Future Demand For Business Analytics Professionals
Two hot emerging specializations for graduates that offer a great potential future with the opportunities just starting to open up are Business Intelligence (BI) and Business Analytics (BA). These two specialized fields are acquiring increasing relevance across the industry spectrum translating into great career fields as occupations whose potential has just begun to be tapped. Before we further analyze the demand as well as the future in these two fields, it would be worthwhile to explore in brief what these fields exactly are.
What is Business Analytics?
Business Analytics as per Wikipedia is the collective set of applications, technology, processes and skills used by business organizations to gather insights into their business as statistics and data which eventually enable them to plan their business in a superior manner. Business Analytics is used in the evaluation of business operations on an organization-wide scale. BA can indeed be extended into all of the business aspects including sales, product development and even customer service wings of the organization.
Demand For Business Analytics Professionals
The explosion of data available at the disposal of businesses has resulted in the field of BA scaling unforeseen heights in the realm of career prospects and jobs. Through analytic tools and the ability to properly use them and make sense of the results, companies not only gain competitive advantage but also stand to benefit greatly. A freshly conducted Big Data study revealed that more than a whopping 85% of respondents admitted that they want to foster data-driven cultures and have started programs to achieve the same.
To the great delight of aspiring BA professionals, this is one field where the availability of skilled manpower falls far short of the industry demand. By the year 2018, a McKinsey study anticipated that the need for skilled data science manpower will exceed 490,000 in the US alone with availability standing at only 200,000 personnel resulting in the stark 50% more demand than availability.
BA is the Data Science job position that is regarded as the best esteem and such professionals are tasked with the aggregation of data before determining how the business can best leverage that data in terms of both efficiency as well as effectiveness.
To meet the challenge posed by the supply of BA professionals and to let students take hold of this golden opportunities colleges and universities besides special training institutes have come up with courses on the subject perfect for graduates with a background in fields like math, science, engineering and business. This is the tested and proven track to jump-start a career in BA.
Once you have acquired a graduate degree and wish to pursue BA as a career path then the right thing to do for you is to sign up for a certificate course in BA. This is essential if you want the skills and knowledge that are needed to truly excel in this career path. A business analytics online course is especially convenient if flexibility in terms of time and location is what you need.
What is Business Intelligence ?
Business Intelligence on the other hand, is the combined set of tech, processes and the architecture used to derive meaningful information from raw business data. This information is used to determine business decisions resulting in business moves that are ultimately more profitable and better for the business. It is, therefore, a suite of services and software used to convert data into actionable intelligence.
BI has a direct effect on strategic and tactical business decisions in addition to operational ones. BI facilitated decisions are based on historical data and facts.
Future as a Business Intelligence Professional :
There are a large number of profiles that professionals skilled in BI can get employed after undergoing a business intelligence course. There are a large number of roles that are needed to efficiently run a BI system. Some of the more prominent BI roles are as follows:
- Business Intelligence Project Manager
- Business Intelligence Analyst
- SQL Server Business Intelligence Developer
- Business Intelligence Developer
- Business Intelligence Administrator
- BI Semantic Model Developer
- Business Intelligence Consultant
- Business Intelligence Manager
Certifications as a Business Analyst
If you opt for a Business Analyst certification it serves as a validation of the skills you have acquired through the certificate course and you end up with a vital competitive advantage in your career. Three main certification institutions have special recognition viz:
- IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis)
- CBAP (Certified Business Analysis Professional) and
- CCBA (Certification Competency Business Analyst)
You can also pursue training in BA at private institutes after you have validated their credentials. The training and subsequent certification give you the extra confidence you need to meet the challenges as a Business Analyst head-on.
Future of a Business Analyst
If you have successfully gained entry into the world of business analytics as a business analyst then with the passage of time you can make a progression into consultant or project management roles that serve anything from pre-sales consultants to functional ones and even end up as an IT PMO. The things that go in favour of business analysts are:
- Salary
The role of a BA presents an attractive if not exactly lucrative salary which is one of the main reasons it is one of the most sought after jobs around.
- Job Security
IT is undergoing a phase of rapid automation where almost everything is getting automated but a BA role in spite of all this is something that simply cannot be automated as of now. BA is a job that is oriented and involves with people, something robots are yet to match up to. This helps to reinforce the job security of a BA.
- Self-Improvement
Being a BA leaves you with the chance to improve to a great extent by getting well versed in the latest technical know-how of emerging technologies like Big Data. If you are the sort who can truly enjoy working with data and like digging up deep with the same then BA is a field that is simply made for you.
Demand For Business Intelligence Professionals
Business Intelligence (BI) is the perfect way to jumpstart your career in a field that is considered to be one of the most sought after in the world today.
With the increasing complexity of business operations as time passes, the larger corporate organizations to be found are racing away to stay a step ahead of the competition which in turn demands that they have loads of meaningful actionable insights based on data. Because most data is untidy or unstructured, analyzing the same in real-time is difficult. This calls for special tech that allows enterprises to analyze the available data and predict the trends of the market. This is the purpose served by BI.
Consider the following stat from Fathom Delivers:
Data of poor quality the use of conventional analytics result in US businesses losing up to a whopping $600 billion every year.
Such data discrepancies result in corporate organizations wasting their resources in analyzing trends that ultimately bear no value. BI tech lets businesses refine as well as slice and dice that data available to them to come up with meaningful patterns. BI was a vague concept when it was first introduced and with the evolution of Big Data it has gained momentum.
A report by Zion Research estimated the global BI industry to be worth 16.33 billion US dollars in the year 2015. The industry is expected to grow to 26.50 billion US dollars by the year 2021 which would mean that the industry has a CAGR of approx 8.4%.
Why Pursue a Business Intelligence Course?
- Great Salary
BI professionals have high demand in the industry and draw great and attractive paychecks. If you are employed in the US as a BI Analysts you can get anywhere from $118,000 - $171,750 per year with the paycheck tipped to rise by 4.3%.
- Great Scope for Future Career
The importance and need for BI is something that the industry has woken up to. BI is now used in almost all sectors including things like retail, software, governmental projects, and even healthcare. The scope of BI is all set to be further expanded in the coming years, making a career move in this field smart.
