For the successful operation of any company, it is necessary to constantly analyze expenses, income, employee efficiency, sales, return on advertising, and other indicators. A business analyst can successfully cope with this task. Most often, such a specialist is included in the staff of employees in large companies in medicine, construction, finance, and IT technologies. Large organizations are well aware of who such a business analyst is and successfully cooperate with him since the work involves many complex processes, a considerable number of employees, and financial and material resources. His activities are aimed at making the company function as productively as possible.
The main tasks of a business analyst
If you understand who a business analyst is and what functional tasks he performs, then you can apply his skills to your company as effectively as possible. A business analyst may have different tasks depending on the organization’s size and activity type. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify several common areas of work regardless of the areas of activity:
- business process development;
- searching for poorly performing processes, describing problems, looking for opportunities, proposing options for revisions and improvements;
- forecasting results. The business analyst calculates how the changes will benefit the company and what profit they can expect if implemented.
- setting tasks for the company, a certain department, or an employee. The business analyst describes in detail what changes are needed and how to implement them.
Skills of a business analyst
Business analyst: who is it? A specialist capable of bringing the company to a new level of development or an employee who optimizes costs. The profession requires orientation in many business areas, from communication with employees to the peculiarities of logistics or the production of goods.
A business intelligence specialist must have professional knowledge that allows him to easily communicate with customers and employees who directly influence the success of the analyzed area.
Key skills:
- Interviewing. This skill allows you to easily communicate with company employees, find out if there are problems or weaknesses, understand how work processes work, and understand where to look for a starting point for improvements.
- Critical thinking. No one can tell a business analyst how to act correctly, as such recommendations are expected from him. This specialist should be able to see the situation from different sides and find optimal solutions to improve one business process or the company’s work as a whole.
- Systematicity. To properly analyze information, it must be systematized. It is important to separate the main from the secondary to do this.
This versatile specialist should be able to work with financial planning and business modeling. He or she should easily create budgeting and financial models, analyze sales and sales funnel efficiency, structure customer data, and track project tasks.
To successfully perform the tasks, a business analyst must have expertise in software development, SQL, Google Tables, and Exel, and knowledge of UML – the business process modeling language.
Today, business analytics is one of the most powerful tools in a company’s arsenal, which allows it to be competitive and ensure stable business development.