Who is a business analyst?
A business analyst is a specialist who deals with data analysis. Their job aims to help companies make more informed business decisions.
Business analysts collect, process, and interpret business data. Among other things, the analyst’s activities result in reports based on the data acquired.
The analyst’s job is to understand the client’s business needs and provide information to effectively make strategic decisions for the business, such as:
- Launching new products;
- Exploring and analysing new markets;
- Cost optimisation and others.
The result of such a complex and responsible job should be adequate earnings. This is a common question for anyone interested in business intelligence.
If you want to know how much a business analyst earns, read the following article on our blog.
Qualities useful in a business analyst job
What qualities do you need to work as a business analyst? It turns out that it is not only purely scientific! The requirements of a business analyst are broad and go beyond Excel.
That being said, who is a business analyst? They are the golden handyman in the world of BI!
A good business analyst combines many qualities – both from strict disciplines and those seemingly unrelated to the topic of business analytics.
We have decided to create a concise list of requirements that a candidate for an analyst should meet:
- Analytical skills are the basis for processing and analysing large amounts of data and information.
- Ideally, the analyst should know “inside out” the industry for which they work. This makes data analysis effective and allows for better-tailored solutions for the project or company.
- Technical skills: it is preferable for the analyst to be familiar with analytical tools and programs and to have mastered at least the basics of programming.
- Communication skills, interpersonal skills. These are valuable skills for the analyst to communicate conclusions and all the essential information to their client.
- Creativity – yes, this is also an essential characteristic of a good analyst! Their role is to interpret data and suggest the best solutions for the business.
- Sense of responsibility. Data interpretation combined with business consulting is a responsible task facing the analyst. The result of their work can be the success or failure of the client.
In summary, if you are wondering who a business analyst is, it is about a person with numerous technical and creative skills.
In other words, what characterises a good business analyst is a combination of hard and soft skills.
Power BI, or business analysis tools
Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence tool. BI stands for business intelligence. It is a set of tools that run in the cloud (but not exclusively!) and is used to collect, analyse, interpret, and visualise data.
A business analyst should be able to work with these tools. They allow you to:
- Collecting data from various sources;
- Integration of the BI system with other services;
- Convenient management of information in the system;
- Ability to work flexibly with data – segregating, refreshing, and processing it;
- Intuitive creation of reports based on the acquired data.
With tools such as Power BI, the analyst efficiently analyses the project, the company’s growth opportunities, and the available solutions for the business.
Summary: Tasks and Role of a business analyst
A business analyst is a person who professionally deals with data analysis. In their daily work, they use the capabilities of special tools such as Power BI. They are involved in analysing and interpreting information concerning a given company or a given project to:
- Improving business processes;
- Indicate the best paths for the company’s development.
To summarise all the information so far: who is a business analyst? A person makes it possible to develop a business based on complex analytical data processed through specialised tools. Hard and soft skills, good work organisation, and interpersonal skills are helpful.
