Sponsored post on behalf of Michigan State University Online
Today’s data-driven business culture has given organizations new resources and competitive advantages through the integration of data into everyday operations and strategic business decisions. With this increasing reliance on Big Data and growth in the data, organizations are able to gather, both business intelligence (BI) and business analytics (BA) are crucial for interpreting the information and creating effective, data-based action plans that companies can use for a competitive advantage.
Though they tend to be used interchangeably, business intelligence and business analytics have different applications and different goals. When used together effectively, they can complement each other and maximize efforts to achieve business goals.
Business Intelligence
True to its name, business intelligence is about using data to make intelligent business decisions by monitoring, collecting and reporting data for interpretation. Since there is so much data out there, BI helps organizations filter through existing relevant data to decipher trends and patterns in the past and present to make better decisions for current operations.
Business Analytics
Business analytics is vital to utilizing business intelligence to its full potential by working to interpret data to predict future patterns based on current data. Business analytics is great for companies looking to improve or change their current operations and make better decisions for the future. It can be used to strategize, recognize sales and market opportunities, improve relationships with customers, better indicate potential risks and decrease threats based on the analysis of why things happened in the past and if something will occur again.
Continue reading to learn about career opportunities for business intelligence and business analytics professionals and how combining the two concepts can improve the way an organization reaches current and future business solutions.
