R

“…The quality of our decisions in an industrial environment depends strongly on the quality of our analyses of data. Excel, a tool designed for simple financial analyses, is often used for data analysis simply because it’s the tool at hand, provided by corporate IT departments who are not trained in data science.

Unfortunately, Excel is a very poor tool for data analysis and its use results in incomplete and inaccurate analyses, which in turn result in incorrect or, at best, suboptimal business decisions. In a highly competitive, global business environment, using the right tools can make the difference between a business’ survival and failure. Alternatives to Excel exist that lead to clearer thinking and better decisions. The free software R is one of the best of these…”