After meeting with CABA and learning about the program structure and how CABA engages with industry for the benefit of the students as well as the industry, we were impressed. The endeavor to keep the engagements symbiotic was very visible and absolutely novel. In our CABA Data Challenge, our approach was to engage the students by introducing them to something new and exciting. We built the challenge around a customer experience paradigm and demonstrated our concepts and technology to them in an extensive two phase process. In phase I, the students were exposed to our application and its use via a simulated demo, and a simple quiz was then used to assess and select the suitable candidates for phase II. Phase II was more extensive. Direct access to our technologies and sample data was provided to them to evaluate the customer events and experience paradigm.The commitment and feedback from the students was phenomenal and encouraging. They understood and critiqued the approach in a very constructive way. They also took the initiative and analyzed the data from a customer perspective. We are looking forward to selecting a few students for an internship to carry forward the engagement that was established with this Data Challenge. We sincerely thank the CABA team of Anna Radziwillowicz, Jennifer Eigo & John Wilson for all their help and support. We look forward to more similar engagements, projects and Data Challenges.
~ Nitin Purohit, Co-founder & CTOAureus Brief:
Aureus Analytics was born to fulfill the need to do more with your data but with lesser tools. What started as a need to have access to real time insights at the point of decision, has now blossomed into a smorgasbord of highly energetic and restless individuals creating a great product to revolutionize customer experience in Insurance Industry.
www.aureusanalytics.com

The UConn Business School and CABA have been great partners for STANLEY Healthcare. We knew that we had some data issues within our business and our company had just started a partnership with UConn to utilize students within the program. As we embarked down the road of this initial project, we really did not know what to expect. It was eye-opening to see the effort and quality of work that was put forth by the students in the program.

Our problem statement read, “Due to a history of acquisitions, STANLEY Healthcare’s Selling, General & Administrative (SG&A) expense detail is split across four ERP systems (2 Instances Of Great Plains, SAP and Priority). As the business targets to reduce and/or reallocate SG&A investments to new initiatives, we need a “visualization tool” that will allow us to consolidate the SG&A expenses from four systems. Ideally, this tool will provide a sustainable and repeatable process to filter and drill into the SG&A expense detail to understand savings opportunities.”

Students were provided with the data set with a few parameters, and they took off running. One of the things that we found interesting was that each group had their own approach. It was interesting to see that through all these different approaches, the end result and the conclusions that could be made from the different tools were so similar. Data Analytics is something that is new to me, and my company. CABA has not only shown us what the possibilities and potential is for Data Analytics, they also delivered a tool that we are in the process of productionizing. It has been a win/win for both STANLEY Healthcare and the students of CABA who get to apply their schooling in real world scenarios.

I hope that we can find ways to partner with them again soon!

Pentation Analytics is a Big Data Analytics company that enables insurers and intermediaries to better engage with policy holders. We provide predictive intelligence and process automation tools that address the core insurance use-cases of increasing retention, cross-sales and optimising claims.
We are based out of Hartford, Connecticut and we are highly engaged with UConn Center for the Advancement of Business Analytics (CABA).Pentation Analytics and CABA organised a hackathon focused on customer retention. Customer retention is a global business problem area in which much work is being done, but it is still not enough. The problem statement read “Insurance customer retention insights through dashboards”. Students were given P&C Insurance carrier data, both structured and unstructured. Student turnout was overwhelming and it was very interesting how the teams approached the problem. In addition, seeing data from their eyes was an amazing and enriching experience.
In terms of the students experience, we hope inputs provided by our team during presentations will help these talented students to bridge the academic-Industry gap.The hackathon was very successful and we look forward to many more fruitful endeavours between Pentation and CABA.

-Prahant Roy, Pentation Analytics

Seeking insights into the home improvement market, Basement Systems Inc. (www.basementsystems.com) partnered with the UConn Business Analytics and Project Management program on several inter-related projects over the course of two years. A division of Contractor Nation, Basement Systems is headquartered in Seymour, Connecticut and comprises a nationwide network of home improvement contractors offering basement waterproofing, foundation repair, insulation, mold prevention, and radon mitigation.

Graduate students in the program analyzed externalities that might affect demand for home improvement services, looking at the effect of weather, energy costs, the real estate market, and other geographic, economic, and demographic data. Other analyses looked at the cost effectiveness of different marketing channels and other factors affecting a company’s growth, including social media presence, competition, and reviews.

In addition to data analyses, the students used text mining tools to explore customer sentiment as expressed in online reviews. “These insights into our customers are an important factor in understanding market dynamics,” explained Jenny Hui Liu, a graduate of the program and Data Analyst at Basement Systems who worked with the students on the project’s parameters.

Richard Fencil, head of the Treehouse Internet Group, (www.treehouseinternetgroup.com) the company’s in-house marketing agency, said the results of the projects were being used in a number of ways. “The insights were immediately helpful in mapping the customer journey, expanding weather-related advertising, and our ability to provide support to our contractor network through our year-round training programs. The more we understand the interplay between reviews, referrals and online research, the clearer it is that a contractor has to deliver exceptional service to grow its business.”

Priceline partnered with UConn to sponsor a capstone project for second year students in the MSBAPM program. Students directly applied their academic knowledge to identify how Priceline can better target the more than 2 billion promotional emails sent every year. After analyzing a sample of anonymized search and booking data, students presented final recommendations to Priceline’s product analytics and marketing teams.