What Does a Business Analyst Do? Responsibilities, Roles & Salary

A Business Analyst, in the simplest words, is a person who deals with business connections with the data. This data can be the company’s old marketing, customer, sales, or finance records. Or, it can be that of a competitor. One of the business analyst job responsibilities is to report or provide insights based on the available data, using techniques like critical thinking, problem-solving solutions, and analysis to help a business reach its end goal. His key roles in the company comprise – Data, Decision, Performance, and Prediction.

Often, people confuse a business analyst of the analytics domain with that of IT. However, they are like two sides of the same coin. Therefore, it is crucial to understand that in the Analytics domain, a Business Analyst creates a statistical representation of numerical data by analyzing it and giving a visual touch to this data for better understanding. To sum up the Business Analyst job responsibilities:

• Collecting information about the target audience through surveys and studying the historical or research available regarding the same field.
• Making feasible decisions based on the behavioral pattern of customers to comprehend business performance metrics.
• Reviewing the presence and rating of the customers on various online platforms.
• Comprehending what consumers want and what drives their decision making.
• Conducting the SWOT analysis of the business to ensure what new possibilities are there in business.
• Using the collected data (from customer data to competitive data) to enhance the business performance metrics of a company.
• Escalating revenue growth with effective resource allocation skills
• Understanding business needs and optimizing business operations accordingly.

Now that we understand that a BA roles and responsibilities in the two domains are completely different, it will be easier for us to understand the business analyst role description nuances in the analytics domain.

Business Analyst Role Description

The BA roles and responsibilities in an organization mainly deal with devising unique business decisions that are practical and concrete. The following pointers explain the business analyst techniques gumption a candidate ought to have to justify this role:

Business Need Awareness

The first and foremost skill demanded by a business analyst is sensing what the business needs to accomplish its auxiliary goals and finally hit the bull’s eye. To do so, SWOT Analysis is one technique that he should be familiar with. Mastering the nuances of the business’s strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats will aid in making an informed decision and will give an organization the leverage of going toe-to-toe with its competitors. From marketing to sales to financial reports, SWOT analysis is the cog of any business to operate efficiently.

Historical and Current Business Data Evaluation

What good does data bring if the analyst does not have the skill to evaluate it effectively? Well, what does a Business Analyst do in such a situation, here is the answer! After knowing what the business needs, a business analyst must put his critical thinking skills to some use. Investigation of data is powerful and understanding the analogy and psychology of it can lead to infinite possibilities of conscious decision making. 

For instance, in the early 1900s, Claude C Hopkins, an American executive was able to boost the Pepsodent toothpaste demand in just three weeks when an entourage of door-to-door people was already selling kinds of tubes of toothpaste to help American people with their dental problems and failing tremendously. He stated in his biography – My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising, “I made for myself a million dollars on Pepsodent.”

His critical thinking and problem-solving skills helped him understand the analogy of the right human psychology, and that is what a business needs as it is all about its target audience. A business Analyst has to compare the present and past data to derive an authentic conclusion.

Documentation of The Findings for A Concrete Business Understanding

Business is all about the communication of ideas, solutions, and productivity in the form of numbers and figures. An entry-level Business Analyst will also know the paramount importance of documentation of the research and solutions related to business. Here is what graphical documentation looks like:

It is essential to deliver the results in document forms of what a business analyst has found while conducting searches like SWOT, Competitor’s analysis, human behavior understanding, market trends, decision-making drivers, etc. For this, computer skills are a major stepping stone for BA roles and responsibilities.

Examining and Enforcing the Expedient Solution

Once a feasible solution is derived from all the possibilities available, it is time for a business analyst to allocate the resources within the business accordingly. This means he will update the performance matrix of the business and align it with the solution in a way that marketing operations perform to the best of their ability.

With the right solutions is it not just individual lives that can shift for better but, also companies, organizations, and communities. It is important to understand the dynamics of business when optimizing decisions, as nothing is permanent. This means Business Analyst skills need constant up-gradation which is congruent to an in-depth study of a particular industry – facts and figures.

Hope with this section, you have a fair amount of understanding about the business analyst job responsibilities. We would also like to mention that Business Analysts is a broad term and this must not be confused with the role of an IT Business Analyst.

Business Analyst Salary

When talking about pay scale, let us be certain about one thing; there is no fixed pay scale for any job. Several factors such as your qualification, job experience, the type of company you are working for, and the location of your job, all play a significant role in determining the business analyst salary.

Since Business Analysis is a new field, the demand is certainly high, and so are the average salaries. Yet, to give a definite number is not feasible. But if one must, Rs. 55,000 per month is the average salary of a business analyst in India. You may say for a business analyst the salary ranges between $80,000 and $90,000 p.a. that is slightly higher than what a data analyst gets.  This figure is usually excluding all the perks, tips, and bonuses.

Salary Figures of Some Well Known Companies

Company Wise Annual Pay Scale

Accenture	Rs. 7,04,965
Capgemini	Rs. 7,03,178
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)	Rs. 696,132
HCL	Rs. 5,21,246
Wipro	Rs. 5,79,188
Amazon	Rs. 3,28,484 – 17,83,171

Annual Pay Scale based on Experience

Entry-level business analyst (0-1 years of experience)	Rs. 3,50,000- 5,00,000
5-9 years of experience	Rs. 8,30,975
Over 15 years of experience	Rs 12,09,787

The location of the job plays a significant role in the figure of your salary. The areas dealing with the west, such as Pune and Bangalore, offer higher salaries than the others. The Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) area also has a fair pay scale. The farther north you move, the lower is the pay scale.

For example, your pay scale at Delhi (NCR) is Rs. 55,000 per month. But now that you have to move back to your hometown in Jaipur, the pay scale available there is Rs. 35,000 per month. Here, nothing has changed; your job profile or the company, and you also have more experience than you had when you started off as a business analyst. But the location factor is prominent, and hence the change of figure in salary. 

Therefore, while these figures can be used as a comparative, they must not be used as an absolute.

Business Analyst Skills

Structural changes and innovation administration are an integral part of business analyst skills. The insights an analyst provides play a crucial role in defining or reengineering the functions of an organization. Below is a list of the top five critical skills required to become a prominent business analyst in the business analytics realm:

Business Pivotal Thinking

Since the archaic period, critical thinking has been a point of discussion. The Greek philosophers Plato and Socrates have also provided the world with insightful books showing the foremost importance of critical thinking. To think logically about an idea or a situation is what is expected from a business analyst. As his one wrong move can cause the business huge loss in terms of money, performance, appearance, and goodwill. Among the very important business analyst job responsibilities is to examine critical thinking elements; hindsight, and foresight effectively. 

Organizational Problem Solving Skills

Hindrances are indispensable in the business world. However, in the words of Gary Vaynerchuk, “who fears failures cannot experience success.” From Forbes to The Wall Street Journal, Gary is known for his problem-solving skills.

By just posting his videos on wine ( his family’s business), later on, helped him become a wine critic. And now he is an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, author, digital marketing expert, and vlogger. He had a problem with reaching maximum people and letting them know about his family’s business. His solution to this problem was simple yet extremely effective – he posted videos regularly without putting any thought to the quality of both the video and content. His consistency was the solution ‘key’ he needed for his problem.

Computer Skills

As stated above, documentation of the findings is a fundamental skill. Therefore, to put the information in graphical and statistical form, acquiring computer knowledge is a must. Also, for an entry-level business analyst conducting research related to market, trends, consumer behavior, competitors techniques is a prerequisite. Therefore, understanding the basics of computers is mandatory to apply for this job. From Microsoft Word to PowerPoint to MS Excel a business analyst must know these tools through and through.

Analytics Skills

This is the first skill that a Business Analyst Role description demands. There is a fine line difference between critical thinking skills and analytical skills. Critical thinking is based on logical reasoning and the latter decides the judgment founded on this logical reasoning element. These skills include:

• Cost analysis
• Predictive analysis
• Industry analysis
• Process analysis
• Inventory analysis
• Leadership analysis
• Consumer behavior analysis
• Risk analysis

The Art of Communicating Effectively

Undoubtedly, communication acts as a strong thread between the listener and the speaker. A business analyst must have interpersonal skills – knows the ideology behind communicating with empathy and not sympathy, authoritative, and yet keeping the tone subtle. Indeed, the magic of words helps companies close clients, influence customers to try a product, and convince management of a change needed in leadership. The book ‘How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People’ authored by Leslie T. Giblin showcases why mastering and perusing communication skills is vital in both, life and work.

According to a Forbes article, “three out of these five skills are identified as the most required skills in the year 2020 by the World Economic Forum. “

You may also like to read: Prerequisites of Business Analytics

Business Analyst Certifications & Courses

Earning a certificate in a particular field boosts the confidence alone and gives the leverage of earning better. As a business analyst is an emerging opportunity in the business world, it is crucial to give your dreams the wings to behold it – certification. Business Analyst certifications are a strong medium for materializing whatever one has understood while intensely studying this domain.  Below is a list of the top 5 Business Analyst Certifications for a career in Analytics:

1. Analytics Edge – AnalytixLabs

This business analytics certification course is best suitable for beginners looking a short-term course that covers all the essential skills required to kick start the career as a Data Analyst or Business Analyst. This program spans over 3-4 months to cover hands-on analytics skills on most widely used tools such as MS-Excel, SQL, Tableau & R. Available in all 3 modes of learning i.e. Classroom, Interactive Live Online and eLearning.

2. Business Analytics 360 – AnalytixLabs

One of the most coveted courses offered by AnalytixLabs and rated as one of the top Business Analytics course in India. This extensive program spans over 6 months and with the flexibility to complete the certification in 12 months. This training program begins with basic data analytics & reporting skills, and graduates to more advanced modules such as statistical analysis and machine learning modeling.  Available in all 3 modes of learning i.e. Classroom, Interactive Live Online, and eLearning.

3. Columbia’s MicroMasters program in Business Analytics

This is an online series of courses and each course is followed by a final exam week. The curriculum is designed to provide learners with a series of courses that emphasize the use of statistical analysis, computing tools, and analytics models to predict the outcomes of various business decisions and identify the best implementation.

4. Master of Science in Business Analytics – NYU Stern

This is a full-time Business Analytics master program offered by New York University and suited for experienced professionals. Aimed to drive better business results by gaining the ability to transform data into a powerful and predictive strategic asset. Participants of this program will have exposure to methodologies that support data-driven decision making.

5. Management Program in Business Analytics – ISB

The AMPBA has been designed for working professionals at any career stage from across industries, looking to transform data into actionable insights. The program will especially benefit executives who are Data science enthusiasts and IT professionals.

Business Analytics Tools

Here is a list of some known Business Analytics Tools that can help in reporting, sleuth analysis, hindsight and foresight modeling, and studying big data:

• MS Excel
• Structured Query Language (SQL)
• R/ Python
• Tableau
• Qlikview
• PowerBI
• SAS
• Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
• Minitab

Benefits of Business Analytics Tools:

• Seamless tracking of business operations leads to quick, effective, and timely management of an organization’s processes.
• These provide leverage over your competitors by aiding in knowing the market trends and consumer behavior better.
• These aid in predicting future uncertainty and changing the marketing and business approach accordingly without hindering the daily operations of a business.
• A statistical representation of data aids an organization to comprehend which strategies went wrong where and how can these be rectified.
• These aid in calculating the KPIs of an organization for creating effective decision-making strategies for the future.

Concluding Thoughts

In today’s times, a business analyst is an essential cog of the business world. From being resourceful to implementing the decisions, he carries a burden of making the business known to the world by eliminating the barriers to compelling business strategies. As the world is seeing an escalation in the demand of BA experts, to add a feather in your career cap, Analytixlabs is providing an opportunity to various participants to piecemeal explore this realm and obtain a valuable course certificate in the end.  

You may also like to read: The Complete Guide to Start Your Career as a Business Analyst in India