Data Analysis Techniques and Applications

This assignment delves into the world of data analysis, examining diverse techniques used to extract meaningful insights from data. It explores both qualitative and quantitative research methods, highlighting how they contribute to informed decision-making in various business scenarios. The focus is on understanding the practical applications of statistical tools and concepts within a business context.

BUSINESS DECISION MAKING
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Source of primary and secondary data for the development of new tour product.................3
1.2 Present the survey methodology with an appropriate sampling frame:.................................4
1.3 Questionnaire:........................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Creating information for decision making by summarizing data..........................................6
2.2 Analyze the range of results:.................................................................................................7
2.3 Analyzing data using measures of Dispersion:......................................................................7
2.4 Analyzing the quartiles, percentiles and correlation coefficient:..........................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Graphs and charts...................................................................................................................9
3.2 Creating a trend line:............................................................................................................11
3.3 Presentation..........................................................................................................................12
3.4 Formal business report.........................................................................................................12
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
4.1 Information processing tools:..............................................................................................13
4.2 Preparing a project plan:......................................................................................................14
4.3 Using financial tools:...........................................................................................................16
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................18
2

INTRODUCTION
Decision making is considered to be very useful for a business. Decision making leads to
the prosperity and success of the business. Decision making has always be an important part of
business and good decisions always leads to good and successful business. Problems should be
identified, assessed and evaluated to make a quality decision. Choosing among different
alternatives and analysing the selected alternative is the main aim of a decision maker to make a
business successful. In this report, a tour operator of UK has been selected “TUI Travels” tour
operator who is organizing tour in various countries. This study aims at identifying the attitude
and perception of the customers regarding the launching of tour operations at a new destination
by using some survey methods and statistical tools and techniques. These tools and techniques
are used to analyze the preferences of customers.
TASK 1
1.1 Source of primary and secondary data for the development of new tour product
Primary sources:
Primary sources are the first hand data collected by the the researcher. Primary data can
be obtained by the researcher using survey methods, questionnaires, observation or by interview
methods. In this study, TUI Travels is using both primary as well as secondary data to analyze
the customer preferences as well as attitude regarding the new product launch i.e planning new
destination for the tour. Primary sources mainly includes survey methods or questionnaire
method which must be filled by the prospective customers. Customers fill the questionnaires and
according to their perception tour operator plans exotic and customized destinations (Alexakos
and et.al., 2016.)
Secondary sources:
secondary sources can be defined as the data collected originally by someone else and not
by the user. This data source is considered as the second hand data as it has already been
collected. Secondary data can be collected by using past records, magazines, referrals, business
journals, census methods, internet etc. in the current research, tour operator can collect secondary
data by referring past sales records that is used to analyze what customers prefer, what are their
3

needs and wants, what is their attitude towards trying a new destination etc. Tour operators
should select the location according to the age group of the customers who are willing to visit.
Competitor products must be taken into consideration before selecting and launching a new
product (Popovič and et.al., 2012)
1.2 Present the survey methodology with an appropriate sampling frame:
Survey Methodology:
To assess the customers attitudes survey must be done by the tour operator on the basis of which
destination can be launched. After all, for any tour operating agency, customized product must
be the main aim. Questionnaires must be considered as the main instrument for analyzing the
customer perception towards new tour product. Various e-questionnaire, online questionnaires
can be used to survey for the new product launch. Sampling strategies must be used to make a
survey of the customers (Neuman and Robson, 2012)
Sampling:
sampling can be defined as a statistical tool or a technique to determine the characteristics of
some elements based on a larger population. Sampling technique is mainly used by the tour
operator because as TUI Travels is a diverse tour agency operating in UK so it becomes very
difficult for them to make a survey of large number of customers. Therefore, sampling technique
is used so that on the basis of some elements, attitude or preferences of the whole population can
be determined (Baum and Crosby, 2014)
Quantitative data is to be used by the tour operator as quantitative data refers to
measuring facts, figures and numbers. In the present study, tour operator must consider
quantitative data as they must ask to the customers about the prices they are ready to pay for the
new tour product launch. Price decision must be taken by the tour operator before launching any
new product. It may also include qualitative data as questionnaire method is used and
qualitative data is concerned with the human behavior and attitudes. This factor is analyzed by
the qualitative data. Therefore, tour operator can consider quantitative as well as qualitative data
for assessing the attitude of the customers.
1.3 Questionnaire:
Dear participants
4

(we are interested in knowing your travel preferences, so kindly spend few minutes to fill the
questionnaire, your response will be highly appreciated.
Q.1. What is your age group?
 20-30
 30-40
 40-50
 50-60
Q.2. With whom you often travel?
 Alone
 Family
 Friends
 Colleagues
 Anyone else
Q.3. How much you are satisfied with the services provided by us?
 Extremely satisfied
 Satisfied
 Neutral
 Dissatisfied
 Extremely Dissatisfied
Q.4. Do you prefer using e-booking services?
 Yes
 No
Q.5. How much would you like to pay for the new tour product?
 10000-20000
 20000-30000
 30000-40000
 40000-50000
Q.6. What problems you face while travelling or taking services?
 Overbooking
 Ticket cancellation
5

 Any other reason
TASK 2
2.1 Creating information for decision making by summarizing data
Column1
Mean 351.6666667
Standard Error 15.93991242
Median 342
Mode #N/A
Standard Deviation 55.21747637
Sample Variance 3048.969697
Kurtosis -0.997472268
Skewness 0.418952174
Range 170
Minimum 280
Maximum 450
Sum 4220
Count 12
Mean:
It can be defined as the average of the number of items. Here, it is an average of the sales
of quarters of four years.
Median:
It is value which appears in the middle of the list of items. Data is to be arranged in
ascending order to evaluate the median.
Mode:
It can be referred as the item which occurs most in the set of data.
6

2.2 Analyze the range of results:
As per the raw data collected, it can be interpreted that the average of the quarters of the
four years is 351.66. It can be evaluated from the data that mean is necessary to be calculated
that it helps the researcher to inference better information. As mean is based on all observations
so it gives accurate information about the project. It is unbiased as it includes all the elements of
data.
TUI Travels tour operating agency has a large numbers of customers that's why it is
adopting sampling technique which in turn helps the tour operator to find out mean because
mean can be calculated on finite data. As per the data, it is observed that people mostly prefer to
travel in the first quarter and not in the later quarters. Median is also evaluated and it is the
middle element of the whole data which is 342. median the central element and not at all affected
by the terminal values. It helps in assessing the overall profitability of the tour operator and also
shows the trend of the sales records.
2.3 Analyzing data using measures of Dispersion:
Decision maker also considers measures of dispersion such as range, standard deviation,
semi interquartile range.
Standard deviation:
It can be defined as the amount of variation from the set of data. It helps the analyst in
decision making as it is very less affected by the variations in the data. It is also not at all
affected by the terminal values. The higher the value of the standard deviation, the greater the
variation from the mean value.
Range:
It can be defined as the difference between the upper limit and the lower limit values. It
helps in decision making as to in which range the tour operator should operate. Thus, it specifies
the limit in which he has to work.
Interquartile range:
It is a measure of statistical variation in which data is divided in four equal parts
accordingly rank is given. This is also a decision making tool as half of the data values are
divided making it easier to make decisions.
Interpretation:
7

As per the statistical and quantitative measures of dispersion, it has been evaluated that standard
deviation is very much deviated from the mean value. Standard deviation is most widely used
measure of dispersion by the decision makers. Standard deviation is closely linked with the mean
and due to this, it is greatly affected by the mean values.
2.4 Analyzing the quartiles, percentiles and correlation coefficient:
Quartiles:
Whole data is divided into four equal parts and it is used in decision making as it divides the vast
data into equal parts and it is easier to make decisions.
Percentile:
Each of the 100 equal groups can be divided from the entire dataset. It also aids in decision
making as entire data is divided making it easier to make decisions.
Correlation coefficient:
It can be defined as the statistical relationship between two or more variables. It always lies
between +1 and -1. It is helpful in decision making as it defines the link between the variables
which helps the decision maker to identify the tour packages and also identify the attitude and
perception of customers.
Year Revenue (In Euro Mil) Profit (In Euro Mil)
2007 20514 -890
2008 21865 236
2009 18631 -142
2010 16350 101
2011 17480 23
2012 18330 -15
2013 18478 -11
2014 18715 105
8

2015 17516 340
2016 17184 1037
Correlation-coefficient -0.42323
Interpretation:
It can be interpreted that these factors help in making decisions as interquartile range and
percentiles help in dividing the entire data set into equal parts making it easier to analyze the
data. Correlation coefficient helps in identifying the relationship between the variable say, sales
and profit which helps in analyzing and making decisions quickly. According to the above
analysis, correlation coefficient is negative which shows that sales is adversely related to the
profitability.
TASK 3
3.1 Graphs and charts
9
Q2 Q3 Q4 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q2 Q3 Q4
06/07/1905 07/07/1905 08/07/1905
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
409
290 280
350
420
309 300
375
450
334 323
380
Sales in Asia ( In 000s)

10
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q2
Q3
Q4
06/07/1905 07/07/1905 08/07/1905
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
409
290
280
350
420
309
300
375
450
334
323
380
Sales in Asia ( In 000s)
409
290
280
350
420
309 300
375
450
334
323
380
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4

Interpretation:
As per the current data, in 2014, sales initially increased upto 409000 but decreased in the
second and also in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, sales again boosted up and reaches to
350000. In 2015, sales showed the same trend as of 2014 i.e. it had an increasing trend in the
initial quarter. In the second and third quarter it showed a decreasing trend. As per the pie chart,
it can be concluded that sales broke its record in the first quarter of 2016 which is 450000 and
sales was at its lowest in 2014 in the third quarter. Looking at these charts and graphs, TUI
Travels always show an increasing sales in the first quarter of every year. And in the later quarter
its overall sales decreases (Götze, Northcott and Schuster, 2015)
3.2 Creating a trend line:
11
06/10/1900 01/12/1900 27/01/1901 More
0
2
4
6
Histogram
Column L
Bin
Frequency

Interpretation:
As per the above trend line chart, it shows that there is an upward trend in the future
years. So it has been anticipated that sales will increase in future. As per the current study, it
shows that sales increase in the first quarter of every year. It has been interpreted that people visit
Asia in the months of winter because bar graphs, pie charts represents that sales increases in first
quarter. Therefore, trend line shows an upward trend.
3.3 Presentation
Enclosed in PPT
3.4 Formal business report
To: Board of directors of TUI
From: Marketing Consultant, John George
Date: 8th May, 2017
Subject: Business decision making in respect of tour operating agency
Introduction:
This travel group is a renowned tour operator of UK which provides exotic and customer based
services. The report specifies the decision making of a new product launch according to the
specifications, attitudes, perceptions, and preferences of the customers. This report considers the
Asia to be the new product launch for the customers in which sources of data, various statistical
12
Q 2
Q 3
Q 4
Q 2
Q 3
Q 4
06
/0
7/
19
05
30
/1
2/
18
99
30
/1
2/
18
99
30
/1
2/
18
99
07
/0
7/
19
05
30
/1
2/
18
99
30
/1
2/
18
99
30
/1
2/
18
99
08
/0
7/
19
05
30
/1
2/
18
99
30
/1
2/
18
99
30
/1
2/
18
99
09/07/190
5
10/07/190
5
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500 f(x) = 2.48951048951049 x + 335.484848484849
R² = 0.026425192840077
Sales in Asia ( In 000s)
Linear (Sales in Asia ( In
000s))

methods and techniques have been used.
Methodology:
Here, survey methodology has been considered in which an online survey has been conducted of
90 tourists covering outbound and also considering their responses to check the feasibility of the
new product to be launched in Asia. Questionnaires have been filled by the tourists to check and
assess the customer attitudes.
Findings:
According to the study, it has been found out that new product launch can be successful in Asia.
It has been concluded that measures of central tendency and dispersion can be considered very
much helpful in decision making. Standard deviation is calculated and it showed very much
volatility from the mean values.
Conclusion:
It has been concluded that visitors will visit only in the first quarter as bar graphs and histograms
is showing the upward trend of sales that is sales will increase in the future. Visitors will buy
only those products which provides luxurious services to them. Accordingly the product manager
will plan the launch of the new product so as to meet the expectations of the customers. Network
diagram and gantt charts have been considered to estimate the time period of 102 days. Financial
tools have also been considered to launch the new product by the tour operator
TASK 4
4.1 Information processing tools:
Management information system:
It can be defined as a database in which all the financial information of the company is
organized so that it helps the management to operate as well as it supports decision making in the
organization.
This system is very much important in collecting and storing information related to the
management for efficient and effective functioning of the business. This computerized system is
adopted by TUI Travels as vast amount of information is available on the websites so this
database helps in managing the information and helps reducing the overload of the information.
13

This system is adopted by most of the travel agencies so as to bring coordination among its
activities and this system helps the tour operators to store, assemble, retrieve the data stored in
the computer (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015.)
Transaction processing system:
This is also a type of information processing tool. It helps to manage the business
transactions and it also involves gathering, storage, retrieval of the data. This system is used by
TUI Travels tour operator as this system has a greater advantage of reliability of data.
Executive information system:
It is considered another type of information processing tool in which all the reports or the
summary related to the levels of the management can be accessed such as accounting, human
resource, marketing, production and operations (Berenson and et.al., 2013.)
Decision support system:
This is a tool used for information processing and mainly used by the middle and top
management. This system helps in solving a problem and decision making. Raw data is used
which is to be compiled by the top and middle level managers so as to make it a useful data.
TUI Travels uses this system as decision making is a main aspect of tour agency for launching a
new product.
4.2 Preparing a project plan:
Activities Preceding
activity
Duration (in days)
Understand the market - 5
Analysis of the competitors 1 9
Finalize the budget 1,2 6
Identify the target market 2 8
Analyze the customer specifications 4 12
Finalize the new product i.e. the destination 4,5 10
Conduct surveys to assess the customer
preferences
5,6 18
Evaluate the plan 7 8
Ask customers about the prices they can pay 8 12
Implement the plan 8,9 14
14

Gantt charts:
It is a project management tool in which it illustrates the schedule of the activities. They
specifies the start and finish time of the activities and sequence the task according to their
duration. These charts are very much useful in planning and implementation of overall
performance of the project. It shows the deadline of the projects and helps in scheduling the
activities. This technique helps the tour operator to complete the tasks using minimum time. It
also helps in giving the brief about the whole project thus helps in arranging the activities which
needs to be completed before another activity starts (Alexakos and et.al., 2016.)
Network diagram:
Its a very important task for the tour operator in prioritizing the activities that which
activity needs to be completed first. TUI Travels is a well renowned tour operator of UK and
they have to plan and sequence their activities according to the customers. It is very important
for the manager to consider network diagram as it shows the deadline and the duration of the
activities for the effective and smooth functioning of the new tour product. Network diagram is a
visual and a graphical representation of the activities and tour operator is considering network
diagram for better understanding of the whole project. Overall project duration can be easily
15

determined using network diagram. It also helps the tour operator to determine that which
activities are involved in critical path. It means it helps them to identify that which activity needs
due attention as compared to others.
Critical path: 96 days
4.3 Using financial tools:
Pay-back period:
Pay back period is a method of capital budgeting. It is considered as a tool to analyze the
duration or a time period required to recover the initial investment of the project. It helps the tour
operating agency to identify in what time they will be able to recover the cost of investment. It
helps the tour operator not to face liquidity problems and it is very simple to calculate.
It can be calculated as follows:
pay back period: Initial investment/ annual cash inflows
Decision criteria is if the payback period is greater then the project is rejected and if the payback
period is lesser then the project is accepted.
Net present value:
it is a popular capital budgeting technique which determines the profitability of the project. Here
TUI Travels is adopting net present value method.
NPV= present value of cash inflow-present value of cash outflow.
Decision rule is if net present value is positive, then the project is accepted but if it comes out to
be negative then the project is rejected.
Internal rate of return:
it is also a method of capital budgeting which is rarely used by the managers for decision
making. It helps in assessing the overall profitability of the investments. Internal rate of return is
a discounting rate which can be calculated using the above formula.
16

If the internal rate of return exceeds the required rate of return then the project is accepted and if
the internal rate of return is lower than the required rate of return then the project is said to be
rejected.
year cash flows
Cumulative
cash flows
Discounted
factor @7%
Discounted
factor
@10% DCF@7% DCF@10%
0 -120000 -120000 1.0000 1.0000 -120000.00 -120000.00
1 27000 -93000 0.9346 0.9091 25233.64 24545.45
2 48000 -45000 0.8734 0.8264 41925.06 39669.42
3 59000 14000 0.8163 0.7513 48161.57 44327.57
4 64000 78000 0.7629 0.6830 48825.29 43712.86
Payback
period 2.76 NPV 44145.57 32255.31
Internal rate of return:
IRR= LDR+ PV at LDR/(PV at LDR-PV at HDR)* (HDR-LDR)
Here, LDR= lower discounting rate
HDR= higher discounting rate
PV= present value
IRR= 7+ 44145.57/ (44145.57-32255.31) * (10-7)
= 18.1384%
Interpretation:
Here, the project is accepted as the pay back period is only 2 years and it is enough to recover the
initial investment which helps TUI Travels travel agency not to face any liquidity problems.
Internal rate of return is also higher than the required rate of return. And project with higher
internal rate of return must be preferred.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
17

Alexakos, C. and et.al., 2016. ERMIS: Extracting Knowledge from Unstructured Big Data for
Supporting Business Decision Making. In IFIP International Conference on Artificial
Intelligence Applications and Innovations (pp. 611-622). Springer International
Publishing.
Baum, A.E. and Crosby, N., 2014. Property investment appraisal. John Wiley & Sons.
Berenson, M. and et.al., 2013. Basic Business Statistics: Global Edition. Pearson Higher Ed.
Götze, U., Northcott, D. and Schuster, P., 2015. Capital Budgeting and Investment Decisions. In
Investment Appraisal. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp. 3-26.
Neuman, W.L. and Robson, K., 2012. Basics of social research: Qualitative and quantitative
approaches.
Pettigrew, A.M., 2014. The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.
Pickard, A., 2012. Research methods in information. Facet publishing.
Popovič, A. and et.al., 2012. Towards business intelligence systems success: Effects of maturity
and culture on analytical decision making. Decision Support Systems. 54(1). pp. 729-739.
Power, D.J., Sharda, R. and Burstein, F., 2015. Decision support systems. John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd.
Sutherland, L.A. and Holstead, K.L., 2014. Future-proofing the farm: On-farm wind turbine
development in farm business decision-making. Land Use Policy. 36. pp. 102-112.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A
guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
Ward, J. and Peppard, J., 2016. The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a
Digital Strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Williams, C., 2011. Research methods. Journal of Business & Economics Research
(JBER). 5(3).
Zolfani, S.H. and et.al., 2013. Decision making on business issues with foresight perspective; an
application of new hybrid MCDM model in shopping mall locating. Expert systems with
applications. 40(17). pp. 7111-7121.
Online
18

Barake, T., 2011. A generalized analysis of multiple-Clad optical fibers with arbitratry Step-
index profiles and applications. [Online]. Accessed
Through:<https://theses.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-3034112939721181/unrestricted/
etd.pdf>: [Accessed on 8th May 2016].
Mean, Median, Mode and Range. 2013. [Online]. Accessed
Through:<http://mathed.net/files/2013-04-
18_NCTM_Stats_Reasoning_MS_handouts.pdf>: [Accessed on 8th May 2016].
19