Skip to main content

Author: Ben Fisher

How can a Business Analyst add value to your business?

Written by Ben Fisher on . Posted in Articles.

If you are currently considering adding a Business Analyst (BA) to your team, you may be wondering how exactly does the Business Analyst create value for your organisation?

Why is it that we still see so many organisations operating without a Business Analyst function? And how, as a Business Analyst, can you be sure to create the most possible value from your activities to benefit your employer?

A BA is a valuable tool for any business. They are there to help companies make viable changes to improve their organisation and achieve their goals. While some companies still believe that BA’s are an added cost, they actually do the opposite and help reduce company costs through increasing its ROI and lowering project costs. BA’s are specialists of change, as they introduce, manage, and facilitate the necessary changes to your business model. They are the people who provide the all-important link between stakeholders and project teams by communicating information between the two.

Having a BA working within your company has many benefits; these are just a few of the many ways your business will benefit from hiring one:

Increased ROI – The overall value of a company is based on its ROI. Your ROI measures the efficiency of an investment or solution. This is calculated by dividing the benefit of an investment by the cost of the investment. A business can impact these two variables. Business Analyst will work to increase the benefit achieved through an investment, whilst also working to decrease the cost to implement it, which ultimately increases your ROI. They will find more cost-efficient solutions which will lower costs. They increase the benefits by determining new needs within the organisation, prioritising those needs by value, and making necessary changes.

Advertisement

Successful Projects – A BA is a vital component of a project. Having a strong BA working on your project can save it from failure. Whilst the Project Manager will oversee a project and keep it on track, having a BA working alongside will ensure that the Project Manager leads the project in the right
direction. The BA will identify which projects will best achieve the organisation’s objectives.

Lower Costs – One of the key components of a BA’s job is to reduce company costs. The BA reduces project rework, underutilised functionality and requirements churn. They also identify and implement more cost-effective solutions.

Collaboration with Stakeholders –A large portion of project spending is wasted on rework caused by errors in requirements. The BA will reduce the rework on your projects by effectively collaborating with stakeholders. A BA will determine the complete and correct business requirements at the beginning of the project so that the steps can be implemented properly throughout the project.

To summarise, having Business Analysts within your team is vital to any organisation, from corporations to government agencies. If you haven’t already, you should hire a business analyst to ensure your organisation achieves its goals in a cost-efficient manner.

If you’d like to discuss adding a Business Analyst to your ongoing projects or future projects then please get in touch today.

Why should Start Ups and SMEs start utilising the power of Analytics?

Written by Ben Fisher on . Posted in Articles.

The impact data analysis actually has on enterprises of all sizes has been well documented in recent years to show the benefits an organisation will receive;

the ability to better evidence their decision making, pinpoint areas to cut costs, and drive profits. Large international corporations have been taking advantage of the benefits business analytics provides for so long. However, this is a completely different story when it comes to Start Ups and SMEs. Figures from a recent poll found that 56% of SMEs rarely or infrequently check their business’s data, while 3% have never looked at it at all.

Data Analysis is a big advantage for Start Ups and SMEs as it actively promotes growth which is the prime objective for most. Business Analytics when used correctly will help uncover hidden opportunities, identify trends, patterns and problem areas. In the UK last year, there was over 650,000 new Start Ups which shows how vital it is for those companies to take risks in their quest for growth. Analysing the numbers can help to reduce against these risks, and ensure they will provide some ROI and not bring down the company.

All foundations for a Start Up’s success are built around their idea or product. Unfortunately figures show that up to 50% of Start Up’s cease trading after 5 years. Accepting these figures is never easy if you’re a founder of a Start Up, but your chances of survival can be increased if you’re willing to accept these numbers and take time in understanding the market, products, customers, and data analytics. Taking advantage of free tools such as Google Analytics is vital in the early stages as this will allow a company to look at engagement metrics and feedback from users.

The main reason behind Start Ups and SMEs not taking advantage of data analytics tools is commonly down to the cost. Another common reason is simply down to the fact that they are occupied by other tasks. It’s obviously not going to be feasible for any smaller business to bring in a whole data analysis team in like larger companies are able to do, but appreciating the value that data provides, and allocating time accordingly can you give you insightful information . Analytics can help benefit Start Ups and SMEs in 3 ways.

Advertisement

1. The Initial Stage:

At the beginning of your business journey you are still in the discovery mode. The analytics strategy you have in place should allow you to make sure that you are tracking your current activities against your goals. So, if you were testing whether customers will use services provided through your website, you should be tracking the following metrics: Visits, Unique number of visitors, engagement of visitors and final conversion.

2. The Growth Stage:

This is the period when analytics can now become a lot of fun and be the true driver of your strategy. Agility is the key here. Think, test, implement and analyse your ideas quickly to see what works and what does not. It’s a great way to test out your hypothesis before rolling it out, try out variations in processes/customer journeys; you will only be limited by your own intent and imagination at this stage.

3. The Matured Stage:

You should now be in a position where you are using analytics to prescribe actions rather than to justify them. You will use your analytical capabilities to create a competitive advantage over others who can’t extract knowledge from their data, or act as quickly upon it. Make sure you don’t get left behind as the power and benefits of using analytics is growing more and more each year.