To enhance and complement the Business Block experience, Furman University and the Department of Business & Accounting created the Joe and Diana Hurley Finance and Business Analytics Lab, providing students hands-on, real-time training with “big data” in business analytics for a variety of applications—finance, marketing, health care, real estate, insurance, risk management, government, and supply chain management. Students not only have access to the data but also they will learn how to interpret it in order to make thoughtful business decisions.
As a Bloomberg school, there are 7 Bloomberg terminals in the Joe and Diana Hurley Finance and Business Analytics Lab available for student use. Students can continue to access Bloomberg data while in each of the two team rooms which are equipped with Bloomberg terminals. The final Bloomberg terminal is in the Business and Accounting Office on the second floor of Hipp Hall. All Furman students can access Bloomberg data by creating an account while using one of the terminals in Hipp Hall.
Our accounting program also benefits from being able to access the real-time data in the Accounting Information Systems course and Auditing course. Accounting Information Systems uses the lab’s accounting, data modeling, and application development software, while Auditing uses the analytics and financial data software.
In addition, the lab’s video conferencing capabilities connect students with business executives, instructors, and leaders all over the world. Students have the opportunity to seek advice about the data they are studying as well as having the chance to ask broader questions regarding current events and pressing issues in the business world.
This facility is available for non-business majors as well and used in non-major courses such as Personal Finance and Perspectives on Business.