They don’t write songs or make movies or television shows around business analysts – unless you count “Moneyball” (which most business analyst majors do).
That movie makes clear what all students in master’s degree programs in business analytics already know: decisions based on facts lifted from data – not emotions and intuition – lead to better results.
For those interested in launching a career in business analytics, it’s of course interesting to learn of the profession’s immense value to private businesses, nonprofits, government agencies and, yes, sports teams.
What are the many ways business analysts are the heroes of any organization? Read on.
Identifying and Quantifying Challenges
Many organizations experience challenges every day. But business analysts quantify those challenges by digging through data and finding out exactly what is causing the problem. Using large datasets, they examine a current operation and find the areas of weakness. That leads to a better focus on the exact nature of the issue to be resolved.
Aiding Users
The support that business analysts give to others trying to learn a new software system might be the most “unsung” heroics of them all. They gather information on users’ preferences and develop step-by-step processes for correctly using a system. These assessments have a direct, positive impact on business operations because they’re often done for executives and managers.
Logic-Driven Recommendations of Business Analysts
Most business analysts – especially those who have completed a graduate-level degree program and have experience in the working world – often are called upon to make recommendations on key issues. Again, this is an area where a business analyst makes a world of difference because emotions or experience might dictate one course of action. But analysts make recommendations based on actual data and by using predictive analytics that can project what will happen if a certain course of action is followed.
Developing Solutions for Customers
The challenges mentioned above could involve internal operations or processes. In most cases, these all have an impact on the final product or service delivered to customers. But in some cases, a business analyst might directly take on a project related to customer preferences or emerging trends. They glean information on data and recommend the best course of action to satisfy the evolving needs of customers. This is something that business analysts specialize in, and it is increasing critical for organizations in the modern business world.
Business analysts are key to the success of any modern organization. No longer do executives have to rely on instinct or intuition to make decisions. They still can, of course, but a business analyst is there with recommendations that support a data-driven approach.
That helps make them the unsung heroes of the 21st century economic world.