Business Analytics, Data Analytics and Business Intelligence are all data-related jobs, deployed for the benefit of the business. However, the similarity in their functions has confused many people. This article, EDUTO will provide you with the necessary knowledge about Business Analytics and how to distinguish Business Analytics from the other two terms.

What is Business Analytics?

The purpose of Business Analytics is to process and analyze data based on business problems to propose solutions and directions to help them make the most optimal decisions for development. The Analytics process is summarized in 3 steps:

• Process and analyze data.
• Draw conclusions and evaluate the analyzed data.
• Propose implementation decision.

Specifically, current and past medium-term, short-term, and long-term data of a unit (company, department, department, etc.) will be processed. Then, they are compiled into a series of information and handed over to the departments in charge of implementation tasks.

Suppose you are a business data analyst and propose to increase product prices from 1% to 2%, which target groups will be easily affected by this? These could be Logistics, Supply Chain, Marketing, and Sales departments. Therefore, for your wishes to come true, you need to provide convincing evidence to gain consensus from all parties.

Next, during the implementation process, you need to continuously monitor and update the impact of a price increase (1% - 2%) on the operating processes of Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain, R&D and even enterprise. In case the negative impact occurs beyond prediction, you need to quickly create a new process.

It can be seen that data-driven decision making is an endless cycle. Business data analysts must always monitor, collect, process data and draw new conclusions based on what has been, is being done, and will be done. There are many steps, but in reality, what benefits will Business Analytics bring to businesses?

News: Top technology news in the US: A deep dive into the first half of 06/2024

5 benefits of Business Analytics for businesses

First, help businesses make highly accurate decisions. The appearance of Real-time data and tools and algorithms that support analysis have further strengthened the reliability of Business Analytics. This will help businesses limit making emotional decisions, influenced by human bias and lacking objectivity.

Second , contribute to target and revenue management. Going back to the product price increase example, how do you know whether the company should impose a price increase (1% - 2%) or not? Based on the perspectives and results analyzed by the algorithm, you can completely predict the status of the company and departments (Supply Chain, Marketing...) when the plan begins to deploy.

Third , increase the ability to understand consumers. Through collecting and analyzing data based on actual behavior at the point of sale, Business Analytics will help businesses have a specific perspective on consumer desires. From there, they can come up with effective business strategies to conquer the target customer group.

Fourth , improve the company's operating performance. Based on Business Analytics, data analysis results will truly reflect the problems that businesses are facing. Thereby, the company can come up with appropriate solutions based on prioritization. Because, the increase or decrease in the budget, deficits, profits... will be presented most clearly and transparently through numbers.

Finally , adjust ROI (Return on Investment) to suit each project, campaign... to increase profits. Typically, businesses have quite a few investments to keep track of. Business Analytics will help managers measure the effectiveness of operations (performance, sales goals...). From there, the business will decide whether to invest or not or give a more feasible ROI number on each object.

However, many people confuse Data Analytics and Business Intelligence. In fact, these are two different jobs. Accordingly, to limit unfortunate confusion between positions, affecting business results, you need to recognize the differences between them.

News: Software Development - way to demystify the Digital Age's foundation

Difference between Business Analytics and Data Analytics

As their name suggests, the mission of Business Analytics is to analyze from a business perspective. Meanwhile, Data Analytics is in charge of data-related issues. But many people confuse these two terms. Accordingly, they will be distinguished based on 3 aspects: Key Focus, Scope of Work (scope of work) and Requirement (requirements).

Key focus

For Business Analytics, you need to know how to react to data. That means, you must understand the meaning and importance of the data you have, to help businesses see the current situation and have the right direction for the future.

Meanwhile, Data Analytics mainly focuses on analyzing and drawing conclusions about data-related issues. Data Analytics people will be responsible for researching, cleaning, converting and modeling data into useful information to support business decision making.

Scope of work

As mentioned, Business Analytics will directly discuss with departments to make recommendations on the direction of business operations.

Meanwhile, Data Analytics will focus on synthesizing, applying, and interpreting data towards building highly useful information. That means that, instead of exploiting business insights, Data Analysis will be in charge of exploiting data insights.

Request

To complete the Business Analytics job well, you need a lot of knowledge, experience, and experience. Not simply analyzing data, Business Analytics people must understand the internal problems of each department, business and market. You are forced to intervene in the lives of the Supply Chain, Marketing and Sales departments... to know their vulnerabilities and find ways to connect the departments.

Meanwhile, the work of Data analytics will revolve around statistics, databases... Data after being processed by Data analysts (using algorithms, statistical functions...) will be processed by data analysts. Business Analytics used for analysis and communication with other departments.

Difference between Business Analytics and Business Intelligence

Another term that is often confused with Business Analytics is Business Intelligence. Let's differentiate them based on the following 3 aspects: Business focus, Analytics Focus and Requirement.

Business focus

Business Analytics people will always have to answer the questions "Why": Why do we encounter this situation, what must we do/what will we do to provide analysis, aiming to advise customers? stakeholders?

Meanwhile, Business Intelligence's work focuses on answering "What" and "How" questions. Business Intelligence practitioners will provide charts and numbers to show what the problem is. They will stop there and not continue to answer the question "Why" to give advice.

Analytics focus

Business Analytics prioritizes Predictive Analysis. In other words, Business Analytics will use data-mining, models, machine learning... to consider the meaning and ways to utilize data. Based on analyzed data, Business Analytics will know the future actions of the business.

Meanwhile, Business Intelligence people will use Descriptive Analysis tools, statistics, and summaries of past and present data. They will focus on what has happened rather than what is happening.

Request

If you want to become an expert in Business Analytics, you can't just stop at reports (statistics, tables...). You need to learn about trends, collect past and present information. Accordingly, you will predict the future and require relevant departments and divisions to act based on the forecast.

As for Business Intelligence people, they need to try to write, arrange and adjust reports in the most readable and friendly way (dashboard, chart, PowerPoint...). Business Intelligence workers need to have knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and know how to use design tools and present tables and charts in a vivid and attractive way while still ensuring meaning.

Conclusion

Through the article, you may have some understanding of how to distinguish between Business Analytics, Data Analytics and Business Intelligence. Understanding the above concepts, you will optimize the operating process between teams, while dividing tasks clearly and specifically to limit overlap. Accordingly, business problems will also be identified and resolved in the most beneficial way.