The age of data analytics requires "data scientists" across a wide range of business disciplines with deep knowledge of how to manage and analyse vast amounts of data to support decision-making. As a result, new analytical tools are being taught in the Management Information Systems (MIS) or business analytics (BA) programs to foster students' development of this critical competency. Three waves of analytics tools are considered from an experiential perspective including how to introduce analytics to first-year business students using an advanced data analytics software package with multiple techniques and data flow interface. SAS Enterprise Miner is used to teach technical topics and perform business-centric data analytics. An innovative exercise is designed in such a way that it guides first-year business students through a learning analytics journey to motivate them to understand the notion of data analytics and to develop skills around this emerging area without delving too much into extraneous technical details. A post-course survey indicated that the exercise helped students understand the opportunities as well as the challenges in doing analytics