KSOM Organizes Its 1st National Business Analytics Konclave On The Theme: Transforming Businesses Using Data

KIIT School of Management [KSOM], KIIT Deemed to be University, organized the 1st National Business Analytics Konclave on 20th December 2020. The theme of the conclave was "Transforming Businesses using Data."

Prof. Saroj Mahapatra, Director, KSOM, introduced everyone to the Industry Engagement Activities of KSOM and set the conclave context. He highlighted how data and its analysis are being used today in varied fields like water resource mapping, disaster management, weather forecasting, and various aspects of business management. He also expressed the view that shortly, a business's survival will depend on the extent of data analytics.

Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice-Chancellor KSOM, in her inaugural address, stated that the increasing importance of business analytics due to the dynamic business environment. She further explained how this provides a system that we can trust and rely upon. She said that AI would play a more significant role in different domains along with data analysis.

Dr. Ashwini Mathur in his keynote address Solution Lead and Head Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Hub, Dublin at Novartis, flagged the importance of having the right mindset in the success of Analytics. He said that traditional businesses are collaborating with technology companies to solve their business problems competently.

He said that data science companies must be influential has to comprise knowledge experts, data scientists, statisticians, and storytellers. Prof. S N Mishra, Dean KSOM, summarised the discussions and offered the Vote of Thanks.

A three-panel discussions was held followed by the inaugural session.

The first-panel debate was on the topic – "Business Analytics Trends: An Industry Application Perspective." The panel discussed the imperative transition of companies from physical to digital in the wake of the pandemic. This has resulted in an huge amount of data churn and the needs to analyze the same. The varied perspectives of Descriptive, Inquisitive, Predictive, and Prescriptive Analytics were also discussed. Analytics is a young industry and has a long way to go. The scope is humongous, and the slow growth is due to the capability gap.

The second panel discussion was on the topic – "Bridging the Gap between Academics and Analytics Industry." The panel discussed the various points that are important to bridge the gap between the analytics industry and academics and unanimously agreed that there is a massive gap between demand and supply concerning the analytics industry's resources. The panel highlighted analytics is not about writing codes but having domain knowledge and logical thinking to understand the issues and extract meaning out of data. The panelists advised students who want to transform into successful analytics professionals to teach critical thinking skills, communication to the presentation. The panel opined on academia's need to conduct longer internships for students to have greater industry engagement.

The third panel discussion was on the topic – "Leveraging Data for Business Transformation." The panel discussed how vital analytics is for gathering large volumes of data at a much faster rate, churning them according to requirements for better business understanding. The panelists shed light on various concepts relating to Big Data Analysis and Machine Learning. They spoke about how analytics helped predict the problems during this pandemic leading to an increase in customer satisfaction.

The second half of the conclave consisted of seven workshops for the students with topics related to Building a Business Analytics profile, Technical Skills for a Business Analytics role, Application of Business Analytics in Financial markets, Fintech, Supply Chain, Operations Management, HR Management, and Marketing.

This was the first Business Analytics conclave organized by the KIIT School of Management.  The Business Analytics conclave provided the students with an opportunity to interact with business leaders from across the nation. The conclave created a platform to connect industry professionals, academia, and students.

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