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What Can You Do With…a Concentration in Business Analytics?

By Bay State College on July 9, 2019
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Looking for a way to give your business career a boost or jumpstart a job change? Bay State College’s IT Program offers a concentration in one of the fastest growing fields in America: Business Analytics.

“Analytics are at the heart of many of the country’s fastest-growing, industry-disrupting companies,” said Oscar Gutierrez, Chair of Bay State College’s Information Technology department. The lodging site Airbnb has siphoned travel business from hotels in large part by using analytics to analyze local hotel markets to help its participating host optimize prices. Taxi competitors like Lyft and Uber crunch the numbers on passenger volume, weather data, and traffic reports to tailor prices and driver position based on anticipated demand.

At a time when virtually every company is recognizing the enormous potential of business analytics, demand is climbing for people who understand analytics. In fact, in 2018 Glassdoor ranked data scientist the top job in America for the third year running, noting that people for these positions are in high demand, command a high salary and express high job satisfaction—plus the median base salary is $67,000.  

With the number of jobs for people with proficiency in business analytics continuing to grow, graduates with a concentration in Business Analytics have a wide range of positions open to them, including:

  • Business Intelligence Analyst: These analysts help aggregate, organize, mine, and analyze data to uncover business insights. Often geared toward understanding demand, optimizing work flow, or assessing changing needs, their work involves developing reports that help companies understand the interaction of variables to project future business conditions or the outcomes of strategic decisions.
  • Data Analyst, Financial Services: These analysts use models to help assess risk, typically in the finance sector with regard to pricing and trading securities.
  • Healthcare Data Analyst: Usually working with a healthcare organization, these analysts collect and interpret data from multiple sources, including health and financial records, to help organizations improve their health care, lower their costs and improve outcomes for patients. 
  • Market and Business Intelligence Analyst: These analysts specialize in analyzing market conditions and consumer data to understand trends, identify target markets and opportunities to reach them and to predict and measure the success of marketing initiatives.  

What’s more, these roles are increasingly essential for companies in virtually every industry. The bottom line? Gaining an understanding of business analytics offers not only the potential for a lucrative and rewarding career, but also the chance to practice it in the industry of your choice. If you’re interested in learning more, explore Bay State College’s IT Program with a concentration in Business Analytics today!

 

[1] https://www.recruiter.com/salaries/business-intelligence-analysts-salary/

[2] https://himt.wisconsin.edu/experience-uw-himt/healthcare-data-analyst/