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Business intelligence basically refers to identification and analysis of the business to generate insights from various components that can help the business to grow, for example, sales revenue, income, product development, etc. To be able to study business intelligence, you will need to have business acumen, technical skills with a blend of management and soft skills. In order to perfect the role of a business intelligence analyst, you would need to acquire certain skills that lead to numerous BI career options. So, read on to find out more.
The skills needed
According to this blog post from datapine, a leading BI software on the market, these are some of the most important skills you will need to start your career in BI:
1. Attention to detail
In order to be a successful BI analyst, it is very important that one should be able to have attention to details and should be able to analyze the bigger picture. This is needed to understand the vision of the organization and work in order to achieve the same. You would need to give creative input and analyze trends so that you would be able to focus the correct future of the business.
2. Analytical mind
It is very important to keep yourself updated with the latest trends and technologies used in analytics. This would not only help you to understand the market and analyze the business in the most efficient way, but it would also improve your curriculum vitae and give a great boost to your career. You would need to learn different technical skills and perfect them so that your analysis can be as reliable as possible.
3. Management skills
It is important for a BI analyst to have management soft skills as they need to interact at all levels of the business. It is also equally important for them to have the correct business acumen as only technical skills can never help in achieving a successful career in the domain. You should have the knowledge to describe the results of your analysis in a perfect way and help them frame their policies according to the trend. You should also have ample industry knowledge in order to excel in your career.
4. Industry knowledge
In business intelligence, it is important to have a firm grasp of the industry of choice. While there is space to learn on the job, over time you will need to develop the ability to connect data analysis with business development. That can only be achieved if expertise in the area you’re looking to work in is in its place.
The career options in BI
Once you excel in the skills mentioned above, you will have various business Intelligence roles waiting to boost up your career. You can choose from these 4 main career paths:
- BI analyst – In this professional role, you would need to analyze data which are used by the organization so as to carry on their operations.
- BI developer – BI developers excel in designing, developing and maintaining BI solutions.
- BI consultant – This is a holistic role that wears many hats, and they need to provide cost-effective solutions with a background in mathematics or science.
- BI engineer – They work closely both with customers and BI analysts so as to change the data and other information to reports which would help in making the best business decisions. The work basically involves simplifying complex data sets to generate accurate information that is reliable and can be accessed easily.
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This content is sponsored by Samantha Brown.
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