“Business analytics is the combination of skills, technologies, applications and processes used by organizations to gain insight in to their business based on data and statistics to drive business planning.”
Business analytics is used to evaluate organization-wide operations, and can be implemented in any department from sales to product development to customer service. Business analytics solutions typically use data, statistical and quantitative analysis and fact-based data to measure past performance to guide an organization's business planning. Business Analytics is used to gain insights that inform business decisions and can be used to automate and optimize business processes. Data-driven companies treat their data as a corporate asset and leverage it for competitive advantage. Successful business analytics depends on data quality, skilled analysts who understand the technologies and the business and an organizational commitment to data-driven decision making.
Benefits of Effective Business Analysis
Business analysis, when effective, permits managers to ensure that precise information is circulated and understood by everyone on the project team. Having accurate information, the team is able to work together in an organized manner to come up with a plan that will bring higher chances of success for the company. In this day and age, there are already available business analysis software and applications that enable managers to keep up with advanced consumer shopping trends and also project future trends.
The benefit that a business will get from an analysis will only be in the consumer analysis aspect. With such a competitive market, in today’s business industry, one cannot go without understanding their customers as well as all the facets of the company. The significance of business analysis is that it ensures that the decisions that are made are beneficial for the business and diminish incidents of unrealistic expectations which could later on result in disappointments and even loss of revenue.
Tips for successful business analysis:
A problem that continues to plague Business Analysts during requirements elicitation is getting a clear understanding of the “true” requirements from the stakeholders. Business analysts often take the “stated” requirements at face value, failing to clarify their understanding of the stakeholder's real need, or they jump to solutions before hearing the stakeholder out. This leads to erroneous assumptions that eventually lead to the incorrect solution.
Here are 10 tips that can help you elicit the better requirements and reduce the possibility of getting to the wrong solution:
- Always begin the interview with open-ended questions that focus on understanding the stakeholder’s problem and the context of the current situation as well as their “ideal” future state.
- Encourage the stakeholder to expand on their ideas. "Please tell me more about …."
- During the interview just “listen” to the stakeholder rather than thinking of what question you are going to ask next or jumping to a solution.
- Allow the stakeholder to fully explain his/her need before responding.
- Once you get a sense of the problem and situation, you can then get specific details by using clarifying questions or closed-ended questions, such as who, what, when, where or how much questions. Beware of using closed-ended questions at the beginning of the interview unless you are conducting follow-up interviews because it immediately narrows your options and may cause you to jump to a solution that may not fully meet the needs of the stakeholder.
- Paraphrase what you heard back to the stakeholder to ensure you have the correct understanding. “So what you’re saying is…”, “do you mean…”, or “let me see if I understand.”
- Use both process and data questions to ensure you have captured both data and process questions. “What do you need to be able to do?” “What do you need to know (information)?”
- Ask pairing questions. “best/worst”, “easiest/hardest”, “when/when do you not…”, “what/what not”, etc. This allows you to understand their boundaries and helps you avoid jumping to assumptions about the opposite.
- Avoid leading questions “what about…”, “don’t you think that…”, “have you ever thought about …” or “isn’t it better to …”
- Close the interview by asking a closing question such as “is there anything I didn’t ask that I should know about?” "What additional information can you give me?"
The top most influential analytics leaders in india:
- Pankaj Kulshreshtha – Business Leader, Analytics & Research at Genpact
Pankaj Kulshreshtha leads the Analytics and Research practice globally at GenpactUnder his leadership, Genpact’s Analytics business has grown to one of the largest and most extensive practices in the industry.
- Rohit Tandon – Vice President, Strategy WW Head of HP Global Analytics
As head of Global Analytics, Rohit Tandon is helping drive the Analytics ecosystem to support HP’s vision and priorities. He is a veteran industry executive known for pioneering and guiding new businesses to success. In Rohit’s leadership HP Global Analytics grew from a small team to a large analytics organization.
- Sameer Dhanrajani – Business Leader, Cognizant Analytics
Sameer Dhanrajani is spearheading Cognizant Analytics practice. In his capacity, Sameer is leading end-to-end business spheres of Cognizant Analytics and is responsible for crafting differentiated strategies around analytics consulting, platforms and services coupled with creating best of breed GTM, business development, operational excellence solutioning exercises and delivering transformational analytics engagements.
- Pankaj Rai – Director, Global Analytics at Dell
Pankaj Rai was responsible for helping Dell diversify and grow its footprint in India as also represent Dell outside in industry forums.
- Dr. N.R.Srinivasa Raghavan, Senior Vice President & Head of Analytics at Reliance Industries Limited
Dr. N.R.Srinivasa Raghavan is responsible for strategizing and realizing the value proposition for Data Science and Data Governance within the group companies while building and mentoring a world class team of data scientists / business analysts to deliver for high performance.
