Today, businesses are being challenged by the amount of data they have, as they don’t quite know what to do with the data. Further, there is a short supply of skilled business analytic talent.
Recently, there has been an increased demand for Business Analytics, and this will continue to rise. Many today are also confused about the difference between Business Aanlytics, Business Intelligence and Statistical Analysis.
Business analytics is all about turning data into information and information into knowledge thus helping a business to take the right decisions. Business Analytics encompasses 5 key areas:
1. Business analytics is all about what is likely to happen in the future.(Prediction)
2. Business analytics is all about using historical data to forecast future values (Forecasting)
3. What is the worst that can happen? What is the best that can happen? (Simulation)
4. How should we take action? How will we measure the impact of our actions? (Optimisation)
5. Which action will result in the most ROI? (Optimisation)
While Business Intelligence (BI), is about providing a platform that displays historical and current views of the business operations in the form of cubes, reports, dashboards, etc.
Statistical Analysis are the methods applied to business problems to make sense of the data. Statistical analysis is all about better understanding your data using graphical displays and summary statistics. It is useful for making comparisons between two or more groups and determining whether one variable is related to another. Statistical analysis also helps to identify drivers of performance.
Analytics for Business 
Is it possible for a first year student in General Statistics to make a transition in the following year to study Business Analytics and how?
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Hi Thando
Yes, it certainly is possible. Most of the courses in the Business Analytics Degree will contain first year Statistics courses.
Which university are you studying through?
Let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks
Carol
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