What is Business Analytics?
Business analytics involves applying various statistical methods and techniques to data that has been gathered to measure business performance and come up with valuable conclusions to guide a company’s decisions about its future.
People often confuse business analytics with business intelligence . Although both business intelligence and analytics involve data, there is a distinct difference between the two: business intelligence is concerned with gathering and collecting data while business analytics looks at how to apply and use the data.
To put it another way, business intelligence is the beginning of comprehending the current situation of the business. It answers the “what” of the situation. Business analytics serves as a link between the technical and managerial aspects of business by demonstrating why certain decisions are made.
The Need for Business Analytics
To better understand why business analytics has become a buzzword in the corporate world and why you should consider specializing in the field, let’s first define what business analysts do :
Business analysts are equipped with the essential understanding, capabilities, and access to data to make the best decision for the company to succeed in the coming years.
Their expertise lies in determining the possibilities that are most likely to be successful, devising a plan that would be beneficial for the company, and readying the firm for the impending transition.
The need for analytics is far from new . What is new is its wide range of applications. In the past, only businesses that encountered a large amount of danger, like insurance companies, would use analytics in their processes.
As the emergence of data usage altered the way businesses are run, corporations from all markets were confronted with diverse possibilities of danger that could only be circumvented by having accurate and relevant data.
And, as we said in the very beginning, for a piece of information to be useful, it needs to be processed, understandable, and actionable. It is important to have a person skilled in statistics go through any data a business gathers or stores so that advantageous and practical outcomes can be reached.
Through these findings, the business can gain knowledge of the setting they work in, determine how to be stronger rivals, simplify management conclusions, and ultimately bring in more income.
Finally, analytics allows for fast and precise decision-making. It is clear why business analytics is the most sought-after profession in the modern age as time is so crucial in business.
How Business Analytics Helps Companies Improve, Grow, And Overcome Challenges
Let’s delve further into the five ways that business analytics can aid an organization.
1. Business analytics empowers companies to make an impact
Examining data provides an insight into both the business and the sector in which it is active, ensuring that an organization is able to select options that promote their development.
More specifically, business analytics provides:
- Clarity. Knowing where a company stands in the industry or a particular niche provides the company with the needed clarity to develop effective strategies to position itself better in the future.
- Competitiveness. If a company does not analyze the huge amounts of data it is exposed to, it might drown in information, and stay behind the competition.
- Timeliness. Clear insight into each aspect of the business empowers easy and fast decision-making that yields positive results.
2. Business analytics keeps businesses up-to-date in a changing environment
To be successful in the current market, which necessitates innovation and development, a firm must keep up with the most 2020 trends and techniques in their sector.
Business analytics not only ensures that companies remain afloat amid the ever-evolving business climate, but also grants access to potential for advancement and betterment. It offers a comprehensive examination of a range of opportunities and difficulties which firms come up against on a daily basis.
3. Business analytics elevates operational efficiency
Business analytics gives businesses the ability to identify areas where their operations don’t run as optimally as they could, and then to react appropriately.
4. Business analytics empowers companies to plan for growth
With analytics, businesses gain the capability to predict what will happen in the future, allowing them to act quickly and be prepared for potential risks. The company can now take more decisive action, assured that it is prepared to manage potential risks and deal with the fallout.
5. Business analytics builds stronger customer relationships
Analytics provides organizations with an understanding of what their customers do, what they require, and the problems they experience. This also provides businesses the chance to comprehend their brand’s public opinion, to track the outcome of different marketing initiatives, and to devise an improved marketing plan for maintaining strong and successful connections with their customers.
3 Reasons You Should Consider Pursuing a Career in Business Analytics
What are the benefits of choosing business analytics as a career, from a personal perspective?
1. The supply is still lower than the demand
As more businesses become aware of the advantage that big data provides for their efficiency and success, being a business analyst has become one of the most sought-after employment opportunities of the 21st century.
The attraction of entering this industry as a profession is exacerbated by the consistently growing demand but the market has not yet been inundated by the supply.
A recent report by Burning Glass Technologies, Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF), and IBM, titled “The Quant Crunch: How The Demand For Data Science Skills Is Disrupting The Job Market” has found that “Data Science and Analytics (DSA) jobs remain open an average of 45 days , five days longer than the market average.”
Put another way, there is a high demand for data-related professionals among modern businesses, but there are not enough qualified individuals available to fulfill the need.
2. Business analytics can be applied to any industry and is an easy switch from other careers
When it comes to business analytics, one’s prior career or experiences have no bearing.
Analytics has many applications, anywhere from entertainment to education, insurance to automotive and more. This makes it an ideal career transition since it can be used across different industries.
To be a business analyst, you need the following skills:
- Collaboration
- Ability to align with stakeholders
- Basic knowledge of stats tools such as Excel
- Ability to drive impact
- Working A/B testing skills
You can observe that these capabilities are overall, and do not necessitate expert technical understanding.
Furthermore, the realm of enterprise analytics provides a plethora of job opportunities (view the image below to get a comprehensive listing).
3. A career in business analytics is dynamic and makes room for professional development
Business analysts are unfamiliar with the concept of a “standard” day. They continually experience different difficulties as they undertake activities in numerous settings and serve customers with particular requirements.
Additionally, the type of employment requires business analysts to keep in touch with personnel from different divisions, who have assorted capabilities and proficiency, enriching their understanding of how a company, and all of its divisions work.
Business analysts are being continually trained and are searching for different ways to solve tricky problems that will result in more inventive and useful solutions.
Business Intelligence Trends
Storytelling Becoming a Norm
Examining information is one thing; utilizing it for business purposes is another. There’s no doubt; data analytics help users uncover insights. The ultimate goal of the business intelligence process is to use the analysis to make informed decisions.
Implementing ideas is much easier to talk about than actually doing it. Analysts must present data and insights to executives with clarity so that it can be understood and acted upon. It is essential for analysts to explain how data transformed into understanding. The combination of these abilities leads to something referred to as data storytelling.
In the current technological environment, where firms are developing a culture of analytics, it is becoming more and more critical to use data storytelling. Telling stories adds a bit more information to data and supplies the tale that is necessary in order to implement knowledge. What benefit can a startup gain from an economical business intelligence platform if the data it produces is not transformed into valuable information?
Companies have come to understand that the figures on the dashboard are useless if they do not have a proper context and interpretation. For this reason, a lot of people have been doing whatever it takes to use the art of storytelling to promote discussions centered around data. In addition, there are large-scale efforts to promote data literacy, increasing the ability of all individuals to comprehend and use data in discussions.
In 2021, the business intelligence space will be shaped by data storytelling. The trend will clearly cause a transformation in the way businesses exploit data in order to communicate, get acquainted, and experiment with new concepts. More companies will use this method to make their findings more pertinent to their situations.
- In the modern era, data storytelling has taken a central role in business intelligence.
- Also, data storytelling is redefining how analysts interpret and explain the analytical process.
- Besides, data storytelling has taken center stage in data visualizations, enabling analysts to detail their step-by-step approach to every result.
Data Governance
In a recent BI-Survey, organizations assigned a significance to data governance with an average grade of 6.9 out of 10 (BARC, 2021). It is undeniable that having data governance is necessary for any organization that desires to reap substantial profits from their business intelligence investments. It is noteworthy that most entities already have a certain structure of managing data, though many have yet to regulate it entirely.
So, what is data governance?
Data governance involves establishing regulations for controlling and overseeing the handling of corporate data resources, such as operations, procedures, and structures. Briefly, it serves as a solid groundwork for the whole company’s information organization. This provides businesses with the ability to utilize the technologies, processes, and personnel involved in the management of data assets to provide complete, dependable, secure, and understandable data.
This has an effect on the day-to-day, long-term, and short-term decisions within a company. Consequently, numerous organizations have enacted data governance programs to enable the effective utilization of precise information. The motivation to bolster assurance among executives and make business intelligence beneficial are a few of the aspects that are propelling the data governance movement.
The Emergence of Voice-Activated Assistants
Small businesses continue to exhibit greater enthusiasm for business intelligence, and digital assistants are consequently becoming increasingly significant. It is crucial to recall that small business owners and employees had to independently obtain benchmark reports, visible workflows, and data visualization dashboards.
Nevertheless, Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing are making the situation improve. Today’s business intelligence systems have been outfitted with virtual aides that make the BI procedure more straightforward. The rise of vocal-controlled aides has given BI experts new optimism. It is expected that the new assistants will transcribe vocal recordings and transform them into accurate information that can be looked into to find knowledge.
- With new digital assistants, it will be easy for businesses to transcribe language and transform it into organized information.
- Digital assistants are simplifying work for data workers.
Connected Cloud
People in the corporate world can confirm that almost all corporate resources are transitioning to the cloud. Cloud-based business intelligence is gaining ground in the realms of big data and analytics. The latest advances indicate that the future of commerce will be based on cloud technology. Therefore, all aspects of business intelligence, from data models, sources of data, computing capabilities, data storage, and analytics frameworks, are intended to be located in the cloud.
There is no option for businesses other than to utilize cloud analytics. Using multiple systems in the cloud results in increased velocity, difficulty, dangers, and expenses. It is challenging to identify an all-encompassing BI solution that satisfies all of an organization’s requirements due to the variety of elements involved.
This is where the connected cloud strategy comes in. Implementing a comprehensive cloud plan is an optimal selection that supplies adaptability and minimizes the dangers associated with analyzing data. Before investing in this strategy, it is important to research the various difficulties that may arise in doing so.
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