Data analytics and business intelligence are alive and well in the Upstate South Carolina area.  The region is home to organizations in multiple sectors that are growing data analytics and business intelligence capabilities.  Multiple companies have recently advertised data scientist jobs - recognizing the data and artificial intelligence (AI) are critical enablers for many products and services.  These organizations are seeking data scientists and data analysts with experience in leading edge approaches:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Machine Learning (ML)
• Deep Learning
• Predictive Analytics
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Chatbots
• Big Data and Large Data Sets
• Data Manipulation
• Statistics
• Platforms - Python, R, Matlab

These approaches are crucial to the advancement of today's and tomorrow's successful enterprises.  On my website I intend to feature Upstate South Carolina people and enterprises who are making a difference using data and analytics.  Please let me know about any stories and case studies that you would like to see.

Business Intelligence (BI) is the set of practices and tools for displaying and exploring data for decision-making. Techniques and tools associated with BI include dashboards, scorecards, drilldown, and slicing and dicing data. Analytics practices take BI to a higher level.

Analytics is the practice of supporting decision-making through number crunching. Analytics supports processes such as customer segmentation, product mix analysis, budgeting, and operations improvements. Some analytic solutions focus on a single domain, rather than the broader domain of the data warehouse. Techniques and tools associated with analytics include data mining, statistical analysis, and regression modeling. Table 01.01 provides examples of BI and analytics.