__Abstract__



Pretty much every modern organisation collects a mountain of data

on a daily basis as it goes about its business. But all that data is of

little real value unless it is properly analysed and used to anticipate

client behaviour and needs

Dalen, J. (Jan) van

Fok, D. (Dennis)

Erasmus University Digital Repository

ROTTERDAM SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT, ERASMUS UNIVERSITYThe business school that thinks and lives in the future Boosting business  with data analysisTim Skelton talks with Jan van Dalen and Dennis Fok Keeping a healthy distance from senior managementBy Gijs van Houwelingen  Top management team diversity affects  acquisition successBy Anna Nadolska Predicting the past to avoid financial crisesBy Philip Fliers  Encouraging help speeds up product  development projectsBy Fabian Sting  Mastering the politics  of innovationBy Lameez Alexander  Why impulsive  behaviour may be good for your healthBy Monika Lisjak and Angela Y. Lee1st Quarter 2015Management Knowledge         RSM DISCOVERYwww.rsm.nl/discovery 1st Quarter 2015   |   05Boosting business with data analysisTim Skelton talks with Jan van Dalen and Dennis FokOne academic centre that offers this vital service to the business world is the Erasmus Centre for Data Science and Business Analytics, a collabora-tive effort that involves research-ers from both Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE).In its own words, the centre ‘sup-ports organisations in turning data into business solutions.’ It offers knowledge Pretty much every modern organisation collects a mountain of data on a daily basis as it goes about its business. But all that data is of little real value unless it is properly analysed and used to anticipate client behaviour and needs. and analytical skills to identify business opportunities in public and private data; develops methodologies to ana-lyse and visualise data; helps organi-sations to exploit data-based insights, and to optimise business propositions based on data analytics; and helps in data governance: integrating data so-lutions and managing data security. In short, it helps companies to extract the most business value from their data.The centre is headed jointly by Jan van Dalen, associate professor at RSM’s Department of Technology and Operations Management, and Dennis Fok, an endowed professor of applied econometrics at ESE’s Econometric Institute. The key participants hail from the Technology and Operations Management Department of RSM, the Econometric Institute at ESE, and from both schools’ Marketing departments.By involving a variety of parties the centre is able to pool the expertise of a range of scientific disciplines, from business information management, marketing and econometrics, to in-novation management and business strategy. The services it is able to of-fer can be applied everywhere from e-commerce and supply chain manage-ment, to transport solutions and HR.Benefiting businessHow exactly can the centre benefit an entrepreneurial business person? ‘We have extensive knowledge about, and experience in, the extraction of information from databases, and its application in decision making, in situa-tions where the data might be in many different forms, such as sensor data, transaction data about customer pur-chases, data about web traffic, or data in the form of written text (eg, online reviews, tweets, blogs and more),’ Jan van Dalen explains. ‘Secondly, the cen-tre has insight into the manifold man-agerial uses of data. By showcasing our projects and being in contact with companies and other organisations, we also create awareness of the po-tential of data science in organisational www.rsm.nl/discovery ‘Such a retailer will have a large data-base of the transactions made by all customers in the past. Our model can be used to do a variety of things. For example, it can be used to help answer questions such as which of all our past customers should we consider to be active customers.’ This, he adds, is es-pecially valuable, as many customers will have stopped buying at the retailer. ‘Marketing actions should of course be tailored towards the actual status of a consumer. For currently inactive cus-tomers one could design a win-back strategy, whereas active customers may be persuaded to purchase more.’Urban knowledgeBesides its interest in businesses, the centre also benefits other organisa-tions such as municipalities. ‘One pro-ject we currently work on deals with data science in an urban context,’ Jan says. ‘In collaboration with the City of Rotterdam, we established the Urban Big Data knowledge lab, which is aimed at the use of urban data to support decision making in the areas of public health, economic processes, govern-ance and culture.’The urban knowledge lab is particularly noteworthy in that is contexts.’ Last, but by no means least, the centre provides a platform where people can come together to share knowledge and experience.The data science chain can be di-vided into three general areas. The first concerns the information technology infrastructure necessary to collect and store large quantities of data. The sec-ond deals with the analysis of the data gathered. Then there is the integration of data science into businesses and or-ganisations. ‘What sets us apart is that our focus is on the latter two aspects,’ Dennis Fok points out. ‘Some other ac-tive centres have a stronger IT focus. By and large we treat the IT infrastruc-ture as a given, and focus on obtaining business value from the data. This not only requires analytics and modelling, but also knowledge about the manage-ment of organisations.’This translation of data into true business value requires many more skills than simply organising informa-tion technology. Data analysis also requires strong skills in statistics and/or econometrics. ‘It’s not very difficult to create reports by straightforwardly summarising data. However, using the data to identify patterns or to predict future events is far more challenging, and also much more valuable,’ Dennis says. ‘Moreover, incorporating the data science way of thinking into organisa-tions is not at all trivial.’Various reasons complicate this, he says. It may be that organisations sim-ply have insufficient access to skilled personnel. But even when they do, organisational structure and routines may prevent them from reaping the benefits of data support. Many well-known large companies struggle to achieve this.The centre is and has been involved in a wide range of projects. These in-clude an analysis of smart card data on behalf of the Dutch railway opera-tor, NS, in order to predict peaks in customer travel behaviour and align these with infrastructure capacity; and developing learning agents for flower auctioneers FloraHolland, to optimise auction design by predicting customer bidding behaviour.In another project, the centre worked on a predictive model to predict the occurrence of online pur-chases of individual consumers. ‘Such a model is valuable in a context in which consumers tend to make repeat purchases, for example purchases at an online retailer,’ Dennis comments. “By showcasing our projects and being in contact with companies and other organisations, we also create awareness of the potential of data science in organisational contexts.” Jan van Dalen, scientific co-director, Erasmus Centre for Data Science and Business Analytics.06   |   1st Quarter 2015Boosting business with data analysis (continued)Tim Skelton talks with Jan van Dalen and Dennis FokManagement KnowledgeRSM DISCOVERYwell as for governmental organisations responsible for public services, policy development, and policy evaluation.While the centre currently offers no specific courses, other than those taught as part of the regular RSM/ESE curriculum, a data science pro-gramme is in development. ‘There will be a post-experience programme, in which the target audience consists of professionals from the industry with field experience,’ Dennis says. The first step towards this will be a sum-mer course on data science, which will be held this June. More informa-tion about this will be published on the centre’s website.And what else does the future hold? As Jan van Dalen explains, the centre’s main goal is to establish long-term strategic collaborations with partners outside the academic world. ‘Currently we are progressing fast towards a col-laboration with the City of Rotterdam and with universities in the region of Leiden and Delft,’ he says. ‘In this col-laboration, we will study various data challenges that deal with the urban issues and processes, like managing traffic congestion, supporting a city’s a cross-campus initiative that in-volves far more partners at Erasmus University than just RSM and ESE. It was co-founded by the Faculty of Social Science (FSS also and leads the centre’s LDE Bold Cities collaboration), and it also taps into the expertise of the Erasmus Medical School (EMC), and the Erasmus School of History Culture and Communication (ESHCC).The lab’s focus is on the use of large and real-time data in urban contexts. ‘Social media, for instance, can be used by cities to have near real time infor-mation about urgent issues, like crime, road damage, or problems in neigh-bourhoods, and, more importantly, to act on this information,’ Jan explains. ‘Sensors in the urban road infrastruc-ture and otherwise can help to evalu-ate the consequences of interventions in, for instance, the road network for congestions elsewhere, emissions, and public health. Likewise, detailed data about public transportation linked with socio-demographic data provides in-sight into the access of target groups, like elderly, to mobility and other urban services.’ Examples like these are rele-vant for various scientific disciplines, as cultural attractiveness, or predicting youth unemployment at the neigh-bourhood level,’Meanwhile, efforts are also ongoing to develop similar partnerships with businesses. ‘Within these collabora-tions we intend to contribute by offer-ing courses, developing joint research programmes, and providing advice and data science experience,’ Jan continues. ‘One of our key strengths is our ability to identify the potential of data that may already be available.’ More information about the activities of the Erasmus Centre for Data Science and Business Analytics can be found at   WEB   www.erim.eur.nl/dsba/“There will be a post-experience programme, in which the target audience consists of professionals from the industry with field experience.”  Dennis Fok, scientific co-director, Erasmus Centre for Data Science and Business Analytics.1st Quarter 2015   |   07www.rsm.nl/discovery 

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