Last updated on February 9th, 2021 at 06:03 am
For the last two decades, we have been staring at massive shifts in our economy. Business models that were stable for decades or centuries are at the brim of the transformation or the failure due to the digital transformation happening in the industry. This presents a large scope for business analytics training courses. Since organisations around the world have started shifting focus from the process automation to integrating new digital technologies to the business model, the relevance of BA is greater than ever before.
The Transformation to the Digital Age
What is the digital transformation? Every organisation is trying to find a definition in their own context. All these contexts can be summarized to three fundamental ones they are:
- Customer Experience - Using technology to enhance the customer experience.
- Operational Process - Improving the overall operation of the organisation using technology and reducing the cost.
- Business Models - A new business model relying on technology to deliver new forms of value.
However, in all these cases technology is the common factor which drives the tide of transformation. With these changing circumstances, organisations are compelled to rethink and go creative with their business models.
How Digital Era Affects the Traditional Business Analysis
If we analyse the history of the industry, we can see that each era has presented their own tools to the business world. The industrial age presented tools like standardization, process-oriented assembly line and repeat ability. The progress made with these innovations was tremendous. For the traditional business analysis, most of these industrial age thinking is being used. The business analysts try to stick with the prescribed journeys to achieve process and efficiency. The digital era brought change to all these.
The Digital Era brings a significant increase in self-service, ubiquitous connectivity and focuses on the overall customer experience. It is the complete opposite of the traditional seller-oriented oriented business. This era places the customer at the centre, potentially with extreme customization of products, process and services. Rather than a general product, discrete experiences and emotions have become more prominent in the business.
The new hurdle for the Business Analysis is to obtain ways to connect all these disparate steps together in a way that produces what the customer wants without sacrificing the profitability of the organisation. To support this various channels of interactions are available for the business analysts. The digital tools have obtained prominent roles in interactions in the Digital Era. The integration of Social media and mobile applications to customer services have enhanced the customer experience along with the interaction channels.
The Future...
In the current state, strategic and effective business analysis is becoming a critical corporate ability. The traditional project-oriented business analysis will soon be a thing from the past. The business analysts will be required to adopt a business-oriented approach in the near future. The skill sets like process involvement, product management and lean product development will become necessary skills for an ideal business analyst. As a career opportunity, business analytics is going to be even stronger and profitable in the digital era.