Analytics India Magazine

Analytics Courses in India

A Comparison

Analytics Courses in India A Comparison

9th July 2013

Analytics India Magazine

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Introduction

Analytics Courses in India A Comparison

Business Analytics job market is in a boom in India and there is a huge shortage of skilled analyst in the market. This makes it a very attractive career option with good salary and growth. Many premier institutes have recognized the importance analytics in Indias job market and have started executive programs for working executive in the field of Business Analytics. With a mushrooming of analytics courses, there obviously is an interest from students and working professionals. Yet, with a deluge of so many courses, choosing the right course is difficult. A right analytics course would provide value addition to an analytics professional helping him/her get faster promotions and growth, as well as valued in the industry. The course should provide an opportunity to develop the right mix of technical and management skills. We at Analytics India Magazine receive abundant queries from prospective students regarding the analytics courses in India. Most of these queries are related to strengths and shortcomings of various courses on offer. It is this abundance of inquiry that motivated us to write this report on analytics courses in India. The main focus is to compare some premium courses and discuss their strengths and weaknesses. We compared the following 5 courses on myriad of attributes1. Executive Program in Business Analytics IIM Calcutta 2. Certificate Programme in Business Analytics ISB, Hyderabad 3. Certificate Programme in Business Analytics for Executives IIM Lucknow 4. Business Analytics and Intelligence (BAI) IIM Bangalore 5. MS in Business Analytics University of Cincinnati The first four courses are 1-year executive courses in analytics from premier business schools in India. The fifth course is a recognized international course which is included in order to provide a comparison between Indian and international courses. The fifth course is from an international school and is included to provide comparison of domestic courses versus international analytics courses. We would not discuss the brand image of these courses since all of these are from esteemed institutes and its upto the students to ascertain the brand value of these institutes subjectively. We rather focus attributes like course content, contact hours, faculty, analytics tools and other finer aspects.

Dr. Ashish Goel, AGM Pharma Analytics at HCL

It is truly very exciting time for analysts, because more and more organizations are now/going to rely heavily on the real world and Big Data. There is already a big demand for data scientists, people who understand the fundamentals of analytical models and more importantly how and why to apply them in different scenarios. My advice to the budding analysts would be NOT to get too much bogged down with gaining expertise in tools only. See the big picture and value that the analysis will provide to fulfill the business objectives. In my view techno-commercial competence is the way of the future and if the younger generation can make a concerted effort towards this, they will surely stand out from the crowd.

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Course Comparison

Analytics Courses in India A Comparison

The fees of the four domestic courses range between 2.5 Lakhs to 5 lakhs rupees. The fee of the Executive Program in Business Analytics by IIM Calcutta is the lowest (2.5 Lakhs) while the Certificate Programme in Business Analytics by ISB, Hyderabad is the highest at 5 lakhs. Certificate Programme in Business Analytics by IIM Lucknow and Business Analytics and Intelligence (BAI) by IIM Bangalore each is of 4 lakhs. The differences in the fees can an important factor while accessing each course, yet one have to look at the cost vis--vis other factors. The important factor to look here is the number of contact hours, mode of teaching and faculty. Looking at these factors can help justify a higher fee. The contact hours of ISB is the highest among all courses here at 400+ hours. The contact hours of other courses do not exceed 250-300 hours. Of these contact hours, its also important to look at the number of hours on campus versus online teaching. So on this criterion, ISB Hyderabads course have a definite edge, in terms of covering a larger depth and breadth of analytics in this 1 year. The IIM Calcutta course is solely an online course with no classroom hours on campus. On the other extreme, for IIM Bangalores course the participants have the option to take all courses at the campus or few online. For IIM lucknow course, around 30% of the contact classes are at campus. For ISB course, the number of contact hours on campus is almost 65% of total contact hours. Thus, on this criterion IIM Bangalore and ISB Hyderabad have an edge over other courses. According to ISB Hyderbad, The program is a combination of classroom and Technology aided learning platform. Participants will typically be on campus for a 5 day schedule of classroom learning every alternate month for a span of 12 months, which would ideally be planned to include a weekend. In the month of no classroom connect, the classes will be conducted over a technology aided learning platform. The contact hours in this platform would be 24 hours a month and every alternate month. The MS in Business Analytics from University of Cincinnati is available either full-time or part-time, there is no online training for the same. Most international courses follow the same format. Also, the fee comes out to be around $13,000/ semester which converts to Rs. 20 Lakhs approx. for 1year full time course.

IIM Calcutta EPBA 2.5 Lakhs

ISB Hyderabad - CBA 5 Lakhs

IIM Lucknow CPBAE 4 Lakhs

IIM Bangalore - BAI 4 Lakhs

University of Cincinnati MSBA 20 Lakhs

Analytics India Magazine

Analytics Courses in India A Comparison

IIM Calcutta - EPBA Special inputs from Boston University On-Campus Training Not Available SAS Module Not Available Course rendered in association with Hughes Education

ISB Hyderabad CBA On-Campus teaching - 65% of total contact hours Industry Experts talks included SAS Module included Other software tools - MEXL, ARENA/ SIMIO, XLMINER, MATLAB, STATA

IIM Lucknow CPBAE Collaboration with Kelly School fo Business On-Campus teaching - 35% of total contact hours SAS Module included Other software tools - @Risk, WinQSB, GAMS, Palisades

IIM Bangalore - BAI Option of Online or On-Campus training SAS Module Included

University of Cincinnati - MSBA Option of Online or On-Campus training SAS Module Not Available

Other finer features include, collaboration of foreign universities and international faculty for the course. In case of IIM Lucknow, the program is jointly taught by faculty from IIM Lucknow and the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, USA. ISB, Hyderabad is well known to employ foreign PhDs in all their courses including CBA. An integral part of the CBA from ISB are interactions with industry speakers and regular visits to relevant organisations throughout the course. These sessions will be part of almost each module, and will be designed to enhance the understanding of the concepts of the module from a practitioners perspective, making it easier to apply the learning immediately. Besides, a SAS module is included in all courses except IIM Calcutta. This is the foundation course to learn the most important tool utilized in Analytics. ISB Hyderabad also unofficially provides career services to the graduating batch. The same goes for University of Cincinnati.

Ashutosh Kumar, VP Analytics at Capillary Technologies

Analytics is one of the fastest growing fields now days and graduates aspiring to get into this field have made the right decision. To succeed in this field I would suggest the following things to them For freshers aspiring to get into analytics: At the fresher level, there is a scarcity of good jobs as compared to the supply of freshers wanting to get into analytics. For people who want to get into analytics should focus on learning statistics and understanding business logic. The basics are no rocket science, and people who hold an edge above the others will find it easier to secure their dream job For freshers into analytics: focus on your technical skills. In analytics business sense and quality of insight is valued the most but unless your technical foundation is strong you will not be able to do anything. And the best time to master the skills is the beginning of your career For experienced professional (2-3 years): I interview a lot of people who have an experience of 2-3 years in analytics, yet their scope of knowledge and expertise is very much limited. The excuse that they have is this was not done at my organization so I did not learn it. Analytics field is very vast and is evolving at a very high pace. It is good to develop an area of expertise but one must not be restricted only by their on job training, but work on their own to learn the latest tools and technologies in analytics.

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Course Curriculum

Analytics Courses in India A Comparison

The table below compares the curriculum of the 5 courses. Clearly, ISB Hyderabads CBA has the most comprehensive course covering the most important topics in depth. It is followed by the CPBAE of IIM Lucknow. IIM Calcutta EPBA
Business Data Mining Business Intelligence Contemporary Analytics Data Collection Data Management Data Visualisation Financial Analytics Forecasting Analytics Marketing Analytics Mathematics for Business Analytics Operations and Supply Chain Analytics Operations/Simulation Optimisation Pricing Analytics Spreadsheet Modeling Statistics for Business Analytics Stochastic Models Time Series Models in Business

ISB Hyderabad CBA

IIM Lucknow CPBAE

IIM Bangalore BAI

University of Cincinnati - MSBA

So, in terms of purely course content, ISB Hyderabads course can easily be seen in par with some of the best analytics courses offered worldwide. One point of caution regarding international courses while some courses in US are in depth and highly useful, most international courses design their pedagogy to suit the nonmathematical backgrounds of the student. They tend to introduce concept from the very scratch and then go in-depth to more advanced topics. This is not valid for Indian courses. Analytics India Magazine (AIM) serves the needs of Analytics professions and provides a focal point for all information related to analytics from the Indian context. It is a web-based magazine to promote, nourish and collect; ideas and thoughts on Analytics practice in India.

Analytics India Magazine

Analytics Courses in India A Comparison

Analytics India Magazine (AIM) serves the needs of Analytics professions and provides a focal point for all information related to analytics from the Indian context. It is a web-based magazine to promote, nourish and collect; ideas and thoughts on Analytics practice in India. Visit us at www.analyticsindiamag.com

Analytics India Magazine

Analytics India Magazine