How is Big Data Analytics Used in Business and Accounting?-Summer 2020 Prof. Ruoxin Wu & Tumah Deen

Summary

This video discusses the concept of big data analytics, highlighting its importance across various sectors, including business, healthcare, retail, logistics, and accounting. It explains key technologies that support big data, such as machine learning, predictive analytics, and Hadoop. The discussion emphasizes how big data helps organizations improve decision-making, automate processes, enhance customer experience, and reduce costs. In the accounting world, big data aids in tax analysis, auditing, and fraud detection. Real-world examples, such as continuous auditing and predictive analytics in auditing practices, are also shared, illustrating big data's transformative impact.

Takeaways

• 😀 Big data refers to data that is characterized by high volumes, velocity, and variety, which are essential factors in processing and analyzing data effectively.
• 😀 Automation powered by big data helps businesses streamline processes like data collection and analysis, saving time and improving operational efficiency.
• 😀 Big data analytics can uncover hidden opportunities, allowing companies to improve products and services while boosting customer satisfaction.
• 😀 Machine learning plays a key role in big data by enabling quick and accurate analysis of complex data, helping organizations make better decisions.
• 😀 Data management is crucial for ensuring that large volumes of incoming data are processed reliably and consistently across an organization.
• 😀 Data mining allows businesses to identify meaningful patterns within vast amounts of data, supporting informed decision-making and predicting future outcomes.
• 😀 Hadoop is a widely-used open-source software that can store and process large amounts of data across distributed systems, making it ideal for big data tasks.
• 😀 Predictive analytics in big data uses algorithms and historical data to forecast future trends, helping businesses make proactive decisions, such as in fraud detection or marketing strategies.
• 😀 Text mining leverages machine learning and natural language processing to analyze text-based data from sources like social media and documents, uncovering new insights.
• 😀 In the business world, big data can enhance retail operations by personalizing customer experiences, forecasting product demand, and optimizing inventory management.
• 😀 Big data in healthcare enables improved patient care through more accurate diagnoses, personalized treatments, and fraud detection in insurance claims.
• 😀 Logistics companies use big data to optimize delivery routes, predict demand, manage inventory more effectively, and track the health of vehicles, improving operational efficiency.
• 😀 In the accounting industry, big data assists auditors by enabling continuous monitoring of financial data, reducing errors, detecting fraud, and improving audit quality.
• 😀 The concept of continuous auditing, made possible by big data, allows auditors to analyze entire datasets rather than just samples, leading to more accurate and timely financial insights.
• 😀 Big data in taxation helps accountants quickly analyze complex tax-related issues, which can lead to faster decision-making and improved financial strategies.

Q & A

What is the definition of big data, as described in the script?

Big data is data that contains greater variability, arriving in increasing volumes and width with higher velocity. The three main characteristics of big data are volume, velocity, and variety.

How does big data help companies in terms of automation?

Big data enables automation by allowing data-driven IT infrastructures to automate time-consuming tasks such as data collection and analysis, ultimately improving efficiency.

What role does big data play in discovering trends and insights?

Big data helps companies uncover hidden opportunities and trends that enable them to make better products and services, improve operational efficiency, and meet customer needs.

What is predictive decision-making in the context of big data?

Predictive decision-making involves using big data for predictive analytics, where machines analyze data to make informed decisions about future outcomes.

What are some key technologies associated with big data?

Some key technologies associated with big data include machine learning, data management, data mining, Hadoop, predictive analytics, and text mining.

How does machine learning benefit organizations when used with big data?

Machine learning allows organizations to automatically create models that analyze large, complex data sets, delivering faster and more accurate results, helping them identify profitable opportunities and avoid risks.

What is the function of Hadoop in big data analytics?

Hadoop is a popular software used for storing large amounts of data and running applications on clusters of commodity hardware. It processes big data quickly and is valued for its distributed computing model and being free to use.

How is predictive analytics applied in big data?

Predictive analytics uses historical data, algorithms, and machine learning techniques to predict future outcomes. It is widely applied in fraud detection, risk assessment, and marketing, such as recommending shows on Netflix.

What role does big data play in retail?

In retail, big data helps companies offer personalized recommendations, predict customer demand, develop products, and optimize inventory management, ultimately improving customer experience and operational efficiency.

How is big data used in healthcare?

In healthcare, big data helps identify disease-related genes, assess health risks, improve the quality of care, and prevent insurance fraud. It enables doctors to access comprehensive patient records, improving diagnosis and treatment accuracy.

How is big data applied in logistics?

In logistics, big data helps optimize distribution by analyzing real-time data from GPS trackers, weather, and traffic systems. It also improves inventory management, predicts demand, and ensures faster delivery and better driver safety.

What are the benefits of big data in the accounting world?

In accounting, big data helps uncover insights, improve efficiency, and manage risks. For example, accountants use big data for investment analysis, tax decisions, auditing, and fraud detection, offering more accurate and timely financial assessments.

What is continuous auditing, and how does big data enhance it?

Continuous auditing involves analyzing large data sets continuously to improve the precision of audits. Big data enhances this by reducing errors, providing more accurate recommendations, and enabling deeper insights into a company's financial health.