Today, businesses are flooded with data. They need people who can translate this data to make decisions for their business. But this is easier said than done; it’s not just creating graphs and presentations, there’s a lot of data crunching involved to make data work.
Data is unstructured, unprocessed, and sometimes even unreliable. An analyst’s role is to take data and make the bigger picture clear for the stakeholders. That’s what makes a Business Intelligence Analyst’s role a coveted one. But what does it take to become a BI (Business Intelligence) Analyst? We will delve deeper into it, but let’s understand the role of a BI Analyst first.
What Does a Business Intelligence Analyst Do?
Simply put, a Business Intelligence Analyst helps businesses make decisions. They employ tools like SQL to extract necessary data and implement statistical methods like regression, ANOVA, etc., and tools like R and Python to uncover insights. On a typical day, an analyst can be found –
1. Collecting and analyzing data
Data resides in large databases, both inside and outside the organization. Collecting the data is a primary task for an analyst. The data could be sales data residing in the company’s CRM, market data available in market research reports, or a repository like public research. Collecting and cleaning data takes a huge chunk of an analyst’s time.
2. Interpreting data
A BI analyst uses statistical methods and other tools to find patterns within the data. The interpretation is conveyed to stakeholders as a graph or a presentation using visualization tools such as Power BI, Tableau, etc.
3. Collaboration and communication
A BI analyst spends time collaborating with people across the organization, including senior managers, executives, and other teams, to understand business requirements and translate them into insights and business recommendations.
4. Monitoring and optimization
If you’ve built a data solution, monitoring and optimizing the performance of the solution becomes a part of the role, too.
5. Ensuring data security and compliance
There’s an increasing focus on data security. A BI analyst plays a critical role in ensuring data security by implementing protocols and taking measures that safeguard information.
Now that we know what a day in the life of a business intelligence analyst looks like. Let’s understand what it takes to become one.
Becoming a Business Intelligence Analyst: 5 Key Skills to Master
From soft skills like communication to hard skills like SQL, becoming a sought-after business analyst requires these five skills –
1. SQL
SQL (Structured Query Language) allows an analyst to access data stored in relational databases. Retrieving the data from the databases for further processing requires knowledge of SQL. Writing SQL queries, performing functions to group and manipulate data, joining tables, etc., are some of your actions.
2. Data Exploration
Gathering large amounts of data and seeing patterns within it is a critical skill for a BI analyst. Techniques like clustering, classification, etc., help with data exploration and prepare for further analysis.
3. Statistics
Retrieved data is processed using statistical methods like regression to help uncover insights. This is usually the second last step in the analyst’s workflow. Depending on how unstructured the data is, an analyst employs data cleaning techniques like data normalization or manages missing values from the data. This process is essential before analyzing the data.
4. R and Python
It’s excellent to know both R and Python; knowledge of one of the languages often suffices. These languages help analysts implement statistical techniques to decipher the gathered data.
5. Predictive Analytics
Based on historical data, techniques like forecasting using machine learning methods such as linear regression, time series, etc., help predict future outcomes. Understanding predictive analytics and knowing how to predict future outcomes for a business is a key skill to master for a BI analyst.
6. Collaboration and Communication
Communicating your ideas to key stakeholders and team members is crucial for BI analysts to excel in their careers. More often than not, you will collaborate with people across the organization, including developers, engineers, etc., it is essential to put forward your objections clearly so a problem can be solved. It is equally important to explain your ideas clearly, so every stakeholder can be on the same page as you.
Conclusion
Business Intelligence Analyst is a coveted role in the industry. If you’re looking to become one; get started today by learning the essential skills mentioned above. Remember to top up your learning with hands-on experience with industry projects – and fast forward your career as a BI Analyst.
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