Business Intelligence Analyst

Business Intelligence is a business-oriented aspect of data analytics wherein the data acquired by the business is converted into actionable insights so that the business can become more profitable.Business Intelligence can have many facets including analyzing different types of data that are generated by the business and then present the insights gained from the data to decision-makers in the business using presentations, reports, summaries, dashboards, graphs, etc.

Various skills required for becoming a succesful Business Intelligence are as follows:

1.Data Preparation

To obtain any insights from the data, first, the data needs to be collected, cleaned, and organized in a uniform manner.as a BI Analyst, you should be familiar with at least some of these data preparation tools like Tableau Prep, Improvado. Alteryx, etc.

2.Data Mining

Data mining is the process of finding patterns in the data that were previously not visible.This converts the raw data into useful information that can be use understanding of various technologies like machine learning, databases, statistical analysis, computer science algorithms, etc.Some of the tools that are very helpful in data mining include the Rapid Miner, Oracle data mining, Konstanz Information Miner, etc.

3.Statistical Analysis

You should have knowledge of various statistical components like mean, median, range, variance, etc. can be used to get a more detailed view of the data.Other advanced statistical topics like combinatorics, set theory, probability, discrete and continuous and bivariate distributions, random variables, etc. are also important.There are many analytical tools that can help businesses to understand their metrics better in order to create a sound BI strategy.These include SAS, Hadoop, Spark, Hive, Pig,etc.

4.Descriptive Analysis

Description analysis involves researching the data to understand if there are any missing values, outliers, abnormal or skewed distributions, etc. In essence, it is a part of understanding and getting to know the data before presenting the data to decision-makers in a clean form. There are many tools that can be used for descriptive analytics such as the statistical methods described above or data visualization charts that are used to study the data such as histograms, bar charts, box and whisker plots, etc.

5.Data Visualization

Data visualization skills are a big part of becoming a Business Intelligence Analyst.You should have knowledge about various charts that can be used to visualize the data such as Area Charts, Bar Charts, Heat Maps, TreeMaps, Scatter Plots,Gantt Charts,etc.

6.Business Knowledge

You should be well acquainted with the business model of the company you are working for and understand how to leverage the data in order to obtain the maximum profit for the business based on the key performance indicators.You should understand both the short-term and long-term business goals of the company so that you can help in charting the future path with the help of data.

7.Data Reporting

Data Report skills or Communication skills are soft skills that are absolutely essential to your job as a business intelligence analyst. You should have the speaking skills to report the insights obtained from the data to higher-ups in the business such as the stakeholders and board members so that they can make the necessary decisions for the business.