In the world of data, there are many positions with similar titles, for example, data analysts and business analysts, which are both quite popular and demanding jobs. What does each job do? And how are they different? Sertis takes readers to find out the answers.

Data analytics has become an essential tool that drives businesses' daily operations. More and more jobs have emerged in the world of data, and some jobs' roles and responsibilities may overlap and seem confusing.

Data analysts and business analysts are the two roles that often make people confused. Some organizations have both, while some use one title with roles and responsibilities that overlap with its counterpart.

Today, Sertis invites all readers to see how these two roles are different, which parts of their jobs are similar, and which is suitable for people with which qualifications.

What do data analysts do?

The primary role of data analysts is to analyze data to find hidden trends and insights. They are also responsible for collecting data, maintaining databases, and organizing, classifying, and preparing data for analysis. It can be said that data analysts are a position that is mainly responsible for data in the organization.

During the data analytics process, data analysts use statistical analysis skills and various data analytics tools to find the answers hidden in the data. Data analysts also analyze massive amounts of data to ensure the reliability of the results.

Data analysts must be able to use a variety of data analytics tools such as Python, SQL, R, and Tableau to ensure an efficient data analysis that covers all indicators and related factors to make the most out of the data.

The conclusions and insights drawn by data analysts are passed on to business departments such as marketing, sales, or executive to apply to their operations in numerous ways, such as supporting decision-making, finding the cause of the problems, and tracking the performance

What do business analysts do?

Like data analysts, business analysts also work with data but in a way that they use data to evaluate the business situation. They also figure out how to apply the insights from the analysis to improve the business, whether by reducing costs, increasing profits, planning marketing campaigns, or creating business strategies.

In conclusion, the important thing that business analysts must focus on is finding business solutions to improve business operations. They focus on exploring business data, seeing how it can help make business decisions, and applying the insights into business in a way that significantly makes a difference. Therefore, business analyst roles require a lot of understanding and expertise in business acumen.

Another aspect that is very important for being a great business analyst is the presentation and communication of the analysis results. Therefore, it is necessary to have data visualization, communication, and decision-making skills.

Data Analysts VS Business Analysts

Although there are some related roles and responsibilities, the main difference between data analysts and business analysts is that data analyst roles are more technical. They must be responsible from the initial steps of collecting, managing, preparing, and storing data to the process of data analytics. It can be said that they work a little more at the back end and get involved from the first process of importing data.

Data analysts perform comprehensive analysis for various uses with the main focus on turning the data into insight and finding the story the data wants to tell. The insights they get cover a wide range of purposes. For example, it can be applied to business improvement by generating sales, or it can be a technical insight to streamline internal operations such as the operation of machinery in factories. And most importantly, data analysts pass the insights on to the business sectors to enable them to make data-driven decisions. They don't get involved in the decision-making step.

On the other hand, business analysts focus more on the front end. They bring the prepared data to analyze and find business answers. Business analysts focus more on analyzing data to solve business problems than data analysts. Most importantly, business analysts use the data to help make business decisions. It can be said that they get involved from the analysis process to the decision-making process in the final step.

How to choose between these two roles?

1. Educational backgrounds

These two roles require slightly different educational backgrounds. Business analysts typically come from more business-oriented majors, such as business administration, then they develop more expertise in data analytics tools later. In contrast, data analyst tasks involve more technical work in managing data. Therefore, they usually come from engineering fields, which gives them a better advantage in terms of technical knowledge.

2. Interests

Our personal interests can also determine which jobs suit us best. Business analysts are often interested in the business world and keen to solve business problems, while a data analyst may be interested more in statistics or programming. They have expertise in managing and dealing with data and databases and prefer a technical side. However, they still possess business knowledge, enabling them to perform business analytics.

Actually, there is no borderline or fixed definition. It depends on the needs and characteristics of each organization. However, they are both in great demand.

At Sertis, our data analyst role focuses on business analysis to deliver insight that benefits clients' businesses across industries, such as retail, energy, FMCG, and other industries. Our teams get a chance to experience a wide range of challenges with clients from various industries.

If you want to kick start a new journey and overcome new challenges in the AI and data world, Sertis is the right place for you. Join and grow together with us.

Find job opportunities at: https://www.careers.sertiscorp.com/