Contact person
Steffen Zimmermann
Head of the Institute for Business Analytics
Ulm University
Helmholtzstraße 22, 89081 Ulm
Consultation hours:
Appointment by arrangement (enquiry in advance by e-mail to steffen.zimmermann(at)uni-ulm.de)
Bachelor’s / Master’s Wirtschaftswissenschaften – Business Analytics Profile
The digital transformation is now affecting all sectors of the economy. Both manufacturing companies and companies in the service sector are facing comprehensive and lasting changes in order to remain successful on the market in the future. Changes affect the range of services, processes, business models, value creation systems and sales markets.
The Business Analytics specialisation prepares students for future entrepreneurial challenges associated with the digital transformation. Students acquire basic skills in storing, processing and analysing data in order to make better business-relevant decisions.
Students in this specialisation learn about the basic concepts, models and methods of business analytics. These are divided thematically into three areas: big (social) data analytics, digital business and value creation management.
Today, companies have access to very large and ever-growing amounts of data - for example via social media and the Internet (e.g. online social networks, wikis, rating and review communities), but also in traditional databases
(e.g. data warehouse, customer databases). The question arises as to how useful business knowledge can be extracted from this flood of data - often referred to as "big data". Answers - e.g. based on modern methods of social network analysis or machine learning (e.g. neural networks) - are provided by big (social) data analytics as a central area within business analytics.
The topic of digital business also plays a central role in the successful realisation of digital transformation and therefore in the context of business analytics. Digital business describes the merging of the digital and physical worlds, for example in the form of new business models and processes. Companies must therefore be able to react quickly to new opportunities and threats in digital business. This requires new management skills, organisational structures and methods.
Business models and value creation systems as a whole are also affected by the digital transformation. Digital platforms in particular have disruptive potential and make modern value creation management a central component of business analytics. Digital platforms are fundamentally changing entrepreneurial activity by establishing a new level of competition and value creation. In future, competition will no longer take place between companies, but rather between value creation networks and digital platforms.
So what's getting ubiquitous and cheap? Data. And what is complementary to data? Analysis. So my recommendation is to take lots of courses about how to manipulate and analyse data: databases, machine learning, econometrics, statistics, visualisation, and so on.
Hal Varian, Google Chief Economist
Data driven decisions are better decisions - it's as simple as that. Using big data enables managers to decide on the basis of evidence rather than intuition. For that reason it has the potential to revolutionise management.
Andrew McAfee, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
There's not a single business model, and there's not a single type of electronic content. There are really a lot of opportunities and a lot of options and we just have to discover all of them.
Tim O'Reilly, co-founder of Web 2.0
Events in the Bachelor's programme
Bachelor's students have the opportunity to learn basic concepts and methods of business analytics.
Methoden des IT-Projektmanagements
Contents: Fundamentals of implementing successful IT projects. These are illustrated using numerous case studies and accompanied by practical exercises and a workshop.
Contents: Fundamentals of technology, data and process management as well as business model development with a focus on business analytics.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Customer Analytics
Contents: central concepts and methods of strategic, operational and analytical CRM, which are illustrated using practical examples.
Courses offered by other institutes in the Business Analytics specialisation (Bachelor)
Contents: various basic technologies for the implementation of (operational) information systems.
Machine Learning and Decision Making
Contents: Problem identification and testing of hypotheses/models in the context of management decisions.
Events in the Master's programme
Master's students have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge in the areas of digital business, big (social) data analytics and value chain management.
Big (social) data analytics
Social Network Analysis – Methoden, Konzepte und Anwendungen
Contents: Central concepts, methods and tools for recording and analysing social networks, which are illustrated using practical examples and real data sets.
Big Data Analytics – Methoden und Anwendungen
Contents: Fundamentals of methods, potential uses and practical applications of big data analytics.
Digital Business
Content: Designing new digital products and business models and analysing their impact on companies, consumers and competition using laboratory experiments.
Content: The drivers of sustainable development, the opportunities of digitalisation for greater sustainability and the risks associated with digital technologies.
Value chain management
Transformation von Wertschöpfungsnetzwerken
Contents: The impact of digital platforms, Everything-as-a-Service, algorithmic management and sustainability on value creation networks, as well as relevant tools and management concepts.
Design von Performance Measures
Contents: key quality criteria, potential adverse effects and the development of performance measures for complex phenomena.
Events organised by other departments within the Business Analytics (Master’s) programme
Machine Learning and Decision Making
Contents: Problem identification and testing of hypotheses/models in the context of management decisions.
Market Analysis with Econometrics and Machine Learning
Contents: How can I model customer behaviour and competitors’ reactions to my pricing and product policies, and estimate these using empirical data?
Content: Students will be able to analyse, model and optimise business processes at a technical level. They will be able to describe the methods, concepts and software tools available for this purpose.
Projektkurs Data Science & Law
Contents: An overview of the various forms of legal tech applications and their significance for legal services and dispute resolution procedures.
Instrumente der Unternehmensführung (mit Planspiel)
Contents: the various dimensions of strategic and operational decision-making from the perspective of senior management.
Business Process Intelligence für wirtschaftswissenschaftlich orientierte Studiengänge
Contents: selected aspects of the entire data and process warehousing process, from data extraction to analysis.
Career prospects
Future Skills: Which skills are critical to the success of Baden-Württemberg today and in the future.
- To cope with the changing world of work, companies need employees who are equipped to handle the tasks of the future.
- What skills will be needed in Baden-Württemberg in the future? How great is industry’s demand for such future skills by 2026?
- A study has identified 12 future skills clusters that are in above-average demand in job advertisements across the four key industries and for which demand is growing at an above-average rate compared to Baden-Württemberg as a whole. These include, in particular, software-based management of business processes, as well as data science and AI, which are becoming increasingly important.
Data Scientist: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century Thomas H. Davenport, International Institute for Analytics, MIT
87% of companies believe that digital transformation is a competitive opportunity - Capgemini
Future of Jobs Report 2023: INSIGHT REPORT
- The introduction of new technologies will continue to be a key driver of business transformation over the next five years.
- Big data, cloud computing and AI play a major role in technology adoption
- The fastest-growing jobs are being driven by technology, digitalisation and sustainability.
The key skills identified in the report can be found on page 24. The first five of these core areas are covered in the courses offered by the Institute of Business Analytics.