Business analytics is basically a management course to its core. The Role of a business analyst is to bridge the gap between IT and management aspects of a business. But a data analyst with proper training and experiences is a versatile role. A trained data analyst can make sense of distantly related data and draw a conclusion for the betterment of the employer.
This article will allow the reader to dive deep into multiple aspects of these two roles and understand the niche these roles belong. Followed by a discussion regarding which one is more preferred during these changing times.
Who is a business analyst?
A business analyst is someone skilled in statistics and equipped with a working knowledge of management or administrative sciences. A business analyst is expected to possess skills with programming languages and data science for a better understanding of the market. A business analytics course is usually designed while keeping these aspects of the role in mind.
Mostly, Business analysts act as a bridge between the IT division and the management of an organization. The role is provided with access to all kinds of business data available to the administration. A B.A. puts the data in good use by deducing the flaws and shortcomings of a business and prescribe solutions in order to overcome them.
What is the role of a data analyst?
Unlike business analysts, data analysts mostly work with all the available data instead of business data. Hence, a better designation could be a big data analyst for the role. A data analyst can be deployed even before the onset of any kind of business. A data analyst can suggest if a business should start its venture in a given time and region. And for making these seemingly impossible predictions a data analyst needs the access of big data. The big data issue raises a lot of ethical lightning rods able to stall a whole venture in its tracks. Where overcoming these hurdles is a possibility a data analyst with superior capabilities and versatility can indeed surpass a business analyst in terms of utility.
The roles in practice
For example, we can consider a product which is rapidly failing to achieve desired sales. A business analyst can suggest a change in strategy after analysis of past business data. Like, what changes the products need, and what ways other than the present one the product can be marketed. On the other hand, a data analyst can suggest if the company should consider discontinuation or a relaunch in a different region. Obviously, with a management grade guidance, a data analyst can suggest everything that a business analyst can suggest as well.
The big question.
Even before the onset of the business, a data analyst can be deployed, due to the availability of weather soli and population data. But for the deployment of a business analyst, some business should previously take place.
Businesses will definitely lean towards more profitable options. A business analyst because of management skills and increased responsibilities is expensive to deploy. Not just because of salaries but more for a question of availability and trust. A business analyst should have a holistic view of all the operations of a business and the B. A should work for the betterment and increase of efficiency of the processes. The role is more of a coordinator and guide for a business. Though it deals with data a lot while chasing advanced problems a data analyst is called upon for help anyways. If a business analyst makes a wrong decision and indulges in overlooking errors the damage dealt is usually greater than in case of a data analyst, because of the increased involvement of a business analyst.
A data analyst, on the other hand, is easy to deploy. The demand is high no doubt, but thanks to Indian motivation of becoming an IT professional skilled and experienced data analysts are easily avaliable. After a data analyst is done with the analytics the decision making part is left for a superior designation reducing the risk factor even more.
A data analyst can easily afford at work training, as there is room for more flexibility. And mistakes made by the D.A. can be rectified on a later stage. Unlike business analysts, the decisions of a data analyst do not affect the business directly. And for bigger problems and huge data sets a data analyst is proven to be superior over a business analyst.
Largely, The size of operation determines which role is more important. But in terms of safety and value, a data analyst seems to be the better choice, given the dire state of time.