Data Analytics for Action & Impact - Toronto


This event qualifies for 18 INFORMS Professional Development Units


ABOUT THIS COURSE

This two-day course will prepare functional managers and analytic practitioners to finally make sense of data analytics and take control of the analytic process.  “Transforming Data to Decisions” develops core skills for data analytics and lays the foundation for data-intensive analytic projects that deliver insight, clarity, confidence and actionable decision support.

 

Attendees will learn the four major types of problems encountered in commercial and public sector applications, and walk through a structured development process to grasp key issues they will face for each problem type.  Unlike any other analytic or statistical training, this course maintains a decision strategy focus supported by work-along exercises on multiple data sets.  The exercises allow attendees to experience and organize the natural messiness of data analytics while reinforcing the skills to effectively drive their own projects.  Participants return with a rich set of course notes, analytic process guides, workshop session files and follow-on resources.

 


PREREQUISITES

The density of material establishes an aggressive pace in the presentation of content.  Statistical background is helpful, but not required.  Read the Series Overview to understand this event’s place and function within full data analytics course series progression.

 


WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This course 1) builds core capabilities for those who are new to data analytics; 2) provides a more functional, streamlined and strategic mindset for those with classical statistical training; and 3) serves as a structured platform for those wishing to proceed into more advanced analytics projects with greater confidence.  “Transforming Data to Decisions” is suited for the following roles:

 

Functional Managers – who desire a practical appreciation of core analytic methods in a fast-paced, impact-focused course in order to interact more effectively with analysts and IT staff on departmental data analysis projects, regardless of their prior statistical background.

 

Organizational Analysts – who need to transform their quantitative capabilities into a purposeful approach to impactful decision analytics by letting go of ad hoc statistical techniques and focusing specifically on a framework of core analytic strategies most appropriate for tackling common business problems.

 

Experienced Statisticians – who may be statistical wizards at the quantitative level, but realize they will be far more valuable to the organization upon learning how to adapt their classical training into more of a goal-driven mindset for streamlined, agile and targeted data analytics that translate into measurable impact for leadership.

 

IT Specialists – who wish to gain a better appreciation of the overall analytic process in order to more effectively prepare resources for data analysis and integrate resulting decision models within the infrastructure of today’s sophisticated data storage and access environments.

 

Business Intelligence Team Members – who realize the need to take a step back and reinforce their essential core analytic capabilities in order to gain solid traction when proceeding into more advanced analytics fields such as data mining, predictive modeling, machine learning, knowledge discovery, unstructured text analysis, and data-driven decision support.

 


KEY SKILLS YOU’LL TAKE AWAY IMMEDIATELY

  • Focus on core analytic issues, strategies, methods and techniques most appropriate for organizational decision making
  • Understand in plain English what the algorithms do, and how true descriptive analytics relate to decision support
  • Unify project teams – from statisticians to leadership – in order to establish a common strategy, framework and process for greater coordination, efficiency, clarity and impact
  • For analysts to obtain clear direction on analytic goals and delivery requirements
  • For leadership to better understand and trust what the analyst delivers
    • Leave ad hoc, esoteric and academic statistical exercises behind in lieu of targeted, insightful and understandable analytic outcomes that drive decision models with residual benefit
    • View content through an organized series of live work-along exercises in order to directly experience strategic issues as well as how to tactically implement at the project-level
    • Leave with the resources, contacts and actionable plans to substantially increase analytic capabilities while minimizing dead ends

 


THE ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE FOR ANALYTICS

The ability to make effective and timely decisions driven by valuable information hidden within a rapidly increasing mass of data is critical to the success of modern organizations and managers.  The advancement of analytic and reporting options, along with the proliferation of big data delivery platforms and analytics software suites create an environment where functional managers must rely heavily upon their analysts and IT staff for critical insight. 

 

It is typically not the responsibility of analysts and IT specialists to focus on strategic-level decision processes.  Yet, analytics will fall short of its potential without adequate context, sound problem definition and results translation.  At the same time, statisticians and IT professionals are often misguided by managers who lack core analytic skills to effectively communicate their needs, or fully understand the results. 

 

The gap between these roles leaves the manager to subjectively interpret results from analytical models that emphasize quantitative sophistication and artificial metrics instead of objective, data-driven solutions.  And in business, the product of data analysis is not the analysis.  The real products of the analysis are the insights gained and the impact measured.

 

The intent of this course is to bridge the critical translation gap between team members that cause the vast majority of analytic projects to fall short of their potential.  Managers who attend this class will establish a stronger appreciation of core analytic methods and process.  Statisticians, IT professionals and analysts will learn how to approach data analysis in a structured and purposeful way that translates well for leadership, and directly impacts business performance.

 


UPON COMPLETION, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO

  • Discover, monitor and clearly report the primary analytic contributors that affect strategic decision processes and their impact on performance metrics that are important to leadership
  • Classify the four major types of analysis projects and match the best suited core analytic methods
  • Develop a six-phase methodology for evaluating and validating goal-driven insights
  • Structure and organize a wide range of data analysis topics from a project-oriented, decision-process perspective
  • Identify critical characteristics of available data fields and leverage treatments to significantly enhance their contribution to the decision making process
  • Maneuver a structured process to evaluate the effectiveness of individual attributes and their value to enhancing a predefined objective
  • Establish a solid foundation for more advanced analytic practices such as predictive modeling and data mining

 


WHAT YOU SHOULD BRING

 

Participants are welcome but not required to bring laptop computers.  Live application Illustrations will be conveyed in the form of work-along sessions.  Attendees may either watch the instructor work through the exercises, or take their own approach in parallel.  Consider whether you learn better by watching or doing.  Completed worksheets will be given to all attendees at the end of the class.  All other course materials will be available at the course site.

 


WHAT MAKES THIS COURSE UNIQUE

This course directly addresses the critical yet common lack of effective coordination and hand-off between analysts, IT professionals and management.  While each may be fully effective in their own domain, there is a significant loss of translation between roles in which critical context is lost.  “Transforming Data to Decisions” targets this costly gap and enables all players to execute effectively across roles.

 

Unlike training that drills into various analytic techniques and leaves it to the attendee to figure out how to use them effectively, this intensive two-day course conveys analytics-in-action through work-along sessions.  The sessions convey the four types of problems that dominate commercial and public sector implementations: 

  • Value Estimation
    • Estimating a value given specific conditions
    • Projecting the next step in a sequence
    • Classification
      • Identifying a category given specific conditions
      • Identifying groups in large, complex environments


Attendees learn how to apply core analytic methods to defined problem types in order to reveal insights critical to organizational success.  Attendees are then given a six-step development methodology to act as an analytic framework from which team members may collectively take control of a fully productive data analysis practice.

 

To best convey and reinforce the analytic model development process, each topic is labeled in the course material as an “Issue, Insight or Illustration”:

Issues

Brief lecture segments that present analytic methods, techniques and strategies in the context of true organizational challenges

Insights

Application tips, tricks and case examples that translate Issues into actionable content leveraged by the instructor’s seasoned experience in real-world implementations

Illustrations

Live demonstrations with work-along exercises across all six project implementation phases that allow participants to directly experience Issues and Insights to apply back at the office


Speaker and Presenter Information

THOMAS A. “TONY” RATHBURN has engaged with commercial and government clients internationally in the development and implementation of predictive analytics solutions since the mid-1980’s.  Tony’s two-plus decades of real world experience makes him a highly sought after resource.

 

He is a regular presenter of the Predictive Analytics Track at the TDWI World Conferences, as well as being engaged by a number of software vendors to present the practical implementation aspects of their tools.

 

Mr. Rathburn’s expertise is focused on the design and development of business models of human behavior. From an industry perspective, he has extensive experience in the financial sector, banking, insurance, energy, retail and telecommunications. He has an extensive functional area perspective, including the development of models for trading, pricing, CRM, B2B, B2C, fraud detection, risk management and attrition/retention.

 

Tony’s academic training includes seven years teaching MIS and Statistics at both the graduate and undergraduate level while an instructor in the College of Business at Kent State University. Prior to entering consulting, Tony served as Vice President of Applied Technologies for NeuralWare, Inc., a neural network tools and consulting company. He was also the Research Coordinator for LakeShore Trading, Inc., a successful futures and options trading firm on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Expected Number of Attendees

15

Relevant Government Agencies

Air Force, Army, Navy & Marine Corps, Intelligence Agencies, DOD & Military, Office of the President (includes OMB), Dept of Agriculture, Dept of Commerce, Dept of Education, Dept of Energy, Dept of Health & Human Services, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept of Housing & Urban Development, Dept of the Interior, Dept of Justice, Dept of Labor, Dept of State, Dept of Transportation, Dept of Treasury, Dept of Veterans Affairs, EPA, GSA, USPS, SSA, NASA, Other Federal Agencies, Legislative Agencies (GAO, GPO, LOC, etc.), Judicial Branch Agencies, State Government, County Government, City Government, Municipal Government, CIA, FEMA, Office of Personnel Management, Coast Guard, National Institutes of Health, FAA, Census Bureau, USAID, National Guard Association, EEOC


This event has no exhibitor/sponsor opportunities


When
Thu-Fri, Aug 20-21, 2015, 9:00am - 5:00pm


Cost

Attendee::  $1495.00


Where
TBA
Toronto, ON CA
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Website
Click here to visit event website


Organizer
The Modeling Agency


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