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Top 10 Data Analysis Tools for BusinessAlex Jones

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Alex Jones
Data Scientist at EOG Resources, Predictive Analytics Evangelist

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Top 10 Data Analysis Tools for Business


Jun 12, 2014

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As a graduate student in Business Analytics, I have worked the better part of a year to
become a giant nerd, excel wizard, big data ninja, data scientist, predictive analytics
architect. While the skills I have developed have been invaluable, taking a year of
computer science, advanced mathematics, engineering and business classes, is simply
not feasible for most people.
Although the challenge of collecting and analyzing "Big Data" requires some
complex and technical solutions, the fact is, that most businesses do not realize what
they are currently capable of.

Specifically, there are a number of exceptionally powerful analytical tools that are free
and open source that you can leverage today to enhance your business and develop
skills that can genuinely propel your career.

Rather than just leave you to navigate the frightening and giant world of IT tools and
software, I have put together a list of what I see as the Top 10 Data analysis tools for
Business. I picked these because of their free availability (for personal use), ease of
use (no coding and intuitively designed), powerful capabilities (beyond basic excel),
and well-documented resources (if you get stuck, you can Google your way
through).

1. Tableau- Tableau democratizes visualization in an elegantly simple and


intuitive tool. Although great alternatives exist, Tableau Public's million row
limit provides a great playground for personal use and the free trial is more than
long enough to get you hooked. In the analytics process, Tableau's visuals allow
you to quickly investigate a hypothesis, sanity check your gut, and just go
explore the data before embarking on a treacherous statistical journey.

2. OpenRefine- Formerly GoogleRefine, OpenRefine is a data cleaning software


that allows you to get everything ready for analysis. What do I mean by that?
Well, let's look at an example. Recently, I was cleaning up a database that
included chemical names and noticed that rows had different spellings,
capitalization, spaces, etc that made it very difficult for a computer to
process.
For

tunately, OpenRefine contains a number of clustering algorithms (groups


together similar entries) and makes quick work of an otherwise messy problem.
**Tip- Increase Java Heap Space to run large files (Google the tip for exact
instructions!)

3. KNIME- KNIME allows you to manipulate, analyze, and model data in an


incredibly intuitive way through visual programming. Essentially, rather than
writing blocks of code, you drop nodes onto a canvas and drag connection
points between activities. More importantly, KNIME can be extended to run R,
python, text mining, chemistry data, etc, which gives you the option to dabble
in the more advanced code driven analysis. **TIP- Use "File Reader" instead of
CSV reader for CSV files. Strange quirk of the software.

4. RapidMiner- Much like KNIME, RapidMiner operates through visual


programming and is capable of manipulating, analyzing and modeling data.
Most recently, RapidMiner won KDNuggets software poll, demonstrating that
data science does not need to be a counter-intuitive coding endeavor.

5. Google Fusion Tables- Meet Google Spreadsheets' cooler, larger, and much
nerdier cousin. Google Fusion tables is a versatile tool for data analysis, large
data-set visualization, and mapping. Not surprisingly, Google's leading
mapping software plays a big role in pushing this tool onto the list. Take for
instance this map, which I made to look at oil production platforms in the Gulf
of
Mexico.
With

just a quick upload, Google Fusion tables recognized the latitude and longitude
data and got to work.

6. NodeXL- NodeXL is a visualization and analysis software of networks and


relationships. Think of the giant friendship maps you see that represent linkedin
or Facebook connections. NodeXL takes that a step further by providing exact
calculations. If you're looking for something a little less advanced, check out
the node graph on Google Fusion Tables, or for a little more visualization try
out Gephi.

7. Import.io- Web scraping and pulling information off of websites used to be


something reserved for the nerds. Now with Import.io, everyone can harvest
data from websites and forums. Simply highlight what you want and in a matter
of minutes Import.io walks you through and "learns" what you are looking for.
From there, Import.io will dig, scrape, and pull data for you to analyze or
export.

8. Google Search Operators- Google is an undeniably powerful resource and


search operators just take it a step further. Operators essentially allow you to
quickly filter Google results to get to the most useful and relevant information.
For instance, say you're looking for a Data science report published this year
from ABC Consulting. If we presume that the report will be in PDF we can
search "Date Science Report" site:ABCConsulting.com Filetype:PDF then
underneath the search bar, use the "Search Tools" to limit the results to the past
year. The operators can be even more useful for discovering new information or
market research.
9. Solver- Solver is an optimization and linear programming tool in Excel that
allows you to set constraints (Don't spend more than this many dollars, be
completed in that many days, etc). Although advanced optimization may
be better suited for another program (such as R's optim package), Solver will
make quick work of a wide range of problems.

10.WolframAlpha- Wolfram Alpha's search engine is one of the web's hidden


gems and helps to power Apple's Siri. Beyond snarky remarks, Wolfram alpha
is the nerdy google, provides detailed responses to technical searches and
makes quick work of calculus homework. For business users, it presents
information charts and graphs, and is excellent for high level pricing history,
commodity information, and topic overviews.

One of my favorite data related quotes is:

Data matures like wine, applications like fish

---James Governor, Founder of Redmonk.

Although these tools make analysis easier, they're only as valuable as the information
put in and analysis that you conduct. So take a moment to learn a few new tricks,
challenge yourself, and let these tools enhance and complement the logic and
reasoning skills that you already have.

Twitter- @AlxJons

For information on University of Texas's Business Analytics Program

Written by

Alex Jones
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