What is business analytics? | Fortune Education

It is also well assumed that the best big decisions are ones with evidence and back them up—in the form of data. But how does data go from being raw information like surveys and click-through rates to being part of sometimes world-altering decision-making? Business analytics is how.

The emphasis on data-powered decision-making is nothing new; in fact, businesses have known about its significance for years. A decade ago, Deloitte noted in a 2013 study that focus on big data and analytics were to be the “new normal” for maintaining growth. “Companies must focus on evolving their analytical maturity in addition to developing capabilities around rapid experimentation and trial and error. Remaining agile will be essential for handling this “new normal,” it stated.

So, with today there being hundreds of thousands of workers who describe themselves as business analysts (not to mention there now being an entire international organization dedicated to the field, the IIBA), an important question lingers: what exactly even is business analytics? Fortune has you covered.

What is business analytics?

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