Who is a Business Intelligence Analyst, and how to become one?

As any business grows, more data can reveal its efficiency, market share, and customers. This data is present in an unseen digital space. The analysis of this data can provide helpful insights that organisations can use to compare performance and get data about customer satisfaction and competition in the market. The Business Intelligence Analysts perform this data collection, cleansing, and analysis. As the amount of data is ever increasing, so is the demand for BI Analysts. Many universities and institutions are offering online and offline courses in this field. If you are reading this article, you might also be looking for information related to the Business Intelligence Analyst course and the career path. In this article, you will get information to answer your queries, such as what is a Business Intelligence Analyst, how to become one, courses, salary, and job profile. Let us get started.

‍

What is a Business Intelligence Analyst?

A business intelligence analyst is a person who is efficient in collecting and analysing data by using the technologies and systems of business intelligence. Their main target is to provide actionable, real-time, and accurate insights to an organisation's decision-makers to make the right decisions for improving workforce efficiency, productivity, and overall market performance. They are skilled enough to use programming and quantitative analysis on vast and complex data and know tools related to BI to communicate the extracted information to higher members of the organisation.

‍

Business Intelligence Analyst Salary

The Business Intelligence Analyst job is one of the hottest and in-demand careers. They have demand in the industries such as healthcare, finance, technology, insurance, manufacturing, and e-commerce, and they get a very lucrative salary. The Business Intelligence Analyst's salary may vary according to the qualification level, experience, work location, and types of services they are offering. In India, the average salary is Rs. 357,394/year at the beginner level.  Four years experienced receives an average compensation of Rs. 510,457/year. At mid and senior levels, the Business Intelligence Analyst's salary is Rs. 817,958 and Rs. 1,179,162 per year, respectively.

Business Intelligence Career path

The Business Intelligence career path consisted of the below steps:

1. Education

The first step in the Business Intelligence Analyst career is getting a bachelor’s degree in business administration or information science. One can also go for a degree in information technology and communication due to the dual needs of working with data and presenting the information to stakeholders.

At the Master’s level, one can pursue the Master of Science in Information Management or Master of Business Administration. One can also opt for the Masters in Computer Science or Master’s in Data Science from Newton School, where you will get your degree certificate from MIA University or IU University.

2. Training

The next step in the Business Intelligence Analyst career path is on-job training through internship programs. However, training and learning are never-ending processes in this job. Many analysts keep learning trending skills in the field and attend conferences, such as Gartner Data and Analytics Summit. Moreover, they pursue certification in Oracle, SQL, or tools like Snowflake and Tableau.

3. Experience

You can join a job as a business analyst, data report writer, or business analyst at the entry level to gain some relevant experience in SQL, modelling & analysing data, managing the scope of projects, and creating dashboards. Many organisations also offer supervisory experience at the entry level.

Business Intelligence Analyst Job Outlook

According to a United States Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the job market is expected to grow 11% from 2019 to 2029. According to the report, the Business Intelligence Analyst jobs are expected to grow in healthcare, education, law enforcement, finance, and many more. Organisations in these fields are looking for ways to stand out from competitors, and Business Intelligence Analysts can help these organisations with the same. If you have the right skills, relevant experience, and problem-solving abilities, you can get yourself a promising career in the field.

Business Intelligence Analyst Skills

A Business Intelligence Analyst needs a blend of analytical, technical, and soft skills. The Business Intelligence Analyst job involves mining the data using the BI tool and then analysing the data to get insights. The data insights are then communicated to the relevant persons in the organisation. Apart from the Business Intelligence Analyst qualifications, it would help if you had the below skills:

1. Data analysis

The main job of BI Analysts is to use the complex data and help decision makers to make better decisions by providing them with relevant data. The Business Intelligence Analyst skills needed for this are examining data sources and making precise conclusions.

2. Problem-solving

The BI Analysts are also involved in solving business problems based on data and business strategies. They should be capable of extracting actionable insights from retail KPIs and then presenting that in the meeting using visualisations.

3. Industry knowledge

The BI Analysts need a solid grasp of the industry dynamics, mainly in the field they are working in.

4. Communication skills

They should be proficient enough to communicate the information to the team in an effective way as they have to explain the technical concepts to non-technical people.

5. Detail-oriented

They must give full attention to the details as they must work with the smallest part of information and extract actionable insight.

6. Business acumen

They should be capable of understanding the business model and gaining value from the KPIs to help make strategic decisions.

What does a Business Intelligence Analyst do?

The work of BI Analysts is mainly data analysis and communicating the same to the team members or client. You will learn it as part of your Business Intelligence Analyst course. The work performed by Business Intelligence Analysts can be divided into three parts:

1. Breaking critical business data

A Business Intelligence Analyst's job is to gather data and then clean and analyse it. They might have to use the BI tools and data models that help them visualise data.

2. Interpreting data

Another critical role of Business Intelligence Analysts is to find patterns in the data that can signal to improve business practices.

3. Sharing findings

It consists of visualising data in charts and graphs, making reports, and presenting them to clients or other team members. They are involved in making recommendations to help the company grow.

‍

Overall, BI Analyst is a very sought-after career at the current time. You can opt for this career by getting the relevant Business Intelligence Analyst course. Newton School offers many Masters's degree courses in the field and helps you with the placements, including a Master's in Data Science that can help you take up a career in business data analytics as well. Newton School also offers classes and certifications in full stack development and Computer Science.