JOINT PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND SUPPORT

INTERNATIONAL (JPTS)
INSTITUTION OF SCIENCE MANAGEMENT AND
TECHNOLOGY TERM PAPER PRESENTATION ON A TOPIC:

THE COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF STATISTICAL DATA
AND ITS DATA INTERPRETATION SOFTWARE AND TOOLS

NAME_GLORIA WILLIAMS
REG NUMBER_47497
SEMESTER_400LEVEL SECOND SEMESTER
FACULTY_MANAGEMENT
DEPARTMENT_BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
CENTER: KADUNA FULL TIME CENTRE.

Introduction

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 In a thesis, dissertation, academic journal article or other formal pieces of
research, there are often details of how the researcher approached the study and the
methods and techniques they used. If you’re designing a research study, then it’s
helpful to understand what research methodology is and the selection of techniques
and tools available to you. In this article, we explore what research methodology
is, the types of research methodologies and the techniques and tools commonly
used to collect and analyze data.
What Is Research Methodology?
Research methodology is a way of explaining how a researcher intends to carry out
their research. It’s a logical, systematic plan to resolve a research problem. A
methodology details a researcher’s approach to the research to ensure reliable,
valid results that address their aims and objectives. It encompasses what data
they’re going to collect and where from, as well as how it’s being collected and
analyzed.
Why is a Research Methodology important?
A research methodology gives research legitimacy and provides scientifically
sound findings. It also provides a detailed plan that helps to keep researchers on
track, making the process smooth, effective and manageable. A researcher’s
methodology allows the reader to understand the approach and methods used to
reach conclusions.

Having a sound research methodology in place provides the following benefits:

 Other researchers who want to replicate the research have enough

information to do so.
 Researchers who receive criticism can refer to the methodology and explain
their approach.
 It can help provide researchers with a specific plan to follow throughout
their research.
 The methodology design process helps researchers select the correct
methods for the objectives.
 It allows researchers to document what they intend to achieve with the
research from the outset.

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Types of research methodology
When designing a research methodology, a researcher has several decisions to
make. One of the most important is which data methodology to use, qualitative,
quantitative or a combination of the two. No matter the type of research, the data
gathered will be as numbers or descriptions, and researchers can choose to focus
on collecting words, numbers or both.

Here are the different types of methodologies and their applications:

Qualitative
Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing written or spoken words and
textual data. It may also focus on body language or visual elements and help to
create a detailed description of a researcher’s observations. Researchers usually
gather qualitative data through interviews, observation and focus groups using a
few carefully chosen participants.

This research methodology is subjective and more time-consuming than using

quantitative data. Researchers often use a qualitative methodology when the aims
and objectives of the research are exploratory. For example, when they perform
research to understand human perceptions regarding an event, person or product.

Quantitative
Researchers usually use a quantitative methodology when the objective of the
research is to confirm something. It focuses on collecting, testing and measuring
numerical data, usually from a large sample of participants. They then analyze the
data using statistical analysis and comparisons. Popular methods used to gather
quantitative data are:

 Surveys
 Questionnaires
 Test
 Databases

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  Organizational records
This research methodology is objective and is often quicker as researchers use
software programs when analyzing the data. An example of how researchers could
use a quantitative methodology is to measure the relationship between two
variables or test a set of hypotheses.

What is Statistical Analysis? Types, Methods and Examples

Statistical analysis is the process of collecting and analyzing data in order to
discern patterns and trends. It is a method for removing bias from evaluating data
by employing numerical analysis. This technique is useful for collecting the
interpretations of research, developing statistical models, and planning surveys and
studies.

Statistical analysis is a scientific tool in AI and ML that helps collect and analyze
large amounts of data to identify common patterns and trends to convert them into
meaningful information. In simple words, statistical analysis is a data analysis tool
that helps draw meaningful conclusions from raw and unstructured data.

The conclusions are drawn using statistical analysis facilitating decision-making

and helping businesses make future predictions on the basis of past trends. It can
be defined as a science of collecting and analyzing data to identify trends and
patterns and presenting them. Statistical analysis involves working with numbers
and is used by businesses and other institutions to make use of data to derive
meaningful information.
Types of Statistical Analysis
Given below are the 6 types of statistical analysis:

Descriptive Analysis
Descriptive statistical analysis involves collecting, interpreting, analyzing, and
summarizing data to present them in the form of charts, graphs, and tables. Rather

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than drawing conclusions, it simply makes the complex data easy to read and
understand.

Inferential Analysis
The inferential statistical analysis focuses on drawing meaningful conclusions on
the basis of the data analyzed. It studies the relationship between different
variables or makes predictions for the whole population.

Predictive Analysis
Predictive statistical analysis is a type of statistical analysis that analyzes data to
derive past trends and predict future events on the basis of them. It uses machine
learning algorithms, data mining, data modelling, and artificial intelligence to
conduct the statistical analysis of data.

Prescriptive Analysis
The prescriptive analysis conducts the analysis of data and prescribes the best
course of action based on the results. It is a type of statistical analysis that helps
you make an informed decision.

Exploratory Data Analysis

Exploratory analysis is similar to inferential analysis, but the difference is that it
involves exploring the unknown data associations. It analyzes the potential
relationships within the data.

Causal Analysis
The causal statistical analysis focuses on determining the cause and effect
relationship between different variables within the raw data. In simple words, it
determines why something happens and its effect on other variables. This
methodology can be used by businesses to determine the reason for failure.

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Importance of Statistical Analysis
Statistical analysis eliminates unnecessary information and catalogs important data
in an uncomplicated manner, making the monumental work of organizing inputs
appear so serene. Once the data has been collected, statistical analysis may be
utilized for a variety of purposes. Some of them are listed below:

 The statistical analysis aids in summarizing enormous amounts of data into

clearly digestible chunks.
 The statistical analysis aids in the effective design of laboratory, field, and
survey investigations.
 Statistical analysis may help with solid and efficient planning in any subject
of study.
 Statistical analysis aid in establishing broad generalizations and forecasting
how much of something will occur under particular conditions.
 Statistical methods, which are effective tools for interpreting numerical data,
are applied in practically every field of study. Statistical approaches have
been created and are increasingly applied in physical and biological
sciences, such as genetics.
 Statistical approaches are used in the job of a businessman, a manufacturer,
and a researcher. Statistics departments can be found in banks, insurance
businesses, and government agencies.
 A modern administrator, whether in the public or commercial sector, relies
on statistical data to make correct decisions.
 Politicians can utilize statistics to support and validate their claims while
also explaining the issues they address.

Statistical Analysis Methods

Although there are various methods used to perform data analysis, given below are
the 5 most used and popular methods of statistical analysis:

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  Mean

Mean or average mean is one of the most popular methods of statistical analysis.
Mean determines the overall trend of the data and is very simple to calculate. Mean
is calculated by summing the numbers in the data set together and then dividing it
by the number of data points. Despite the ease of calculation and its benefits, it is
not advisable to resort to mean as the only statistical indicator as it can result in
inaccurate decision making.

 Standard Deviation

Standard deviation is another very widely used statistical tool or method. It

analyzes the deviation of different data points from the mean of the entire data set.
It determines how data of the data set is spread around the mean. You can use it to
decide whether the research outcomes can be generalized or not.

 Regression

Regression is a statistical tool that helps determine the cause and effect relationship
between the variables. It determines the relationship between a dependent and an
independent variable. It is generally used to predict future trends and events.

 Hypothesis Testing

Hypothesis testing can be used to test the validity or trueness of a conclusion or

argument against a data set. The hypothesis is an assumption made at the
beginning of the research and can hold or be false based on the analysis results.

 Sample Size Determination

Sample size determination or data sampling is a technique used to derive a sample

from the entire population, which is representative of the population. This method

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is used when the size of the population is very large. You can choose from among
the various data sampling techniques such as snowball sampling, convenience
sampling, and random sampling.

17 SOFTWARE & TOOLS FOR DATA ANALYSTS

To be able to perform data analysis at the highest level possible, analysts and data
professionals will use software that will ensure the best results in several tasks
from executing algorithms, preparing data, generating predictions, and automating
processes, to standard tasks such as visualizing and reporting on the data. Although
there are many of these solutions on the market, data analysts must choose wisely
in order to benefit their analytical efforts. That said, in this article, we will cover
the best data analyst tools and name the key features of each based on various
types of analysis processes. But first, we will start with a basic definition and a
brief introduction.
WHAT ARE DATA ANALYST TOOLS?
Data analyst tools is a term used to describe software and applications that data
analysts use in order to develop and perform analytical processes that help
companies to make better, informed business decisions while decreasing costs and
increasing profits.
1. BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE TOOLS
BI tools are one of the most represented means of performing data analysis.
Specializing in business analytics, these solutions will prove to be beneficial for
every data analyst that needs to analyze, monitor, and report on important findings.
Features such as self-service, predictive analytics, and advanced SQL modes make
these solutions easily adjustable to every level of knowledge, without the need for
heavy IT involvement. By providing a set of useful features, analysts can
understand trends and make tactical decisions. Our data analytics tools article
wouldn’t be complete without business intelligence, and datapine is one example
that covers most of the requirements both for beginner and advanced users. This
all-in-one tool aims to facilitate the entire analysis process from data integration
and discovery to reporting.
2. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TOOLS

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 Next in our list of data analytics tools comes a more technical area related to
statistical analysis. Referring to computation techniques that often contain a variety
of statistical techniques to manipulate, explore, and generate insights, there exist
multiple programming languages to make (data) scientists’ work easier and more
effective. With the expansion of various languages that are today present on the
market, science has its own set of rules and scenarios that need special attention
when it comes to statistical data analysis and modeling. Here we will present one
of the most popular tools for a data analyst – Posit (previously known as RStudio
or R programming). Although there are other languages that focus on (scientific)
data analysis, R is particularly popular in the community.
Posit, formerly known as RStudio, is one of the top data analyst tools for R and
Python. Its development dates back to 2009 and it’s one of the most used software
for statistical analysis and data science, keeping an open-source policy and running
on a variety of platforms, including Windows, macOS and Linux. As a result of the
latest rebranding process, some of the famous products on the platform will change
their names, while others will stay the same. For example, RStudio Workbench and
RStudio Connect will now be known as Posit Workbench and Posit Connect
respectively. On the other side, products like RStudio Desktop and RStudio Server
will remain the same. As stated on the software’s website, the rebranding happened
because the name RStudio no longer reflected the variety of products and
languages that the platform currently supports.

Posit is by far the most popular integrated development environment (IDE) out
there with 4,7 stars on Capterra and 4,5 stars on G2Crowd. Its capabilities for data
cleaning, data reduction, and data analysis report output with R markdown, make
this tool an invaluable analytical assistant that covers both general and academic
data analysis. It is compiled of an ecosystem of more than 10 000 packages and
extensions that you can explore by categories, and perform any kind of statistical
analysis such as regression, conjoint, factor cluster analysis, etc. Easy to
understand for those that don’t have a high-level of programming skills, Posit can
perform complex mathematical operations by using a single command. A number
of graphical libraries such as ggplot and plotly make this language different than
others in the statistical community since it has efficient capabilities to create
quality visualizations.

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Posit was mostly used in the academic area in the past, today it has applications
across industries and large companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and
Airbnb, among others. Due to an enormous number of researchers, scientists, and
statisticians using it, the tool has an extensive and active community where
innovative technologies and ideas are presented and communicated regularly.

3. QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS TOOLS

Naturally, when we think about data, our mind automatically takes us to numbers.
Although much of the extracted data might be in a numeric format, there is also
immense value in collecting and analyzing non-numerical information, especially
in a business context. This is where qualitative data analysis tools come into the
picture. These solutions offer researchers, analysts, and businesses the necessary
functionalities to make sense of massive amounts of qualitative data coming from
different sources such as interviews, surveys, e-mails, customer feedback, social
media comments, and much more depending on the industry. There is a wide range
of qualitative analysis software out there, the most innovative ones rely on artificial
intelligence and machine learning algorithms to make the analysis process faster
and more efficient. Today, we will discuss MAXQDA, one of the most powerful
QDA platforms in the market.
Founded in 1989 “by researchers, for researchers”, MAXQDA is a qualitative data
analysis software for Windows and Mac that assists users in organizing and
interpreting qualitative data from different sources with the help of innovative
features. Unlike some other solutions on the same range, MAXQDA supports a
wide range of data sources and formats. Users can import traditional text data from
interviews, focus groups, web pages, and YouTube or Twitter comments, as well as
various types of multimedia data such as videos or audio files. Paired to that, the
software also offers a Mixed Methods tool which allows users to use both
qualitative and quantitative data for a more complete analytics process. This level
of versatility has earned MAXQDA worldwide recognition for many years. The
tool has a positive 4.6 stars rating in Capterra and a 4.5 in G2Crowd.

Amongst its most valuable functions, MAXQDA offers users the capability of
setting different codes to mark their most important data and organize it in an
efficient way. Codes can be easily generated via drag & drop and labeled using

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colors, symbols, or emojis. Your findings can later be transformed, automatically
or manually, into professional visualizations and exported in various readable
formats such as PDF, Excel, or Word, among others.

4. GENERAL-PURPOSE PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES

Programming languages are used to solve a variety of data problems. We have
explained R and statistical programming, now we will focus on general ones that
use letters, numbers, and symbols to create programs and require formal syntax
used by programmers. Often, they’re also called text-based programs because you
need to write software that will ultimately solve a problem. Examples include C#,
Java, PHP, Ruby, Julia, and Python, among many others on the market. Here we
will focus on Python and we will present PyCharm as one of the best tools for data
analysts that have coding knowledge as well.
PyCharm is an integrated development environment (IDE) by JetBrains designed
for developers that want to write better, more productive Python code from a single
platform. The tool, which is successfully rated with 4.7 stars on Capterra and 4.6 in
G2Crowd, offers developers a range of essential features including an integrated
visual debugger, GUI-based test runner, integration with major VCS and built-in
database tools, and much more. Amongst its most praised features, the intelligent
code assistance provides developers with smart code inspections highlighting
errors and offering quick fixes and code completions.

PyCharm supports the most important Python implementations including Python

2.x and 3.x, Jython, IronPython, PyPy and Cython, and it is available in three
different editions. The Community version, which is free and open-sourced, the
Professional paid version, including all advanced features, and the Edu version
which is also free and open-sourced for educational purposes. Definitely, one of the
best Python data analyst tools in the market.

5. SQL CONSOLES
Our data analyst tools list wouldn’t be complete without SQL consoles.
Essentially, SQL is a programming language that is used to manage/query data held
in relational databases, particularly effective in handling structured data as a
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database tool for analysts. It’s highly popular in the data science community and
one of the analyst tools used in various business cases and data scenarios. The
reason is simple: as most of the data is stored in relational databases and you need
to access and unlock its value, SQL is a highly critical component of succeeding in
business, and by learning it, analysts can offer a competitive advantage to their
skillset. There are different relational (SQL-based) database management systems
such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, and Oracle, for example, and by learning
these data analysts’ tools would prove to be extremely beneficial to any serious
analyst. Here we will focus on MySQL Workbench as the most popular one.
MySQL Workbench is used by analysts to visually design, model, and manage
databases, optimize SQL queries, administer MySQL environments, and utilize a
suite of tools to improve the performance of MySQL applications. It will allow you
to perform tasks such as creating and viewing databases and objects (triggers or
stored procedures, e.g.), configuring servers, and much more. You can easily
perform backup and recovery as well as inspect audit data. MySQL Workbench
will also help in database migration and is a complete solution for analysts working
in relational database management and companies that need to keep their databases
clean and effective. The tool, which is very popular amongst analysts and
developers, is rated 4.6 stars in Capterra and 4.5 in G2Crowd.

6. STANDALONE PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS TOOLS

Predictive analytics is one of the advanced techniques, used by analysts that
combine data mining, machine learning, predictive modeling, and artificial
intelligence to predict future events, and it deserves a special place in our list of
data analysis tools as its popularity has increased in recent years with the
introduction of smart solutions that enabled analysts to simplify their predictive
analytics processes. You should keep in mind that some BI tools we already
discussed in this list offer easy to use, built-in predictive analytics solutions but, in
this section, we focus on standalone, advanced predictive analytics that companies
use for various reasons, from detecting fraud with the help of pattern detection to
optimizing marketing campaigns by analyzing consumers’ behavior and purchases.
Here we will list a data analysis software that is helpful for predictive analytics
processes and helps analysts to predict future scenarios.
7. DATA MODELING TOOLS

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Our list of data analysis tools wouldn’t be complete without data modeling.
Creating models to structure the database, and design business systems by utilizing
diagrams, symbols, and text, ultimately represent how the data flows and is
connected in between. Businesses use data modeling tools to determine the exact
nature of the information they control and the relationship between datasets, and
analysts are critical in this process. If you need to discover, analyze, and specify
changes in information that is stored in a software system, database or other
application, chances are your skills are critical for the overall business. Here we
will show one of the most popular data analyst software used to create models and
design your data assets.
8. ETL TOOLS
ETL is a process used by companies, no matter the size, across the world, and if a
business grows, chances are you will need to extract, load, and transform data into
another database to be able to analyze it and build queries. There are some core
types of ETL tools for data analysts such as batch ETL, real-time ETL, and cloud-
based ETL, each with its own specifications and features that adjust to different
business needs. These are the tools used by analysts that take part in more technical
processes of data management within a company, and one of the best examples is
Talend.
Talend is a data integration platform used by experts across the globe for data
management processes, cloud storage, enterprise application integration, and data
quality. It’s a Java-based ETL tool that is used by analysts in order to easily process
millions of data records and offers comprehensive solutions for any data project
you might have. Talend’s features include (big) data integration, data preparation,
cloud pipeline designer, and stitch data loader to cover multiple data management
requirements of an organization. Users of the tool rated it with 4.2 stars in Capterra
and 4.3 in G2Crowd. This is an analyst software extremely important if you need
to work on ETL processes in your analytical department.

Apart from collecting and transforming data, Talend also offers a data
governance solution to build a data hub and deliver it through self-service access
through a unified cloud platform. You can utilize their data catalog, inventory and
produce clean data through their data quality feature. Sharing is also part of their
data portfolio; Talend’s data fabric solution will enable you to deliver your
information to every stakeholder through a comprehensive API delivery platform.
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If you need a data analyst tool to cover ETL processes, Talend might be worth
considering.

9. AUTOMATION TOOLS
As mentioned, the goal of all the solutions present on this list is to make data
analysts lives easier and more efficient. Taking that into account, automation tools
could not be left out of this list. In simple words, data analytics automation is the
practice of using systems and processes to perform analytical tasks with almost no
human interaction. In the past years, automation solutions have impacted the way
analysts perform their jobs as these tools assist them in a variety of tasks such as
data discovery, preparation, data replication, and more simple ones like report
automation or writing scripts. That said, automating analytical processes
significantly increases productivity, leaving more time to perform more important
tasks. We will see this more in detail through Jenkins one of the leaders in open-
source automation software.
Developed in 2004 under the name Hudson, Jenkins is an open-source CI
automation server that can be integrated with several DevOps tools via plugins. By
default, Jenkins assists developers to automate parts of their software development
process like building, testing, and deploying. However, it is also highly used by
data analysts as a solution to automate jobs such as running codes and scripts daily
or when a specific event happened. For example, run a specific command when
new data is available.

There are several Jenkins plugins to generate jobs automatically. For example, the
Jenkins Job Builder plugin takes simple descriptions of jobs in YAML or JSON
format and turns them into runnable jobs in Jenkins’s format. On the other side, the
Jenkins Job DLS plugin provides users with the capabilities to easily generate jobs
from other jobs and edit the XML configuration to supplement or fix any existing
elements in the DLS. Lastly, the Pipeline plugin is mostly used to generate
complex automated processes.

For Jenkins, automation is not useful if it’s not tight to integration. For this reason,
they provide hundreds of plugins and extensions to integrate Jenkins with your

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existing tools. This way, the entire process of code generation and execution can be
automated at every stage and in different platforms – leaving you enough time to
perform other relevant tasks. All the plugins and extensions from Jenkins are
developed in Java meaning the tool can also be installed in any other operator that
runs on Java. Users rated Jenkins with 4.5 stars in Capterra and 4.4 stars in
G2Crowd.

10.DOCUMENT SHARING TOOLS

As an analyst working with programming, it is very likely that you have found
yourself in the situation of having to share your code or analytical findings with
others. Rather you want someone to look into your code for errors or provide any
other kind of feedback to your work, a document sharing tool is the way to go.
These solutions enable users to share interactive documents which can contain live
code and other multimedia elements for a collaborative process. Below, we will
present Jupyter Notebook, one of the most popular and efficient platforms for this
purpose.
Jupyter Notebook is an open source web based interactive development
environment used to generate and share documents called notebooks, containing
live codes, data visualizations, and text in a simple and streamlined way. Its name
is an abbreviation of the core programming languages it supports: Julia, Python,
and R and, according to its website, it has a flexible interface that enables users to
view, execute and share their code all in the same platform. Notebooks allow
analysts, developers, and anyone else to combine code, comments, multimedia, and
visualizations in an interactive document that can be easily shared and reworked
directly in your web browser.

Even though it works by default on Python, Jupyter Notebook supports over 40

programming languages and it can be used in multiple scenarios. Some of them
include sharing notebooks with interactive visualizations, avoiding the static nature
of other software, live documentation to explain how specific Python modules or
libraries work, or simply sharing code and data files with others. Notebooks can be
easily converted into different output formats such as HTML, LaTeX, PDF, and
more. This level of versatility has earned the tool 4.7 stars rating on Capterra and
4.5 in G2Crowd.

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 11.UNIFIED DATA ANALYTICS ENGINES
If you work for a company that produces massive datasets and needs a big data
management solution, then unified data analytics engines might be the best
resolution for your analytical processes. To be able to make quality decisions in a
big data environment, analysts need tools that will enable them to take full control
of their company’s robust data environment. That’s where machine learning and AI
play a significant role. That said, Apache Spark is one of the data analysis tools on
our list that supports big-scale data processing with the help of an extensive
ecosystem.
Apache Spark was originally developed by UC Berkeley in 2009 and since then, it
has expanded across industries and companies such as Netflix, Yahoo, and eBay
that have deployed Spark, processed petabytes of data and proved that Apache is
the go-to solution for big data management, earning it a positive 4.2 star rating in
both Capterra and G2Crowd. Their ecosystem consists of Spark SQL, streaming,
machine learning, graph computation, and core Java, Scala, and Python APIs to
ease the development. Already in 2014, Spark officially set a record in large-scale
sorting. Actually, the engine can be 100x faster than Hadoop and this is one of the
features that is extremely crucial for massive volumes of data processing.

You can easily run applications in Java, Python, Scala, R, and SQL while more
than 80 high-level operators that Spark offers will make your data transformation
easy and effective. As a unified engine, Spark comes with support for SQL queries,
MLlib for machine learning and GraphX for streaming data that can be combined
to create additional, complex analytical workflows. Additionally, it runs on
Hadoop, Kubernetes, Apache Mesos, standalone or in the cloud and can access
diverse data sources. Spark is truly a powerful engine for analysts that need
support in their big data environment.

12.SPREADSHEET APPLICATIONS
Spreadsheets are one of the most traditional forms of data analysis. Quite popular
in any industry, business or organization, there is a slim chance that you haven’t
created at least one spreadsheet to analyze your data. Often used by people that

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don’t have high technical abilities to code themselves, spreadsheets can be used for
fairly easy analysis that doesn’t require considerable training, complex and large
volumes of data and databases to manage. To look at spreadsheets in more detail,
we have chosen Excel as one of the most popular in business.
With 4.8 stars rating in Capterra and 4.7 in G2Crowd, Excel needs a category on its
own since this powerful tool has been in the hands of analysts for a very long time.
Often considered a traditional form of analysis, Excel is still widely used across the
globe. The reasons are fairly simple: there aren’t many people who have never
used it or come across it at least once in their career. It’s a fairly versatile data
analyst tool where you simply manipulate rows and columns to create your
analysis. Once this part is finished, you can export your data and send it to the
desired recipients, hence, you can use Excel as a reporting tool as well. You do
need to update the data on your own, Excel doesn’t have an automation feature
similar to other tools on our list. Creating pivot tables, managing smaller amounts
of data and tinkering with the tabular form of analysis, Excel has developed as an
electronic version of the accounting worksheet to one of the most spread tools for
data analysts.

A wide range of functionalities accompany Excel, from arranging to manipulating,

calculating and evaluating quantitative data to building complex equations and
using pivot tables, conditional formatting, adding multiple rows and creating charts
and graphs – Excel has definitely earned its place in traditional data management.

13.INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC ANALYTICS TOOLS

While there are many data analysis tools on this list that are used in various
industries and are applied daily in analysts’ workflow, there are solutions that are
specifically developed to accommodate a single industry and cannot be used in
another. For that reason, we have decided to include of one these solutions on our
list, although there are many others, industry-specific data analysis programs and
software. Here we focus on Qualtrics as one of the leading research software that is
used by over 11000 world’s brands and has over 2M users across the globe as well
as many industry-specific features focused on market research.
Qualtrics is a software for data analysis that is focused on experience management
(XM) and is used for market research by companies across the globe. The tool,
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which has a positive 4.8 stars rating on Capterra and 4.4 in G2Crowd, offers 5
product pillars for enterprise XM which include design, customer, brand,
employee, and product experiences, as well as additional research services
performed by their own experts. Their XM platform consists of a directory,
automated actions, QualtricsiQ tool, and platform security features that combine
automated and integrated workflows into a single point of access. That way, users
can refine each stakeholder’s experience and use their tool as an “ultimate listening
system.”

Since automation is becoming increasingly important in our data-driven age,

Qualtrics has also developed drag-and-drop integrations into the systems that
companies already use such as CRM, ticketing, or messaging, while enabling users
to deliver automatic notifications to the right people. This feature works across
brand tracking and product feedback as well as customer and employee experience.
Other critical features such as the directory where users can connect data from 130
channels (including web, SMS, voice, video, or social), and QualtricsiQ to analyze
unstructured data will enable users to utilize their predictive analytics engine and
build detailed customer journeys. If you’re looking for a data analytic software that
needs to take care of market research of your company, Qualtrics is worth the try.

14.DATA SCIENCE PLATFORMS

Data science can be used for most software solutions on our list, but it does
deserve a special category since it has developed into one of the most sought-after
skills of the decade. No matter if you need to utilize preparation, integration or data
analyst reporting tools, data science platforms will probably be high on your list
for simplifying analytical processes and utilizing advanced analytics models to
generate in-depth data science insights. To put this into perspective, we will present
RapidMiner as one of the top data analyst software that combines deep but
simplified analysis.
RapidMiner, which was just acquired by Altair in 2022 as a part of their data
analytics portfolio, is a tool used by data scientists across the world to prepare data,
utilize machine learning, and model operations in more than 40 000 organizations
that heavily rely on analytics in their operations. By unifying the entire data
science cycle, RapidMiner is built on 5 core platforms and 3 automated data

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science products that help in the design and deployment of analytics processes.
Their data exploration features such as visualizations and descriptive statistics will
enable you to get the information you need while predictive analytics will help you
in cases such as churn prevention, risk modeling, text mining, and customer
segmentation.

With more than 1500 algorithms and data functions, support for 3rd party machine
learning libraries, integration with Python or R, and advanced analytics,
RapidMiner has developed into a data science platform for deep analytical
purposes. Additionally, comprehensive tutorials and full automation, where
needed, will ensure simplified processes if your company requires them, so you
don’t need to perform manual analysis. All these positive traits have earned the tool
a positive 4.4 stars rating on Capterra and 4.6 stars in G2Crowd. If you’re looking
for analyst tools and software focused on deep data science management and
machine learning, then RapidMiner should be high on your list.

15.DATA CLEANSING PLATFORMS

The amount of data being produced is only getting bigger, hence, the possibility
of it involving errors. To help analysts avoid these errors that can damage the entire
analysis process is that data cleansing solutions were developed. These tools help
in preparing the data by eliminating errors, inconsistencies, and duplications
enabling users to extract accurate conclusions from it. Before cleansing platforms
were a thing, analysts would manually clean the data, this is also a dangerous
practice since the human eye is prompt to error. That said, powerful cleansing
solutions have proved to boost efficiency and productivity while providing a
competitive advantage as data becomes reliable. The cleansing software we picked
for this section is a popular solution named OpenRefine.
Previously known as Google Refine, OpenRefine is a Java-based open-source
desktop application for working with large sets of data that needs to be cleaned.
The tool, with ratings of 4.0 stars in Capterra and 4.6 in G2Crowd, also enables
users to transform their data from one format to another and extend it with web
services and external data. OpenRefine has a similar interface to the one of
spreadsheet applications and can handle CSV file formats, but all in all, it behaves
more as a database. Upload your datasets into the tool and use their multiple

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cleaning features that will let you spot anything from extra spaces to duplicated
fields.

Available in more than 15 languages, one of the main principles of OpenRefine is

privacy. The tool works by running a small server on your computer and your data
will never leave that server unless you decide to share it with someone else.

16.DATA MINING TOOLS

Next, in our insightful list of data analyst tools we are going to touch on data
mining. In short, data mining is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science
that uses a mix of statistics, artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques
and platforms to identify hidden trends and patterns in large, complex data sets. To
do so, analysts have to perform various tasks including data classification, cluster
analysis, association analysis, regression analysis, and predictive analytics using
professional data mining software. Businesses rely on these platforms to anticipate
future issues and mitigate risks, make informed decisions to plan their future
strategies, and identify new opportunities to grow. There are multiple data mining
solutions in the market at the moment, most of them relying on automation as a
key feature. We will focus on Orange, one of the leading mining software at the
moment.
Orange is an open source data mining and machine learning tool that has existed
for more than 20 years as a project from the University of Ljubljana. The tool
offers a mix of data mining features, which can be used via visual programming or
Python Scripting, as well as other data analytics functionalities for simple and
complex analytical scenarios. It works under a “canvas interface” in which users
place different widgets to create a data analysis workflow. These widgets offer
different functionalities such as reading the data, inputting the data, filtering it, and
visualizing it, as well as setting machine learning algorithms for classification and
regression, among other things.

What makes this software so popular amongst others in the same category is the
fact that it provides beginners and expert users with a pleasant usage experience,
especially when it comes to generating swift data visualizations in a quick and

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uncomplicated way. Orange, which has 4.2 stars ratings on both Capterra and
G2Crowd, offers users multiple online tutorials to get them acquainted with the
platform. Additionally, the software learns from the user’s preferences and reacts
accordingly, this is one of their most praised functionalities.

17.DATA VISUALIZATION PLATFORMS

Data visualization has become one of the most indispensable elements of data
analytics tools. If you’re an analyst, there is probably a strong chance you had to
develop a visual representation of your analysis or utilize some form of data
visualization at some point. Here we need to make clear that there are differences
between professional data visualization tools often integrated through already
mentioned BI tools, free available solutions as well as paid charting libraries.
They’re simply not the same. Also, if you look at data visualization in a broad
sense, Excel and PowerPoint also have it on offer, but they simply cannot meet the
advanced requirements of a data analyst who usually chooses professional BI or
data viz tools as well as modern charting libraries, as mentioned. We will take a
closer look at Highcharts as one of the most popular charting libraries on the
market.
Highcharts is a multi-platform library that is designed for developers looking to
add interactive charts to web and mobile projects. With a promising 4.6 stars rating
in Capterra and 4.5 in G2Crowd, this charting library works with any back-end
database and data can be given in CSV, JSON, or updated live. They also feature
intelligent responsiveness that fits the desired chart into the dimensions of the
specific container But also places non-graph elements in the optimal location
automatically.

Highcharts supports line, spline, area, column, bar, pie, scatter charts and many
others that help developers in their online-based projects. Additionally, their
WebGL-powered boost module enables you to render millions of datapoints in the
browser. As far as the source code is concerned, they allow you to download and
make your own edits, no matter if you use their free or commercial license. In

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essence, Basically, Highcharts is designed mostly for the technical target group so
you should familiarize yourself with developers’ workflow and their JavaScript
charting engine. If you’re looking for a more easy to use but still powerful
solution, you might want to consider an online data visualization tool like datapine.

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