"Project 4β" Partners With the University of Edinburgh Business School

We are delighted to share that Oxylabs' pro bono initiative "Project 4β" partnered with the University of Edinburgh Business School and PhD Chair in Business Analytics and Programme Director of MSc in Business Analytics Professor Jamal Ouenniche. MSc in Business Analytics from the University of Edinburgh Business School ranks 19th in the 2023 QS Business Analytics Rankings.

Lecture for future experts

Companies use big data as a significant source of information to gain insights and develop strategies to gain competitive advantage and improve corporate performance. As one of the options to collect that data, companies use web intelligence solutions. To help University of Edinburgh MSc Business Analytics students sharpen their analytical skills and better understand the subject of data collection, Oxylabs Analytics Team Lead Rytis Ulys delivered a guest lecture, "Using Public Web Data to Speed Up Digital Transformation in Retail, Supply Chain and Finance." 

Before entering the web data collection industry, one might have some reservations about its size or legitimacy. However, the use of web scraping by large companies is a well-established practice. The guest lecture, delivered by R. Ulys, began with a brief introduction to web scraping technology and the basic infrastructure behind it. 

Later on, the presentation continued with the main use cases of web intelligence in retail, supply chain, and finance, as well as the "insider's" perspective of the Oxylabs Analytics Team Lead on the current industry trends and how web scraping is used to monitor competitors and make better business decisions. Rytis also explained the ethical and legal implications that must be considered while scraping public web data and shared an overview of different tools and techniques used for web scraping. The lecture ended with a Q&A session.