The terms business analyst and business analytics are used in the corporate world. Even though there are some major differences between these terms, people generally think they are the same. If you want to make a career in this business world, it is important to understand the differences. So, keep reading and understand how they differ from each other.
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What Is Business Analyst?
You can say that a business analyst always works to bring changes to an organization. They are agile workers who work with the business and IT department by bridging the gap and improving efficiency. As per the experts, a business analyst is responsible for:
- Assisting organizations to improve their products, services, processes, applications, software, and more through an extensive data analysis.
- Working closely with the business customers and leaders to know how data-driven changes can add more value and boost business efficiencies.
- Analyzing different data sets to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the tools, hardware, products and services, processes, etc.
To handle all the assigned responsibilities, a business analyst needs a proper understanding and knowledge of reporting requirements and regulations and years of experience in financial analysis, budgeting, and business forecasting. They can be worked as a system analyst, process analysts, business architects, product analysts, product managers, requirement engineers, and more.
What Is Business Analytics?
In simple words, business analytics can convert an organization’s raw data into something very useful. By studying and processing data obtained from various sources, they can share insights or offer recommendations to the company. With their help, management can make informed decisions that can lead to a better outcome.
They generally focus on statistical analysis, data, tools, and reporting to assist analyze and investigate organization performance. Besides, they also work towards the improvement of products, customer experience, and marketing. And they carry out this utilizing the results they obtain from data instead of studying functions as well as processes.
It can be said that data and reporting are the major components of business analytics. On the contrary, a business analyst is concerned about functions and processes instead of data.
Similarities
- They both come up with solutions for issues.
- They establish things considering the requirements
- They analyze and improve businesses.
Skills Required To Become A Business Analyst
This field is quite versatile, and you should be proficient in the different skills needed for a professional business analyst. A business analyst should have skills for easily outlining current business problems and recommending appropriate solutions to those problems for a company. Speaking some key skills that you will have to develop to move ahead in this field are
- Domain Skills
You will have to be very creative. Besides, this job requires candidates with comprehension, documentation, and initiation skills.
- Technical Knowledge
Make sure you have IT skills and understand the field of software development.
- Fundamental Skills
Businesses prefer to hire business analysts having research, management, problem-solving, and excellent communication skills.
Important Skills Required To Become A Business Analytic
- Statistical Knowledge
Well, you don’t need to have a sound knowledge of statistics to become a business analyst. But if you want to perform better and outshine in this domain, it can help you a lot.
- Programming Skills
To begin your career as a business analyst, you should have good knowledge of programming. On the other hand, if you have proficiency in mathematics, that will be much better for you.
- Knowledge Of Data Visualization
You should know different data visualization techniques as your responsibility will be to convert huge amounts of data into graphics and pictures so that anyone can understand that.
- Presentation Skill
This skill is crucial for you. While working as a business analyst, you will have to demonstrate the outcomes or results in an easy-to-understand format and explain that to different audiences.
Do You Need To Develop Great Programming Skills For Both The Positions?
As discussed above, a business analytic expert closely works with structured data or information. They can utilize different tools and software programs, like SQL and more, to retrieve data from different sources. After that, they create a visualization if the company wants some important metrics.
Furthermore, they also know about different data science programming languages, for example, Julia, Hadoop, Python, and more. These experts are good at analyzing, manipulating, and visualizing important business data.
On the other hand, a business analyst doesn’t work much with data. In fact, they always go for business processes and functions. They generally help incorporate testing and calibration, model requirements, IT process, IT re-engineering, vital pain points, KPI-Key Performance Indicators, and more.
They generally come equipped with sufficient knowledge in framework development, like SLDC. They use different tools to carry out quantitative analysis and calculations. Such skills are not required for business analytics.
Related Job Titles
Types Of Job Titles As Business Analyst
- Process Analyst
Speaking of the process, analysts are the professional consultants who help companies in enhancing their workflows as well as processes so that they can stay competitive in their industry. They generally engage with stakeholders and management to explore the opportunities for business improvements.
- Functional Analyst
They deal with the computer systems and keep them functioning smoothly to meet the company’s demands. They start by talking to the managers and employees. After that, they put the systems in the right place and make necessary technological improvements.
- Product Manager
It is the responsibility of a product manager to make sure the product meets the goals and strategies of the company. They are responsible forcoming up with unique and innovative product ideas for the market that can create more business opportunities.
- IT Manager
While working as an IT manager, you will have to take care of your company’s computing, and IT needs. All the hardware and application users will be under your control and care.
- Business Consultant
A professional business consultant with a perfect understanding of different aspects of a company and market factors. They have excellent problem-solving skills and offer recommendations and ideas to boost efficiency and profitability.
Types Of Job Titles As Business Analytics
- Data Scientist
A data scientist in an organization is responsible for collecting as well as efficiently interpreting data utilizing qualitative analysis. They can easily predict and find out the information that can impact different departments through their extensive analysis skills. They generally use technologies like Python, SAS, SQL, ML, data visualization, and more.
- Data Analyst
These experts generally interpret data and analyze different business results. They are also responsible for improving statistical efficiency and searching for tools and techniques to improve business processes. Data analysts are also responsible for analytics reporting.
- Data Engineer
In any organization, data engineers are responsible for developing, upgrading, maintaining, and testing the IT infrastructure to make sure it can efficiently process different algorithms.
- Operation Research Analyst
These experts utilize data optimization, mining, statistical analysis, and modeling to assist companies in functioning economically and efficiently. They create plans to lower the waste and optimize an organization’s sourcing models.
Difference Between Business Analyst And Business Analytics
| Business Analysts | Business Analytics |
| They primarily focus on the methods and evaluating the business requirements. | They completely focus on functions, techniques, and methods. |
| It can be used to reckon multiple stats and to drive the process of business decisions. | The experts are responsible for finding out the complex organizational issues and creating a plan that can bring positive results. |
| A business analyst always looks at sales figures, and market research as well as logistic data to understand the trends, opportunities, and gaps. | They gather as well as effectively translate various business issues and requirements. Business analytics can bridge the gap between the IT department and business. |
| Business analysts have programming skills, presentation, data visualization skills, and mathematical skills, and they can translate statistical and mathematical results into an understandable language for both executives and stakeholders. | BAs have business and technical knowledge. They have the skills to understand the technologies used by an organization. Besides, they can also communicate in the technical departments. Due to their dynamic nature, they can work with all departments. |
Conclusion
Well, even though the functions are different, you can say that a successful business model will depend on both business analysts and business analytics. The real value of professional business analytics can be understood from the multiple business decisions it generally automates. They always start the process with business questions instead of data.
On the other hand, business analytics is considered the expert of data. They are used for segregating, categorizing, and clustering data obtained from different sources. They solve different business issues with the help of data.
In an organization, both the business analyst and business analytics work very closely to ensure the successful completion of the final process. Well, now you know the difference between business analytics as well as a business analyst professional, you can make your decision about which profession to choose.
