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Professional Selling

Welcome to the Sentry School Sales Institute

The Center for Data Analytics at UW-Stevens Point serves as a dynamic liaison between the university and various organizations that seek expertise in the realm of data analytics. Our core competencies encompass a wide range of analysis including descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive.

Under the leadership of Sentry Insurance Endowed Chair of Computational Analytics Kurt A. Pflughoeft, who brings with him a wealth of experience as a researcher and consultant ranging from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses, our goal is to empower organizations to improve their data-driven decision-making capabilities. This aids in enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of their products and services, and opens doors to new areas of opportunity.

Services Offered

The Data Analytics Center offers diverse engagement arrangements, from consultative agreements to paid student capstone projects and internships. Student engagements are overseen by either of our faculty, ensuring the highest quality guidance and management.

Data Services

Our areas of expertise are expansive and include statistical analysis, machine learning, data preparation, data engineering and project management. We employ an array of tools to aid our work, including:

  • SAS
  • Python
  • R
  • C++
  • SQL
  • Relational DBs
  • Big Data systems
  • Knime/SAS Enterprise Miner
  • ChatGPT
  • PowerBI
  • Tableau
  • VBA/Excel

Center Highlights

Bug Tussel

Data Analytics Customer Attrition Analysis Research

The costs of acquiring new customers are estimated to be 3-5 times higher than retention costs. UWSP’s Sentry Endowed Chairs Kurt Pflughoeft and Nik Butz joined up with data analytics alum Alick Corbley ’23 to share research that demonstrates how Alick helped Internet service provider Bug Tussel glean insight into customers who are more likely to leave. Analysis was done in both JMP Pro and R. Alick started this research as an intern and is now a full-time data analyst with Bug Tussel.

Nik Butz, Kurt Pflughoeft, Data Analytics

SAS JMP Pro Demo

The Sentry School data analytics program hosted a demonstration of JMP Software’s SAS JMP Pro on Wednesday, March 8 for students, faculty and our partners at Sentry. JMP is ideal for teaching, allowing professors to spend more time teaching concepts and real-world examples without programming. The highly visual, point-and-click interface of JMP helps students grasp statistical and analytical concepts and apply them to real data. Researchers can leverage model screening techniques that automatically select the best statistical or machine learning models. Funding for SAS JMP PRO for UW-Stevens Point and the JMP event was provided by the UWSP Data Analytics Center.

Natasja Iversen and Kurt Pflughoeft

These creative problem solvers make profound contributions – and good pay

Data analytics is all the buzz at many corporations subsuming areas such as business analytics and business intelligence. The goals of data analytics are broad, ranging from knowledge discovery to automated decision-making. The impact of this field has led to many benefits such as increased cross- and up-selling as well as identifying new business opportunities.

Data Analytics

Release the Data Analyst!

Data analytics is all the buzz at many corporations subsuming areas such as business analytics and business intelligence. The goals of data analytics are broad, ranging from knowledge discovery to automated decision-making. The impact of this field has led to many benefits such as increased cross- and up-selling as well as identifying new business opportunities.

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“This project was very beneficial to our company—it shows that a diligent effort to learn our business and analyze our data can provide new insights. We are planning several new projects, some of which are quite complex. However, our newly-created data analytics advisory board and our university partnership gives us confidence that we will be successful. Telecommunication is a fast-changing field, and we need data analytics to successfully navigate it.”
Steve SchneiderCEO, Bug Tussel

Our Staff

If you’re interested in exploring how the Data Analytics Center at UWSP can assist your organization in unlocking the power of your data, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We look forward to fostering a fruitful partnership and driving data-driven success.
Ricardo Boeing

Ricardo Boeing

  • Director of Internships – Sentry School of Business and Economics
  • Associate Professor – Marketing
715-346-2736