
predict probability of an event.
4.3 Prescriptive Analytics
This sort of examination is performed to decide the reason
impact relationship among investigative outcomes and
business process streamlining strategies. In this way, for
prescriptive investigation, associations enhance their
business procedure models in light of the input gave by
prescient logical models (Bihani and Patil, 2014). Albeit
hard to send, prescriptive investigation add to taking care of
the data move and the consistent development of business
process models (Rehman et al., 2016). There are
exceptionally restricted cases of good prescriptive
investigation in reality. One reason for this lack is that most
databases are obliged on the quantity of measurements that
they catch (Banerjee et al., 2013). Hence the investigation
from such information gives, best case scenario, incomplete
experiences into an intricate business issue. Barely any
underlying investigations have connected the reenactment
streamlining strategies to the BDA.
For example, Xu, Zhang, Huang, Chen, and Celik (2014)
proposed a system called multi-devotion enhancement with
ordinal change and ideal examining (MO2TOS). The system
gives an establishment to illustrative and prescriptive
examination under the BD condition. In the MO2TOS
structure, two arrangement of high-and low determination
models were created. The creators featured that the high
determination display improvement can be ease back
because of the expansive measure of information. Then
again, the low-determination models were considerably
speedier and can be produced utilizing just an example of
information. The proposed MO2TOS structure can
effectively incorporate the both the determination models to
streamline focused on frameworks under the BD condition.
When all is said in done, prescriptive arrangements help
business examiners in basic leadership by deciding activities
and evaluating their effect with respect to business
destinations, necessities, and imperatives. For instance,
imagine a scenario in which test systems have given bits of
knowledge with respect to the conceivable choices that a
business could execute keeping in mind the end goal to keep
up or reinforce its present position in the market.
This investigation is worried about anticipating and
measurable demonstrating to decide the future potential
outcomes in light of managed, unsupervised, and semi-
directed learning models (Joseph and Johnson, 2013;
Rehman et al., 2016; Waller and Fawcett, 2013). Gandomi
and Haider (2015) states the need to grow new answers for
prescient examination for organized BD. Prescient
examination are chiefly in light of factual techniques and
tries to reveal examples and catch connections in
information. Gandomi and Haider (2015) ordered prescient
investigation into two gatherings – relapse systems (e.g.,
multinomial logit models) and machine learning procedures
(e.g., neural systems). The creators feature that some
methodologies, for example, moving midpoints, endeavor to
recognize recorded examples in the result variable(s) and
5 APPLICATIONS
5.1 Descriptive Analytics: Analysis of the past
Descriptive analytics approach is conducts on historical data
through mining and aggregation techniques, it gives the idea
or view what is going on inside organization. It transforms
the data into a meaningful form. Representing the past may
be an occasion which is happened a moment ago, a month
ago or a year ago. Descriptive analytic is essential because it
provides deeper view of previous trends and enables
organizations to understand how the past can effect on
future. The aggregations includes sums, averages,
percentages and more. It is beneficial to illustrate stock
levels, change in sale periodically or filters top buyers. In
addition, previous sales, inventory production, customers
5.2 Predictive Analytics: To understand the future
Predictive analytics is based on probability, what might
occur,
Predictive analytics is to guess what might happen,
understanding the future and provide companies with
actionable insights based on data. Predictive Analytics is
based on probabilities, filling in data with best guesses and
no statistical algorithm can predict the future with 100%
certainty. Whenever companies want visualize the future
they use Predictive statistics and analytics.
Predictive analytics can be used for identifying trends in
sales activities to forecasting customer purchasing patterns
and behavior, forecasting demand for inputs from the
inventory, operations and supply chain. Predictive analysis
report typically help in understanding sales closure at the
end of the year, customer items purchase prediction, or
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extrapolate them to what's to come. Others, for example,
direct relapse, look to catch the interdependencies between
result variable(s) and informative factors, and utilize them to
make expectations. Hasan, Shamsuddin, and Lopes (2014)
proposed a machine learning BD structure that conceived the
wide picture of machine learning in managing BD issues.
The system incorporated the introduction of multi-structure
input assortments from various sources, trailed by the
pipeline preprocessing stage before machine learning
information disclosure. The creators actualize the parallelism
on machine learning methodologies of
BD prescient information disclosure in view of Neural
System (NN) calculations; Different Backpropagation
(MBP) and Self-Sorting out Guide (SOM) utilizing
GPUMLib. In entirety, prescient examination intends to
anticipate the future by investigating present and chronicled
information. For instance, assurance of clients' inclination to
agitate, by associating conduct over some stretch of time
with organize occasion information, for example, use
records and blame markers (Spiess et al., 2014).
inventory level forecasting based upon a numerous
variables.
5.3 Prescriptive Analytics: Advising for the future
Prescriptive analytics is about providing advice. Before the
decisions are finalized, It’s an attempt to measure the effect
of future decisions and to advise on possible outcomes.
Prescriptive analytics along with predicting what will
happen, it also helps understanding why it will happen, with
list of recommendations concerned to actions that will take
advantage of the predictions. These analytics are more
advanced than descriptive and predictive analytics as they
recommend more possible course of action.
Among the three types of analytics, Prescriptive analytics is
complicated to administer, and most companies are not yet
using prescriptive analytics in their real-time business.
However, the impact will be large when used by businesses
in making decisions. Few of the companies are using
prescriptive analytics for scheduling and inventory in supply
chain, optimizing production, optimizing customer
experience and to make sure the delivery of right products at
right time.
The number of organizations that realize the importance of
big data analytics is increasing. To tap the potential and gain
a competitive advantage companies need to ensure that they
make a right choice of data analytics solutions that increases
ROI, reduces operational costs and enhances service quality.
6 CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
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