The Cameron School of Business has a number of new graduate level programs aimed at helping working professionals advance their careers. Emilee Draper is a student in UNCW's new Masters of Business Analytics Online Accelerated Program. She is excited to be able to apply the tools she is learning in the program to her new career in Media Analytics.

March 2017 Editor's Note: This post was originally published in December 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

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Guest Blogger: Dr. Cen Canel, professor of Operations Management and department chair for Information Systems and Operations Management

Businesses in every sector are facing new challenges in managing and analyzing data, which requires a specific approach and unique set of quantitative skills.

The Institute for Operations Research and Management Science (INFORMS) defines this specific approach as business analytics that facilitate the understanding of business objectives through reporting of data to analyze trends, creating predictive models for forecasting and optimizing business processes for enhanced performance.