How i started my analytics journey -Online Surveys, Automated Reports and Web Analytics

 My first exposure to proper analytics started during my summer internship, i opted to do my internship for a Internet service provider in Gujarath , where i was given a problem statement " What does the customer expect from ******" so as a duitiful MBA student i prepared a questionnarie with 25 questions based on all the various parameters listed by textbooks, and visited each and every customer of the ISP in the city and started the data collection.

Years later when i think of the analysis i did i am amazed on how much the things have changed and how the basics still is relevant. "Data" it is the most important component even today. Three major lessons from the data collection, not all questions were not applicable to all customers, there was lots of empty responses, some questions asked which tried to get additional qualitative information lead to respondents being confused and giving conflicting answers to supporting questions. Respondents were not paitent enough to read through the 15 questions and respond properly. So how would have i done this differently ? 

• Categorize the customers into relevant groups and prepare questionnaire relevant to each group, thereby reducing blank responses
• Group related questions into sections and create a hiearchial question block.
• Limit the research objective and keep the questions under 15 and conduct interviews with select customers to get more information.

This experience of doing data collection lead me to think how can i automate this process and can i make this easy, my research introduced me to online forms (Survey Monkey, Google Forms). This was a great eyeopener to me, i was first exposed to vizualization and automated insights generation . Once a survey was notified as completed it automatically creates a master data set and also a report . Each and every question was statistically analysed and the important trends highlighted. This experience pushed me to further search for online analytics and it did not diappoint me. 

Enter Google Analytics , I was reading an article about digital advertising and how google is leveraging the data from search to created targeteded advertising , so i started to search and read more about it, while learning about this i came across Google Analytics, it promised that if you have a website or a blog you can find out how many people visit your site and the geograpic location of your audience. I was hooked, i was writing a blog about various topics related to MBA and wanted to increase my audience, so i added my Blog to Google analytics and started to analyse my audience . This was an interesting experiment, i came to understand what topics were driving visitors to my blog and how i can improve the content to increase page views and drive traffic.

These simple day to day interactions with various kinds of analytics, played a major role in my growth as an Data Analyst /Intelligence Specialist, i got confidence to do analysis and explore new technologies, i came to understand the endlesss possibilities of analytics and most important of all the importance of quality data. So if you are wondering on how to start your data analysis journey, start with the simple things, your college project, a survey in your neighbourhood ,your social media account and then move on to the popular tools and technologies available.

Thanks for your time, do share your feedback and inputs

Websites Mentioned in Article
My Blog

Google Analytics

Survey Monkey

10 Common Baits used by Colleges to trap students

 

The admission season is going to start and you will be bombarded with too much information on what course and college to choose. I would like to go on a different angle and share 10 common baits used by Indian colleges to trap students.

1. Additional Degree from foreign universities:

   This is a very common tactic used by many colleges in India, they will say at the end of the course your kid will get two degrees, one from Indian University and another from Foreign University. Don't fall for this trick. Most of the times the Foreign University will be established by the same college in a country which allows digital universities and the degrees will be equivalent to diplomas and might not be recognized by many countries. When the college says XYZ University in this country, don't simply see the brochure and website, go dig a bit deeper and see who founded the university and use google maps street view to find the campus. One college which i searched was having a PO box as their campus.

2. Gallery Type Classes and fully airconditioned campus:

Every college will have an admission tour, they will take you to their most fancy classroom which has gallery type classes and  Audio Visual setup, believe me most classes will not even have a functioning AC . When looking at campus look for a spacious campus with trees and good ventilation, make a point to visit the students restrooms and have food in the canteen. Also if possible visit the campus in a normal day and check how much students are there for a classroom. There are many colleges which plays musical chairs with classroom as there is more students than the classroom can accommodate.

3. International Journals and magazines in Library :

I once worked in a college which said they have more than 50 international journals and magazines. But the truth is there were 3 different institutions registered in one address and the magazines outnumbered the journals. To people who are new to academics, Journals is much costlier than magazines and most magazines is of no use to academics . Also AICTE and UGC norms stipulate the minimum no of journals for each course and most colleges prepare fake lists for the inspection and never bother to get quality journals. So when going for a college visit, check the library specifically the journal rack and ask for the latest issue, it will tell how much the college prioritizes academic pursuit.

4. International Industrial Visit:

Industrial Visit is another name for fun trip, when a college says free international visit means, they are getting extra fees other than what is required, and mostly it will be tour packages for 25-40 thousand rupees. Believe me there is very little learning opportunity in these international Industrial visits.

5.  Earn while you learn :

In the past few years many colleges have started to offer internships while learning, some colleges have even started to reduce college days to 3 and 3 days to internships, there are some colleges which says earn while you learn and say you can earn 10000 rupees per month during internship. Always keep away from colleges saying these ridiculous schemes, if you want to earn money during college, there are many jobs in Retail industry which specifically asks for college students and you can actually use these experience when you join the workforce.

6. Degrees with specializations focussing on trending topics:

There are many colleges which create courses based on trending topics, BSc Machine Learning, BSc Analytics , Bcom CA  etc .. if you read the syllabus copy you will find by replacing 3 papers thy will claim it has huge placement opportunities. most of the time the same faculty will be teaching both degrees and many faculty does not even have a clue on what they are teaching. I have seen a lot of faculty who don't even know the basics of Analytics teach Business Analytics paper.

7. Sweet talking frontline staff :

Some colleges even use this nasty trick of having good looking faculty and staff members act as frontline staff. There are some colleges which even give mandate of  male staff members talk with female candidates and vice versa . they sweet talk the students promising them a very friendly environment which has a hip crowd and modern campus. If you are looking for just getting a degree, then these type of colleges is for you. If you are looking for a place to develop your skills and get a job, run away from these type of colleges.

8 Equivalent degrees and Integrated courses :

If you attend an education expo you will come across some colleges which advertise that they have courses to cover every type of career choice; if you come across a college like that run away from that stall. There is one college which is basically an arts and science college but claims it can give a course equivalent to engineering , which is nothing but a BBA  degree together with an MBA and a diploma from foreign university in 5 years (Their logic is we are covering most of the subjects in BE degree so it is equivalent to Engineering) This package they rebrand it differently and  their marketing staff claims it is superior to engineering. Similarly there are colleges which packages 7 year medical courses UG in India and medical degree in Caribbean or African Universities. Always avoid these traps as it has too much grey areas and you might need to  clear a lot of regulatory hurdles for your degree to be recognized.

9.  360  degree performance appraisal of students:

There is a current trend among colleges in India which promise the parents they will do a transformation of students and will send in updated 360 degree report cards regularly. This is not something which is bad, but most colleges goes about this in a wrong way, they get periodic quizzes and activities and assign fancy terminologies for each activity and score them and send monthly reports. The students after some time game the system and get high scores without any real transformation. SO it is a waste of resources and money with no real benefit.

10.  Customized Text books:

Some colleges goes even further to distinguish them, they advertise that their students have exclusive textbook , which no one has and this is a unique feature. In reality, it is very easy to get customized books as many leading publishers give the option of building your own book , like adding or deleting modules to a common text book frame and printing them in special batches.

these are the top 10 ways colleges try to catch unsuspecting students, always do a complete research of the colleges before you make a decision. Please be careful and always take the promises made my the frontline staff with a pinch of salt. 

Happy College Hunting....  

Computer LAB Sample Question Paper for Barathiar University MBA

 Hi Readers, you might have stumbled on this page after searching for Computer Lab exam question papers. here are some  question papers i prepared4 years ago ,Cheers.

Ms-Word

Mail merge the following document with the data file given below.

XYZ Industries

To                                                                                                                    10-03-2012

 

<Name>

<Address>

 

Dear <Candidate Name>,

 

This is to inform you that an Interview has been Scheduled for the post of <position> on  <Date>. For further clarifications contact the undersigned person.

 

Thaning You,

 

Yours faithfully,

 

R. Anand

(Manager- HR)

Data File

Assistant Manager                           Sales officer                         Accounts Assistant

27-04-2016                                           26-04-2016                           28-04-2016

 

Sreedar.K                                             Madhavan.K                       Kripa Anand

34, D.B. Road                                      “Mangal Nivas”                75,Rose Villa Avenue,

Racecourse                                          72/3-A, G.B.Road             Adayar,

Coimbatore                                         Palakkad                              Chennai.

 

Krishna.M                                           Aarthi.L                                Mathew.A

32,Sundaram Layout                       Bishop college rd.,            543,Nehru street,

Trichy Road                                        4th Cross main,                 Ramnagar

Coimbatore-18                                   Trichy -8                              Coimbatore -9   

 

MS EXCEL

 

Create a payroll for a small organization of 15 members using the following data, DA= 25% of basic, HRA = 15% of basic, PF= 10% of basic. Find gross and net salary. And create individual pay-slips in next worksheet.

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

Ms-Word

Mail merge the following document with the data file given below.

ABC UNIVERSITY

To                                                                                                                    10-03-2012

 

<Name>

<Address>

 

Dear <Student Name>,

 

This is to inform you that your <Course> practical exam has been postponed  to  <Date>. For further clarifications contact the undersigned person.

Thaning You,

 

Yours faithfully,

R.K. Dhawan

(Controller of Examination)

Data File

MBA                                                      MCA                                      MSc.

27-04-2016                                           26-04-2016                           28-04-2016

 

Sreedar.K                                             Madhavan.K                       Kripa Anand

34, D.B. Road                                      “Mangal Nivas”                75,Rose Villa Avenue,

Racecourse                                          72/3-A, G.B.Road             Adayar,

Coimbatore                                         Palakkad                              Chennai.

 

Krishna.M                                           Aarthi.L                                Mathew.A

32,Sundaram Layout                       Bishop college rd.,            543,Nehru street,

Trichy Road                                        4th Cross main,                 Ramnagar

Coimbatore-18                                   Trichy -8                              Coimbatore -9   

Ms-Excel

ODI scores of a cricket match played between Australia and India is given below

Overs à County↓	5	10	15	20	25	30	35	40	45	50
Australia	28	58	90	119	147	177	202	242	287	337
India	24	50	75	102	150	170	192	212	272	339

Analyse the performance of the teams by producing

Ø  Bar chart

Ø  Cloumn chart

Ø  Line Chart

Perform all the Tasks

Ms Word

A computer is a device that accepts information (in the form of digitalized data) and manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instructions on how the data is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including the program, which is also a form of data) for some necessary duration. A program may be invariable and built into the computer (and called logic circuitry as it is on microprocessors) or different pro grams may be provided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started b y an administrator or user). Today's computers have both kinds of programming.

Follow the instructions below:

1.         Open a blank MS Word document and type the above text.

2.         Copy the last sentence Today's computers have both kinds of programming.

to the beginning of the first paragraph.

3.         Change the typeface of the entire document to 11 point Book Antiqua.

4.         Change all the word occurrences of computer to workstation.

5.         Change the spacing of the entire document from single spacing to 1.5.

6.         Change the alignment of the entire document to Justify.

7.         Set the phrases logic circuitry and microprocessors in Italic.

8.         Set the footer as CAM, GIM in 10 point Tahoma.

9.         Save the document as: (‘Yr Reg no’.CAM) on the desktop.

 

MS Excel

Prepare Students Mark statement for the following details for 20 students. And display the result in a chart

Rl.No.	Name	Mark1	Mark2	Mark3	Total	Average	Result

Perform all the Tasks

Ms-Word

ABC Ltd,. wants to send the following  letter to some of its customers. The letter as well as the customer list is given below.  Prepare the letters using mail-merge.

 

Main Document

 

ABC Enterprises

II Floor,  Gateway Towers

Seshadri Nagar, Adayar

Chennai – 600 002

 

Date :

 

To

 

Dear  <<Customer Name>>

 

We would like to inform you that the sales bills submitted to you in Jan 2016 remains unpaid till date and the total amount due in this regard is Rs<<Due>> We shall appreciate if the same amount is cleared immediately in order that we may carry out our business smoothly and so that we may continue to serve you as promptly and effectively as we have done in the past.

 

For ABC Enterprises

Ramkumar .S

(Manager – Sales)

 

Customer List

Mani Maran	11,NSR Road, Saibaba colony	Coimbatore -44	12,500/-
Monica Francis	123, Bharathiar Park Road	Coimbatore – 43	15,500/-
Mujib Ahmed	67,LakeView apartments, Velachery	Chennai – 105	75,000/-
Sheela  Gaur	345-347, Pinnacle Tower, MG Road,	Chandighar – 03	1,50,000/-
Samuelson.A	1784, Karunya Aptmnts, Giri Nagar,	Cochin – 19	57,000/-

 

MS-Excel

 

Region	Sales	Expenses
North
East
South
West

 

Compare the performances of the four regions by producing ‘Column Chart’ for sales and expenditure for 12 months.  Your chart should contain the following features.

 

Chart Title : ‘Regional Sales & Expenses’

X-axis Title : Region

Y-axis Title : Sales in Lakhs

Legends

Data label values Also compare sales and expenses of the four  regions by producing pie-chart

 

Duration: 3 Hour                                                                                                              Maximum Marks: 60

 

Perform all the Tasks

Ms Word

Prepare a project proposal front page and Index page for Metro project in Coimbatore, and a covering letter, accompanying the project proposal. Use smart art , text box and background formatting appropriately to prepare an attractive page

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ms Power Point

 

Prepare a power point presentation for a quiz competition it should contain the following

 

Ø  Question slide for 5 rounds

Ø  Each round should have 8 questions

Ø  Hyperlink at the end of each round for the main page

Ø  Animations and slide transitions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

 

Ms-Excel

 

ODI scores of a cricket match played between Australia and India is given below

 

Overs à County↓	5	10	15	20	25	30	35	40	45	50
Australia	28	58	90	119	147	177	202	242	287	337
India	24	50	75	102	150	170	192	212	272	339

 

Analyze the performance of the teams by producing

Ø  Bar chart

Ø  Column chart

Ø  Line chart

 

 

 

 

 

Ms-Word

 

Draw an organisation chart of a typical manufacturing organisation covering every functional areas and department.

 

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

MS- Power Point

 

Create a power point presentation about the new product /services to be launched by your company. It should include a brief introduction about the company and the salient features of the new product or the service that you are planning to launch. The slides should include the following features

ü  Title Slide

ü  Bulleted list

ü  Text and clipart

ü  Chart

ü  An organizational chart

ü  Footer

Apply suitable design templates, animation and transition to enhance the presentation of your slide.

 

Ms Excel

Create a mark list for 20 students studying 12^th in MNC high school, they have 6 subjects. After creating do the following operations

Ø  Find the total, average

Ø  Using sort arrange in ascending order based on total marks

Ø  Add background picture

Ø  Change the theme to civic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

MS Excel

1.       Create a worksheet containing a student database for the academic year 2015-2016, in a new sheet create a database for the 2016-2017. In the third worksheet create a cumulative mark sheet for both the years.

a.       The mark sheet should contain,  reg-no, name, marks for 5 subjects and 20 students

b.       The students percentage for each year and cumulative percentage should be calculated

c.        While creating cumulative mark sheet, the data should be pasted using paste special option.

 

 

MS Word

2.       Prepare a one page report on Computers, insert endnote and footnote wherever possible. Convert the prepared report into two column report and watermark the report as “confidential”. Use “drop cap” to highlight the beginning of the report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

 

MS-Excel

Ranks  of a college by each department is given below

Ranksà Departments↓	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
MBA	8	7	9	2	1	2
MCA	2	3	4	8	12	8
MSC CS	6	8	2	5	14	10
Mcom	6	2	4	9	7	3

 

Analyze the performance of the departments by producing

Ø  Bar chart

Ø  Column chart

Ø  Line chart

 

 

 

Ms Word

Write the following Formulae using MS Word Equation Editor

a)       Binomial Theorem

 

b)      Correlation Coefficient

Perform all the Tasks

Ms Word

A computer is a device that accepts information (in the form of digitalized data) and manipulates it for some result based on a program or sequence of instructions on how the data is to be processed. Complex computers also include the means for storing data (including the program, which is also a form of data) for some necessary duration. A program may be invariable and built into the computer (and called logic circuitry as it is on microprocessors) or different pro grams may be provided to the computer (loaded into its storage and then started b y an administrator or user). Today's computers have both kinds of programming.

Follow the instructions below:

10.       Open a blank MS Word document and type the above text.

11.       Copy the last sentence Today's computers have both kinds of programming.

to the beginning of the first paragraph.

12.       Change the typeface of the entire document to 11 point Verdana.

13.       Change all the word occurrences of computer to workstation.

14.       Change the spacing of the entire document from single spacing to 1.5.

15.       Change the alignment of the entire document to Justify.

16.       Set the phrases logic circuitry and microprocessors in Italic.

17.       Insert a text box and move the whole paragraph into the text box.

18.       Fill the text box with Blue color.

19.       Align your name to the bottom right of the cover page in 12 point Tahoma.

20.       Save the document as: (‘Yr Reg no’.CAM) on the desktop.

Ms Excel

1.       Prepare a worksheet for pay-bill calculation with the following details for 20 persons.

Basic                -

DA                  -           200% of the Basic

HRA               -           10% of the Basic pay

CCA                -           8% of the Basic pay

MA                  -           a fixed amount of Rs.250/-

PF                    -           Deduction @ 12% of Basic

Compute the Gross and Net salary.

Perform all the Tasks

 

Ms-Excel

Prepare a worksheet with following specifications for 20 students

Name	FM	OM	RMM	HRM	QT	MM	Total	Average

·         Create individual charts for each student

·         Arrange the list in descending order based on marks scored in OM

·         Insert header and footer

 

Ms-PowerPoint

Create a power point presentation about the new product /services to be launched by your company. It should include a brief introduction about the company and the salient features of the new product or the service that you are planning to launch. The slides should include the following features

ü  Title Slide

ü  Bulleted list

ü  Text and clipart

ü  Chart

ü  An organizational chart

ü  Footer

Apply suitable design templates, animation and transition to enhance the presentation of your slide.

 

 

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

 

Ms-Word

CYBER INFOTECH

1234, II Cross Chaithanya Nagar, Krishnarajpura

Bangalore – 90

 

CIT/A30/Jan                                                                                                 23-03-2016

 

To

******,

Dear **** ,

 

With reference to your application for the post of ****, you are required to meet the undersigned for a personal interview on 24-04-2016 with all your testimonials and this call letter at **** in our corporate office.

 

With warm regards,

 

V.K. Thomas

(Manager – HRD)

Note:  ***** Fields to be inserted

Mail merge the following records with the main document.

Records

Name	Address	City	Pincode	Post	Time
Akilesh.E	“Aaradhana”, Sai Nagar, Kalpathi	Palakkad	678 015	Assistant Manager – P&A	10:30 a.m.
Archana.T	18-A, Surabhi Apts. R.A. Puram	Chennai	600 015	Management Trainee	11:00 a.m.
Dhinesh.K	“Swagath”, Krishna Colony,  Paalarivattam	Cochin	686 045	Marketing Manager	3:00 p.m.
Midhun.S	10, R.A. Layout, Ramanathapuram	Coimbatore	641 045	Senior Sales Executive	11:30 a.m.
Nandan.D	12-B, Defence Colony, Avadi	Chennai	600 108	Programmer	2:00 p.m.
Shekar	15,G.D.Nagar, Avinashi Road,	Coimbatore	641 018	Design Engineer	3:30 p.m.

 

Ms- power point

 

Create a presentation, for a inauguration session for a dance festival, use

ü  Tables, shapes appropriately

ü  Animations

ü  Custom slideshow

Perform all the Tasks

 

Ms-Word

 

Create a Word Document about the role of computers in management with the following features.  Your document should contain at least three paragraphs.

 

Top Margin 1.25 inches

Bottom Margin 1.25 inches

Right Margin 1 Inch

Left Margin 1 inch

Line space 1.5

 

Header : “Formatting the Document”

Footer : Page No, Date

 

Add a suitable Picture

 

 

Ms-power point

 

Create a power point presentation for a business plan presentation, it should contain the following

ü  Title slide

ü  Introduction of company

ü  Product profile

ü  Special features

ü  Timed slide change after 30 seconds

ü  Use hyper links to navigate

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perform all the Tasks

Ms Word

Create a new MS Word document and enter the following text.         

Importance of organization or advantages of organization

Organization creates the relationship between top level executives and lower level staff members. The top level executives perform the functions, like planning, organizing, staff directing, controlling the lower level people. The actual work is completed at lower level organization. In this way organization maintains the relationship with each other in an enterprise.

Perform the following formats on the above paragraph.

1. Insert today’s date on the top right corner of the page.
2. Enter your full name below the paragraph and right justify.
3. Change the line spacing 1 – 1.5”
4. Insert a comment on the first appearing organization word in the paragraph.
5. Insert a drop cap for the first three lines of the paragraph.
6. Justify the Paragraph
7. Change all the “organization” word in the paragraph to italics in a single step.
8. Give 3-d border to the page with a width of 1pt.
9. Change the all margins to .75” and orientation to portrait.
10. Change the font Arial Narrow with a size of 15.

Ms Excel

 

Create an attendance register for MBA classroom for the month of  march 2016 for 10students, each day consists of 5 sessions, mark the present as 1 and absent as 0. Calculate the total no of hours attended by each student and their attendance percentage. Saturday and Sunday are holidays. Use calendar for reference.

 

Perform all the Tasks

Ms Excel

Open a new Excel workbook and enter the following data.                             

#	Region	Books	Sales (2004)	Sales (2005)	Sales (2006)
1	Tamil Nadu	Science	5000	2500	2700
2	Kerala	Science	4000	3900	4500
3	Karnataka	Science	2000	2100	2150
4	Andhra Pradesh	Science	6000	3200	2500
5	Tamil Nadu	Arts	5000	6800	7200
6	Kerala	Arts	5000	6100	6000
7	Andhra Pradesh	Arts	7500	9500	9950
8	Karnataka	Arts	4000	4050	4900
9	Tamil Nadu	Computer	7000	7000	8500
10	Kerala	Computer	9000	8000	9750
11	Karnataka	Computer	3350	2900	6000
12	Andhra Pradesh	Computer	9500	7900	8000

 

1.        Find the sum of sales done region wise.

2.        Find the total sales done.

3.        Draw Pie Chart the data Region wise sales for 2006.

4.        Draw Bar Chart the data Region wise sales for 2005.

5.        Calculate Correlation Coefficient for the years 2004 and 2005

 

Ms Word

Write the following Formulae using MS Word Equation Editor

c)       Binomial Theorem

 

d)      Correlation Coefficient

 

 

Ms Word

1.       Prepare a timetable for an MBA institution which has two sections and five subjects. The sessions are 50 min each and the working hours are from 10am. Also prepare the academic calendar for the month of July.

 

 

 

 

 

Ms PowerPoint

2.       Create a presentation for a business plan. It should not be more than 8 slides and it should be timed to run on its own after mouse click. Use animations and transition effects as much as possible. Use any modern theme for better vivibility.