In today’s big data era, data science has unquestionably become a popular and lucrative field. But in case you didn’t know, the discipline of business intelligence is another rising sub-sector in the IT industry, which has attracted many IT amateurs to enter the industry without prior data science experience.
Business intelligence is critical to the success of every organization. Virtually, every small, midsize and large business can benefit from business intelligence, which is why business intelligence analysts are in high demand.
What do business intelligence analysts do exactly to drive business growth?
Traditionally, BI relied on records stored in databases. However, through the traditional data gathering methods, users need to compile and analyze a large bulk set of data, which is incredibly time-consuming. With business intelligence, productivity can be boosted as BI analysts can easily pull data and harness information for performance analysis with a click of the button.
Further, BI can enhance the profitability of a business. Imagine, a supermarket chain would like to analyze consumer buying trends to drive growth and increase customer loyalty. Instead of collecting data the old-fashioned way- by surveying the customers, BI analysts can derive actionable insights from the meaningful data in the data warehouse. The supermarket chain can quickly analyze customer profiles, such as their gender, age, geographical location, and preferences. Through data visualization, a process to use statistical graphics to communicate information, accurate reports, and solutions can be derived to plan future growth.
The Career Path of BI Analysts
As BI analysts are filling important roles in the tech industry, a career in the field of business intelligence can be rewarding. With common domain and business knowledge, analytical skills, and aspiration, IT amateurs can quickly turn pro and become professional BI analysts.
BI analysts are offered great career growth and exposure. They usually report to the top-management level to discuss and brief their supervisors about the extracted insights and together, they identify new opportunities and make strategic decisions.
Also, BI analysts can easily transition into a career in Data Science with their predictive analytics and BI skills and even shift to an advisory role when they are ready.
An entry to mid-level business intelligence consultant typically takes roughly 40,000 HKD per month. Tech specialists in a BI manager role can even earn up to $100K annually. Indeed, the field of BI presents a prospective career path.
If you aspire to become a BI consultant and wonder how to kickstart a career in BI, why don’t you take a course to gain more insights into data analytics?
