Business Analytics: Data Analysis and Decision Making Sixth Edition 
S. Christian Albright | Wayne L. Winston

This book is all about using quantitative modeling to help companies make better decisions and improve performance. We have been teaching management science for decades, and companies have been using the management science methods discussed in this book for decades to improve performance and save millions of dollars. Indeed, the applied journal Interfaces, discussed later in this chapter, has chronicled management science success stories for years. Therefore, we were a bit surprised when a brand new term, Business Analytics (BA), became hugely popular several years ago. All of a sudden, BA promised to be the road to success. By using quantitative BA methods—data analysis, optimization, simulation, prediction,
and others—companies could drastically improve business performance.
Haven’t those of us in management science been doing this for years? What is different about BA that has made it so popular, both in the academic world and even more so in the business world?
The truth is that BA does use the same quantitative methods that have been the hallmark of management science for years, the same methods you will learn in this book. BA has not all of a sudden invented brand new quantitative methods to eclipse traditional management science methods. The main difference is that BA uses big data to solve business problems and provide insights. Companies now have access to huge sources of data, and the technology is now available to use huge data sets for statistical and quantitative analysis, predictive modeling, optimization, and simulation. In short, the same
quantitative methods that have been available for years can now be even more effective by utilizing big data and the corresponding technology.