Industry leaders gathered to present valuable insights on the changing landscape of analytics.
Organizational analytics experts presented information on the latest analytics trends to an audience of more than 80 professionals, faculty and students at the third annual Elon Business Analytics Conference, held April 5 in Durham, N.C.
Hosted by the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business and the Center for Organizational Analytics, the conference covered best practices to optimize business processes and discussed predictions for the future of analytics. Participants heard from analytics leaders with Deloitte, Wells Fargo, MetLife, PwC, Chico’s, and EY, among others.
During the presentation “Four Eras in Ten Years: A Revolution in Analytics,” keynote speaker Tom Davenport discussed the changing landscape of analytics. Davenport is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Information Technology and Management at Babson College, the co-founder of the International Institute for Analytics, a fellow of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and a senior advisor to Deloitte Analytics.
In the near future, some knowledge workers will lose their jobs, but we also expect many new jobs to be created where humans will be working alongside smart machines, Davenport said.
Other conference sessions included:
“Buoyant Insights-Deep dive or float in the sea of data”
Presented by Naveen Yeri, vice president of fraud strategy, data and analytics, Wells Fargo
“Accelerating Analytics at MetLife”
Presented by Malene Haxholdt, vice president, enterprise analytics, GTO Global Data & Analytics Services, MetLife
Jackie Orr ’15, associate data scientist, GTO Global Data & Analytics Services, MetLife
“Crossing the Insights to Action Chasm”
Presented by Amaresh Tripathy, partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers
“The Human Side of Analytics”
Presented by Elpida Ormanidou, vice president, Advanced Analytics and Testing, Chico’s FAS, Inc.
“Creating an Enterprise Analytics Center of Excellence – A Strategic Asset For Delivering Business Insights”
Presented by Naveen Venkataraman, senior consultant, EY
The conference concluded with an expert panel discussion moderated by Alyssa Martina, director of the Doherty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership. Panelists Robbie Allen, CEO and founder of Automated Insights; Chris Ambrozic, senior director of product & data science, Advanced Search & Recommendations Group at TiVo; Shannon Duvall, associate professor of computer science at Elon University; and James C. Lester, director of the Center for Educational Informatics and Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at North Carolina State University; discussed the role of artificial intelligence in innovative business practices.
“Artificial intelligence will cause displacement,” Lester said. “Entrepreneurial and tech oriented folk will fare best.”
“The third annual Elon Business Analytics Conference was a resounding success,” said Raghu Tadepalli, dean of the Love School of Business. “Dr. Haya Ajjan put together an agenda that showcased various aspects of business analytics from the theoretical to the applied, with leading scholar Dr. Tom Davenport providing the keynote. The conference highlighted the latest business practices in analytics drawn from various industries to provide attendees with readily actionable insights.”