Harnessing the power of data is essential for organizations today. It can provide insights that help make better-informed decisions, improve operations, and enable businesses to stay ahead of the curve. For leaders looking to maintain a competitive advantage, the ability to understand and analyze data, forecast future trends, and identify opportunities is critical to success.
This course, designed for organizational or team leaders who make or impact business decisions, enables you to work comfortably and confidently with predictive analytics. It is perfect for individuals who influence teams or analysts responsible for managing large amounts of data. Through exposure to a variety of forecasting models and case studies based on real-world scenarios, you will discover how and when your organization’s own data can be used to make well-informed decisions, take proactive measures, reduce costs, and increase sales and revenue.
Upon completion of the program, you will understand how industry-standard predictive analytics processes can provide you with valuable insights into your operations, customers, and markets. You will also be able to transform business questions into data analytics problems and collaborate with your teams to make data-backed decisions that drive growth and enhance business operations.
- Business leaders, managers, or team leads from organizations of all sizes responsible for guiding and collaborating with team members who work with data.
- Mid-upper-level management with responsibilities in insights, informing strategy, resource deployment, and business decisions in general.
- Individuals who need to perform forecasting from internal data, including sales managers, entrepreneurs, marketers, startup founders, product managers, and operations managers.
Learn alongside your team!
WatSPEED provides custom learning experiences tailored for large groups from any single organization. Register three or more employees from the same organization and receive 15 per cent off. Contact our team at watspeed@uwaterloo.ca for details.
- Translate business problems or questions affecting your organization into well-defined, actionable data requests for your team.
- Understand how predictive analytics can be used to draw insights and guide your business decisions and recommendations.
- Plan and organize resources to oversee data analytics projects using the cross-industry standard process for data mining (CRISP-DM).
- Compare and evaluate the insights and reliability of different forecasting models using real-world data.
Real-world applicability
This course is designed to provide you with a personalized learning experience that’s applicable to your workplace. It integrates real-world tasks, situations, and problems into your learning activities and assignments and offers you an opportunity to explore a question or issue that impacts your organization. No prior knowledge or experience required!
Discuss your questions with your peers from other organizations and receive practical feedback from your instructor that can be applied directly to your business decisions.
- Expert instruction from University of Waterloo faculty.
- Live sessions via Zoom every Friday from 10 – 11 a.m. ET (also available as recordings).
- Peer discussions and opportunities to receive feedback and insights about the questions or issues facing your organization.
- Instructor support to ensure ease of understanding with course concepts.
- Case studies featuring real-world situations or problems.
- Five to seven hours each week (including live sessions, peer engagement, independent study, and text-based milestone assignments).
- Final group capstone project that integrates your learning.
- Attendance requirement: It is highly recommended that participants attend the first four live sessions, but it is not required. Live sessions will be recorded and available for later viewing. The last two live sessions are mandatory.
Receive a certificate from the University of Waterloo
Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a professional education certificate from the University of Waterloo.
Nancy Vanden Bosch, CPA, CA, CMA
Stan Laiken Teaching Fellow, School of Accounting and Finance | Course Author
Nancy Vanden Bosch is the Stan Laiken Teaching Fellow at the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF). She is also Associate Director, Education for the joint SAF-CPA Ontario Centre for Performance Management Research and Education. Nancy has a B.A. and MAcc from the University of Waterloo.
Prior to returning to Waterloo as a faculty member, she spent 15 years with Deloitte Consulting, the last five of those years as a partner in the firm’s Finance and Performance consulting practice.
Theo Stratopoulos
Associate Professor, School of Accounting and Finance | Course Author
Theo is the PwC Chair and Associate Professor at SAF. His teaching and research focus is on data analytics and emerging technologies. His research has been published in The Accounting Review, JMIS, Communications of the ACM, Journal of Information Systems, Information & Management, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, IJAIS, and Accounting Horizons.
Prof. Stratopoulos has authored numerous articles and open-source texts on data analytics and blockchain (see SSRN). He is a member of the CPA Canada - Audit Data Analytics committee and senior editor for the Journal of information Systems.
Will Xiang, CPA, CA, CITP, CAMS
Adjunct Professor, School of Accounting and Finance | Course Instructor
Will Xiang brings over 13 years of consulting experience gained through working in San Francisco, New York, and Toronto. Will has provided clients in the Americas, Europe, and AsiaPac with cybersecurity, data analytics, privacy security, and process optimization advisory services. Most recently, Xiang has worked for a multinational manufacturer in building predictive analytics around the risk management program.
Outside of work, Xiang invests his time as an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo’s School of Accounting and Finance. He is also a graduate from the University of Waterloo’s Accounting and Financial Management, and Master of Accounting (MAcc) programs.
Questions? Let's chat!
Office hours: Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. ET