This course aims to introduce the critical role of big data approach in gaining business insight for operating enterprises better, and help students develop skills in carrying out real-world Business Intelligence (BI) tasks in common business contexts – accounting, sales, marketing, customer relationship management, etc. Through this course, students will understand the basic concepts and terminologies of big data approach, and be familiar with mainstream techniques and their potential pitfalls when delivering BI solutions. Students will work extensively with popular BI software in analysing real business data. The course will use lectures, case discussions, lab tutorials, and exercises.

Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to: 1. Discuss the basic concepts of big data analytics and business intelligence; 2. Evaluate a range of new methodologies and technologies for knowledge discovery from business data; 3. Critically discuss the strengths and pitfalls of various data mining processes and methodologies; 4. Gain familiarity with popular BI software (RapidMiner) to perform typical data analytics and mining tasks.