Finance is something that underpins all our lives and is something we all need to pay attention to. The business world is certainly impacted by finance – be it budgets which specific departments must work to, HR costs, sales, or cash flow which any organization must keep an eye on. By ensuring that they stay on a healthy financial footing, companies are better able to stick around for the long term and achieve sustained growth.
In addition to the benefits that good financial management can offer, many firms now turn to big data for further help. The amount of customer data collected per year by companies on a global scale is massive and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The key thing to understand, though, is that it is not the data itself that is important – the analysis and insights drawn from help firms to make better decisions.
Data analysis skills key for modern businesses
It comes as no surprise, therefore, to see the demand for people with expert data analysis skills rising fast in the modern corporate sector. As a result, people who are qualified to work with complex datasets and draw useful insights from them are sought after by business leaders globally. When you factor in the competitive rates of pay these roles attract and the interesting nature of the work involved, it is easy to see why so many people are choosing this career path.
But how do you get into data analysis as a career? As noted above, it is key to pick up the right skills, knowledge, and qualifications first. Without this behind you, employers may not see you as a suitable candidate for vacancies, and you may struggle to excel if you do land your dream role.
The best way to get the knowledge and qualifications required is through formal academic education. St. Bonaventure University’s online Master of Science in Business Analytics is a popular choice and teaches you more about how data analytics help business. This data analytics program also includes hands-on experience with key technologies in the industry and comes with multiple start dates per year.
What traits do you need to work in data analysis?
Although the above describes the kind of qualifications required to succeed in this field, data analysis also calls for some specific skills. Excellent communication skills are a must, for example, and enable you to explain any insights you find clearly across a range of channels (including phone, text, email, and video calls). Good presentation skills are also useful in this profession and allow you to present key findings to colleagues for them to make decisions on.
As this kind of job involves using some of the latest tech platforms to analyze data, strong IT skills also come in handy. This is in terms of using basic IT packages in business (such as MS Office) and IT resources specific to data analysis. Critical thinking is also important in a data analysis role, as is the ability to think logically. This can help you think rationally when interpreting data, spot key insights, and think critically beforehand to plan any analysis.
Data analysts should also be organized and pay superb attention to detail. Being organized is important because it means you work logically, keep on top of your workload, and always attend any key meetings you have with senior colleagues. Excellent attention to detail is key because it means you always pick up on what data is telling you and do not miss any key nuggets of information.
What common tasks are involved in data analysis?
If you are considering this career path, it is worth looking at the kind of tasks it involves. The most common include:
- Gathering data
- Cleaning data
- Processing of datasets and spotting patterns in data
- Reporting insights drawn from data
- Collaborating with colleagues around data/key takeaways from data collected
Although this does not describe every task a data analyst may usually cover in business, it is a good overview of what you might do each day in the role.
How can insights data analysis offer help drive positive business decision-making?
If you plan to start working in data analysis for business, you will soon realize that the insights you draw out of data sets are especially crucial. In addition, it is the ability to explain these insights to colleagues in a way they can understand and also offer ideas/solutions based on data analysis that proves useful.
This is not something people who are not qualified for this line of work are able to do effectively. The massive amounts of data most companies collect now on a daily basis (usually known as data lakes) are just too complex and too large for the untrained business professional to work with. As a result, trained data analysts are a must for any firm seeking to gain more understanding of the data they collect and interpret it in a way that helps them make better business decisions moving ahead.
But what are some of the most valuable ways insights from data analysis can help businesses make better decisions?
Ensures decisions are based on facts
To get to the heart of why data analysis can help drive more positive decisions in the corporate world, you have to look at what big data actually is. At its root, it is factual information collected by companies on customers with their permission. The essential thing to focus on here in terms of more positive business decisions is the factual nature of data.
By looking at factual information collected, data analysts ensure that the insights they draw from it are also factual. This is crucial because it means any patterns analysts notice are not guesswork or opinion – they are simply digging down deeper into the facts to see what they are really saying.
This is much more positive for business management, as any decision based on this analysis is also entirely factual. This removes the guesswork from strategic business planning and ensures any plans have a firm footing in reality.
Data analysis insights breed positive action
Sometimes the real danger to decision-making in companies is not doing the wrong thing – it is hesitating to do anything at all! This level of indecision can see firms miss golden opportunities to break into new markets or fail to launch new products, which their customers are crying out for. If you do not look at what data tells you, you go back to guessing what the best call is to make or which direction you should go next as a business.
The problem is that any sensible CEO will be wary of committing time and money to new ventures they are not 100% confident about. As a result, a level of inertia can set in, and business leaders hold back on making any decision at all!
Insights drawn from data analysis are very useful in this regard, as business leaders know they can be relied on and have complete confidence in what they suggest. This frees executives to make decisions based on analytical findings and avoids them falling pretty to indecision.
Analytical insights help to drive better cybersecurity planning
A deeper understanding of how a company works is also something that data analysis can help with. Analyzing datasets around IT networks can lead to more positive decisions regarding cybersecurity.
When you learn that cybercrime losses in 2022 exceeded $10 billion, it is clear why all businesses need to make the right calls in this area. But how can analyzing company data around IT networks and security help?
In simple terms, embedding the analysis of data into IT risk management procedures means companies can identify cybercrime dangers and monitor them. This can include digging into which locations cyber-attacks have come from lately or what the most common cyber-attacks have been to guard against moving ahead.
By offering detailed insights into these areas, data analysis enables business leaders to tailor IT security plans to be much more effective and based on the threats they face. Naturally, this is something which can lead to more effective decisions made on corporate cybersecurity over time and makes for a much more robust online security plan.
Data analysis helps with understanding customers
Running a business successfully relies on dedication, action, and inspiration. There is no doubt that customers are also at the heart of any business and bring in much-needed revenue. This does not happen by accident, though, and all organizations need to find ways to really understand their customers. Once this has been achieved, future decision-making is done from a much more informed position and helps leaders make plans which should prove popular with their audience.
Data analysis plays a major role here because it can take the masses of raw data collected on customers and tease out key takeaways to make future strategic plans. Without this information, entrepreneurs would not have as deep an understanding of their market or where to head next.
For example, a US company which sells sportswear may have a general idea of their overall sales or which product categories customers engage with best. Data analysis, though, can look at which specific states most customers come from or which brands/styles/colors of sportswear the majority like to buy. By gaining these insights, managers of the firm can then make more informed decisions when planning new product lines, looking at where to open new stores, or thinking about which specific brands in product lines aren’t performing well.
Data analysis can streamline operations
Alongside the positive influence in decision-making around cybersecurity and customer understanding, data analytical insights can also be helpful for ideas on how a business operates. This is a very important point for any organization and not something savvy entrepreneurs can afford to ignore. If the company is operating smoothly and efficiently, for example, it will see employees become more productive and more products being made to sell.
Key to all this is having factual insights drawn from data as to how the business is currently operating. Data analysis is crucial in this situation for managers to assess how efficient current workflows are and delve further into what may be causing any issues in said workflows. Insights drawn from data can also help leaders see if certain processes need refining or are too wasteful in terms of resources.
This is something that firms can then consider when reviewing operations and planning how best to refine or manage them in the future. By having this information to work on, they can make better plans which have the desired impact on overall operations.
Helps with decisions around marketing campaigns
Marketing is also an important part of any company and helps attract new customers to drive sustained growth. By telling people who you are, where you are, and what you offer, you can stand out from the crowd. Marketing is also important for retaining customers and ensuring they know about your latest offers or promotions.
Marketing campaigns need careful planning to ensure they have the best chance of success and are worth the resources which will be diverted to them. Data insights can really help with this because it enables businesses to track how previous marketing campaigns performed for similar products/services. This may include analyzing which marketing channels proved most popular with customers or how much engagement there was from certain territories.
By taking these kinds of insights into account, business leaders can decide on future campaigns that should help them succeed. It can also help leaders look at where previous campaigns didn’t perform so well and make tweaks to this moving ahead.
Team leaders can use data insights effectively
While customers remain very important for companies, staff are also a valuable resource. A happy, loyal, and hard-working team of employees are one of the central tenants any successful firm is built on.
The key to achieving this is being able to manage the staff you have properly. On a local level, this often falls to team leaders who manage groups of employees in various departments. The information that deeper data analysis can provide is useful for these team leaders and how they can look after their staff.
This is because it enables them to investigate which employees are performing best, which are lagging behind and ensure key deadlines/KPIs are being hit within their team. This, in turn, can allow them to make more informed decisions around allocating duties, managing people, and general workloads.
What’s next for data analysis in business?
The importance of data for business is set to grow even more as we move ahead – and the insights drawn from this data will remain key for positive decision-making in the corporate world. Data analysts will continue to play a crucial role in all this and help business leaders to make the best calls when making future plans.
As the world becomes even more tech-savvy, you would – expect data analysis – to follow the same path. This is even more true when you think that data analysis is already a sector that focuses heavily on the latest technologies to operate.
Although it is hard to say for sure how this might look, it would not be surprising to see developments around the tech packages used to collect, clean and process datasets. It would also not be surprising to see AI become more prevalent in some parts of data analysis, helping human analysts with tasks such as spotting patterns.
Data analysis insights and better business decisions
As the above shows, there is no doubt that the insights drawn from complex datasets enable businesses to make better decisions in a number of ways. This is only possible if trained data analysts are employed to tease out key nuggets of information and present them to leaders to make decisions.
Qualified data analysts may also offer their own ideas based on insights they have delivered, which can inform strategic business planning moving forward. When you look at all this, it is without question that business management can be improved through analytical insights and the factual nature of data analysis work.
