6 Steps in the Business Analytics Process | Explained In The Easiest Manner

In the current day and age, business analytics has become an indispensable tool for organisational growth. To process multitudes of data, gain insights, curate strategies and implement tactical solutions, business analytics acts as a catalyst in aiding businesses to continue being relevant, growing, and have a competitive advantage at all times.

As significant as the role of business analytics is, it is equally important to understand all the steps and processes that go behind the analytics of data and how it helps businesses.

From data collection to analysis and insights, every step of the process is complex and intricate. In this blog, you will understand all the individual steps that together make the process of business analytics successful.

The 6 Steps In The Business Analytics Process

There are six steps in the complete process of business analytics. Each step requires a good grasp of business and data, which work in tandem to curate meaningful insights. The process below is the original recipe of how to leverage business analytics and the many advantages it serves.

1. Identifying A Problem

In the case of businesses, problems occur when business objectives and goals aren’t being met. The first step is to gain a thorough understanding of what the business objectives are, what are the key priorities and ambitions the business is looking to achieve. Based on this understanding, analysts then move on to define the obstacles and challenges that come in the way of accomplishing business objectives.

Define the problem

Once the business objectives are established and understood, it is easier and equally significant to find the problems.

For example, if the business goal is to achieve increased revenue, the problem lies in a sales decline which may further be caused due to separate reasons. Defining and articulating the problem properly helps plan the analysing efforts and framing questions accurately.

Techniques to identify the problem

Sometimes the problem may be defined by factors other than business objectives. To stay relevant and ahead in the competition, it is necessary for analysts to study market trends and patterns.

By understanding what’s new or old, they can suggest more recent objectives to look forward to, and study the challenges faced in achieving it. Stakeholder interviews are of much importance, where one can get to the root problem by asking the right questions.

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2. Collecting and preparing data

Once the problem is defined, analysts begin collecting all types of data needed to understand and evaluate the problem thoroughly. Analysts explore different sources of data, filter, clean, and make it ready for further analysis by discarding irrelevant data.

To collect and prepare data, here are some things to take into consideration:

Sources of data

Relevant data can be collected for a variety of sources. These sources can be broadly categorised into two types: internal and external data.

Internal data refers to the information and data obtained from within the organisation itself, such as stakeholder interviews, social media data, etc., whereas external data refers to the information obtained from outside the organisation, such as market research reports, scientific research papers, etc.

Importance of data quality

Since the data collected in the initial steps is used for further analysis, it is important to keep a check on the data quality. Data should be relevant, unbiased, valid, and comprehensive.

The data should be representative of the problem in hand, which will help set a strong base for further analysis of the data. If the data is not valid or relevant, it will cause inconsistencies and may result in faulty analysis.

Data integration techniques

Once the data is collected from multiple sources, it requires to be placed in a common space. With data integration, all the collected data is combined into a unified dataset which helps in gaining a bird’s eye view of the data while also making it rich with multiple sources. Such comprehensive and easy to understand data can be achieved with visualisation, storytelling, etc.

Also Read – 6 Major Benefits of Implementing Business Analytics

3. Data analysis

One of the most crucial steps in the process of business analytics is data analysis. This involves in-depth analysis of the data collected and prepared for evaluation. Data analysis is achieved by using various types of tools and techniques, including statistical methods, to identify trends and patterns in the data.

For example, if there’s a spike in hot chocolate sales in December, proper analysis would indicate the need and demand of hot chocolate specifically in the winter season.

Understanding the data

The data collected may be from many different types of sources and streamlined for easier understanding. Before beginning the analysis, it is crucial to get in tune with the collected data. Such a familiar understanding helps build a strong path for the analysis to be conducted.

Data analytics techniques

There are many tools and techniques to understand, organise, and evaluate data. Some tools to analyse data accurately are Power Bi, Python, SQL, etc. If you’re not a programmer, worry not.

IMS Proschool’s comprehensive business analytics program is quite welcoming to non-coders too and teaches all the programming languages used in the field of business analytics.

Importance of data visualisation

Many insights are retrieved post data analytics. Such insights reveal different aspects of the data, ranging from most to least relevant. Since the data is large in amount and cannot be pasted as it is, it needs to be translated into something more interactive and easy to understand.

One of the more popular tools to visualise data is Tableau which offers many rich features to make the data more appealing.

Also Read – Business Analytics: 5 Practical Applications Unveiled

4. Modelling and forecasting data

Data modelling is the process of creating a visual representation of the relationship between different data elements and values. It is a fundamental step in business analytics because it improves data understanding and helps analysts and stakeholders visualise complex data structures and relationships. With data modelling, it is also easy to integrate data from various sources on one surface.

Statistical methods

Statistics are at the core of business analytics. It provides the tools to extract meaningful insights from raw and cleaned data.

Simple statistical methods like logistic regression, measures of central tendency, etc., are some of the most commonly used methods in business analytics, each with a different value offering. For example, mean captures the average value of a dataset whereas mode captures the most frequently occurring value.

Forecasting future outcomes

Once the data is cleaned and analysed, it can be taken ahead to forecast potential trends and outcomes. Among the four types of analytics, predictive analytics works best to predict future outcomes and help organisations take proactive measures to prepare for such results.

Regression analysis, machine learning algorithms, and time series forecasting are some techniques to employ predictive models and forecasting.

Also Read – 4 Types Of Business Analytics: It’s Time To Make Data Work

5. Developing insights

After cleaning and analysing the data, one of the more crucial steps in business analytics is drawing insights from the data presented. This involves thorough understanding of data and the achievable business objectives it is working towards.

Accordingly, business analysts evaluate the data, observe patterns, and draw insights to build further suggestions and recommendations.

Interpreting data and extracting insights

The cleaned data is next up for interpretation, where business analysts transform raw data into actionable insights. By looking at recurring anomalies, patterns, and trends, it is easy to identify and extract meaningful insights from the data.

While drawing these insights, it is also essential to relate the insights to the broader business goal and prioritise them accordingly.

Developing recommendations

On the basis of meaningful insights that are drawn and prioritised, recommendations and suggestions are built for businesses to implement. These recommendations need to beware of biases and inconsistencies, and also keep a check on ethical considerations.

Most importantly, the recommendations should be developed by keeping in mind the best interests of the business. For example, to increase sales revenue, businesses can carry out personalised marketing and share tailored marketing messages to the users.

Communicating insights to stakeholders

The insights and recommendations need to be communicated clearly to stakeholders. By using data visualisation, information can be designed to be more interactive and engaging, which makes the process of understanding data a lot more smooth. The stakeholders then review the insights and recommendations, and prepare for the next step of implementation.

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6. Implementation and monitoring

The final step in the business analytics process is to implement the solutions that have been finalised by business analysts and the stakeholders. In case of more than one solution, each can be tested and monitored to review the impact of the solutions. It is important to measure the impact because that represents the results and success metric of the solution implemented.

Implementing suggestions

For effective implementation of the suggestions, relevant KPIs need to be clearly identified and defined. The recommendations with the highest potential and the lowest implementation cost, which also align with the organisation’s strategic goals, are taken ahead for execution. Accordingly, specific roles and responsibilities can be assigned to resourceful individuals and teams.

Monitor and evaluate the solution’s impact

Post successful execution of the solutions, it is also essential to assess their effectiveness and impact to make further adjustments. Measure the baseline performance as a benchmark before implementing the solutions, and then measure the impact post a specific period of time. Identify issues or bottlenecks to take proper action and constantly enhance the solutions implemented.

For example, if personalised marketing is not particularly working for the product, analysts try to come up with alternate solutions and monitor their impact as well.

Also Read – Top 8 Tools Every Business Analyst Should Use To Solve Problems

How to Pursue Business Analytics

As intricate and detailed the process of business analytics is, it is equally rewarding too. The future of business analytics is quite promising, with applications that go beyond industries and sectors. The profession is constantly on the rise, and so are the growth opportunities within the domain. It is quite open to experienced professionals as well as freshers, and is an open field for strategic thinkers. Here’s a quick roadmap of business analytics:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Business studies, or related fields.
• A specialisation in marketing, finance, data science, or relevant fields.
• Problem-solving skills and a strategic mindset.
• A certified program in business analytics from a reputed institution like IMS Proschool.

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Why Choose IMS Proschool For Business Analytics

• Pick up and polish essential skills needed to pursue business analytics, like problem-solving and strategic thinking.
• Study with one of India’s top 5 institutes for analytics and gain quality knowledge.
• A welcoming platform for coders as well as non-coders.
• Learn crucial business analytics tools, such as Excel, Power BI, Python, Tableau and SQL.
• Solve 15+ case studies and projects to gain knowledge and directly learn from experienced cases.
• Explore wonderful job opportunities with 30+ companies and 800+ jobs across the industries.
• Learn from and with experienced professionals and a curriculum designed to help you excel in the field of business analytics.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the stages of business analysis?

   The stages of business analytics can differ based on specific needs of the business. However, some common stages observed across most business analysis processes are: Initiation, planning, data collection, data analysis, designing solutions and communicating them, and implementing the final solutions. By following these stages, businesses can make more informed decisions and achieve their targeted goals.

2. What are the 6 steps involved in the business analytics process?

   The process of business analytics can be broadly covered in six steps. It starts with identifying a problem, followed by collecting data, conducting data analysis, modelling and forecasting predictable outcomes, developing insights and ends with implementing solutions and monitoring them. Each step has several milestones and sub-steps that make the process rich and intricate.

3. What is BPM in business analytics?

   In business analytics, BPM stands for Business Process Management. It involves the measures taken to understand, improve, and optimise end-to-end business processes. BPM works in tandem with business analytics and together, they have the collective goal of accomplishing business aims and objectives smoothly.

4. What are the benefits of business analytics?

   There are several benefits of business analytics which can significantly impact and improve the organisation’s performance. It improves decision making by facilitating more informed decisions which are data-driven and strategic in nature. It also increases operational efficiency, enhances customer experience, gives competitive advantage, and also boosts the organisation’s financial performance. These benefits are observed across all industries and sectors and fare well with the help of business analytics.

Conclusion

The field of business analytics is as wide-serving as it is deep. Applications of business analytics are plausible across multitudes of organisations and industries, which make the reach and impact of business analytics a lot higher.

In today’s data-centric world, the value of business analytics is on an upwards curve, representing the faith organisations have in the process and the impact it has created over the years. By following these six simple steps of the business analytics process and generating solutions that have potential, business analytics truly transforms the business processes, organisational growth, and prosperity.