ABSTRACT
One of the common misconceptions in applied business analytics is that having the requisite data readily available marks the beginning of data crunching. Under most circumstances, having the data in-hand is merely the beginning of the process of creating an analyzable data file, rather than the beginning of data analyses. The reason for that is that, as discussed in Chapter 1, most data used in marketing analytics (as well as other aspects of business) is a by-product of the electronic transaction processing—in other words, the data layout, formatting and other characteristics reflect the inner-workings of those systems, rather than the demands of the ensuing analyses. Hence, before meaningful analysis can be initiated, an often significant amount of data engineering has to take place.
