For the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, we have long provided Statistica software licenses, training, and technical support. This cooperation helps the faculty's staff improve the quality of their scientific data analysis and makes it easier for students to find work in the field of data analytics.
The importance of decision-making based on data and their advanced analysis has grown sharply in recent years. The Faculty of Economics and Management of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (FEM CZU), one of the largest academic institutions focused on economics in the Czech Republic, is well aware of this. The education of more than 10,000 students is provided by dozens of leading Czech experts in the fields of economics, business, and marketing.
Students of all study programs at the faculty usually encounter statistical methods from the second year of their bachelor's studies. There is then great potential in the use of advanced statistics in the research work of the faculty's teachers.
These subjects are taught by the FEM Department of Statistics, which outsources the provision of the necessary analytical software to an external partner. The partner also provides application support and professional training.
In search of a data services provider
We have been cooperating with the FEM CZU since 2011, when it was looking for a supplier of suitable software for the statistical evaluation of data for students of economics programs. The requirements for the application were as follows:
- ease of use and user-friendliness,
- a wealth of statistical functions for processing scientific data – from basic descriptive statistics to multivariate methods or, for example, tree-based algorithms,
- localization into the Czech language.
Also important was the widest possible adoption of the program in practice, so that graduates could make the most of the knowledge they gained. After careful consideration, the faculty decided to purchase a university-wide Statistica license, which allows all staff and students (that is, several thousand users) to use the application.
In choosing a specific statistical software, the Department of Statistics based its decision on the syllabi of the subjects taught in the economics programs and on the research objectives of the department and the faculty. The Statistica program meets all our requirements for functionality and usability. In addition, it also offers a number of clear, methodological aids in its help.
A significant deciding factor in choosing the supplier was the quality of the follow-up services (license maintenance and renewal) and the availability of consultations and training. The best solution was offered by DataBon. Our confidence that we had chosen well was confirmed by how quickly they got the application up and running (within days) and by their immediate resolution of any problems.
prof. Ing. Libuše Svatošová, CSc., Head of the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
We handled the implementation of the on-premise solution in cooperation with the CZU Department of Communication and Information Technologies. For selected teachers and researchers, we also prepared training on how to use the software effectively. Since the beginning of our cooperation, we have in this way – through public training and tailored courses – trained almost a hundred of the faculty's staff.
The license subscription for the Statistica application is something we renew every year, but that is not all we do. Thanks to its excellent past experience with us, the FEM CZU has in recent years expanded the cooperation.
Launching a Certification Program for students
In 2019, we launched a pilot series of workshops introducing CZU students to trends in the fields of data analytics and working with data. The very first seminar filled the auditorium to capacity.
Above all, however, in cooperation with the Faculty of Economics and Management, we prepared a pair of certification programs for the Statistica application:
- Data preparation and statistical analyses (data preparation and statistical analysis – intended for students of bachelor's programs),
- Advanced analytics and automatization (advanced data analysis and automation – master's programs).
The certificate demonstrates advanced knowledge of this software and helps students obtain interesting internships or jobs. To be awarded it, students need to:
- complete a course in which the Statistica application is used (taught by the faculty),
- expand their knowledge through self-study of materials covering advanced statistics lessons (which we provide to those interested via a link),
- answer at least 79% of the questions correctly in an in-person test.
Results of the cooperation
The Statistica application has become a firm part of statistics teaching in the bachelor's and master's study programs „Economics and Management“ at CZU in Prague. In addition to the Faculty of Economics and Management, it is also used in teaching by a number of other departments – for example, the Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, the Faculty of Engineering, and the Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences. The software is also often used for processing data from research activities.
The capabilities and the way experimental data are processed in the Statistica software have helped me improve the quality of the scientific outputs I presented at conferences of both domestic and foreign universities. Outputs from this application are also included in a number of my scientific articles published in prominent scientific journals indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases.
doc. Ing. Marie Prášilová, CSc., Deputy Head, Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
Both certification programs are also achieving good results, with students showing up to a 75% success rate after completing the professional preparation. Over two years, more than 40 students have gone through them – and, in their own words, the certificate enabled them to:
- get a job in the field of data processing (especially at companies that have long used the Statistica program),
- ease their integration into the workplace (thanks to completing the certification programs, they have mastered the Statistica application and can fully focus on the substance of their work).
The cooperation with DataBon is excellent. In the field of data analytics, they are exactly the kind of partner we had in mind. Our satisfaction is also evidenced by the fact that we have been working with the company since 2011. DataBon's services do not end with the license provided; they go much further. We particularly appreciate the top quality of the lectures and the company's proactive approach, which is also reflected in the strong interest of students on the statistics study tracks in the certification program.
prof. Ing. Libuše Svatošová, CSc., Head of the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague