Prepare yourself for the next generation of innovation

Big Data is no longer just a buzzword or something adopted by a handful of adventurous organizations. Companies, all over the world, are currently struggling to handle the overflow of data they’re generating, everything from user data, customer behavior data, purchasing data as well as sales leads, marketing data and the like with these common objectives –> enhancing the customer experience, streamlining existing processes, and achieving more targeted marketing and reducing costs.

No wonder, when you search “data science” at sap.com, the gateway for SAP, the biggest enterprise software developer in the world, you will find over 100 thousand results, including all these industry hot topics — machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), data mining, predictive analysis and so on so forth.

Unless you have already had a PhD in data science, most of us who have been in IT industry for years still have a big learning curve to be well prepared for this new generation of innovation, which will help companies to handle the explosion of data and to make informed and quantitative decisions.

If you are like me, looking for good learning opportunities on the subject, I found this free course “Getting Started with Data Science” @ https://open.sap.com/courses/ds1 (offered by Dr. Stuart Clarke) very instructive, helpful and sap-technology oriented.

Here I quote the descriptions for the 6-weeks on-line course by Dr. Stuart Clarke:

“In the first week, we’ll cover the fundamental challenges of business problem understanding and identifying the appropriate analytical approach. In the second week, we’ll cover data preparation, selecting variables, and data encoding. Weeks three and four will introduce you to a wide range of algorithms such as decision trees, regression, neural networks, basket analysis, and simulation. Week five explains how we evaluate the performance of our models and the approaches we take to improve them. In week 6, you’ll learn about model deployment and maintenance, and we’ll debunk some common myths.”

It is late to take all the tests and get a certification, but all learning materials are available. Hope you will enjoy the learning experience as much as I did.