As per Statista, the total number of active internet users in 2021 was approximately 4.3 – 5 billion. To give you more perspective, in one day, people around the globe make around 500 million tweets, send 294 billion emails, and make 3.5 billion searches using Google. This implies that people and organizations collectively generate a massive amount of data daily. As big data continues to grow, so the need for business analytics professionals is growing, and making a career in this field can be very lucrative. If you are looking for business analytics courses in Nigeria, then this blog will serve as a guide to make your hunt easier!
Business Analytics Course: The 101 Guide
As highlighted in the preceding intro, with the massive amount of data getting produced with the passage of each day, the functionality of old database management systems does not suffice the purpose! The data analysis techniques and database management systems used for a long time fail to analyze and organize data any more efficiently.
However, with the advent of newer technologies, big data management has become easy. Not only this but more professionals are also sought after by companies who are aware of the latest tools and technologies to handle massive data.
If we talk about technical definition, then it is the process of transforming data into a form that can be easily read or understood so that businesses can make informed decisions. The process of data management, organizing, visualization, predictive modeling, forecasting, optimization, and data mining to interpret useful insights comes under the purview of business analytics.
Moreover, business analytics also relies on quantitative, statistical, and operational analysis along with the visualization of data to interpret useful results. This is why as a business analyst; you need to acquire both technical knowledge and communicative/presentation skills while pursuing a business analyst course in Nigeria. The core focus of business analytics involves the following parameters:
- To identify new relationships, patterns, and results through data mining.
- Use quantitative and statistical analysis using different business modeling tools.
- To conduct a multi-variable testing process on the conclusions that are found.
- To forecast the performance, trends in the concerned industry, business requirements as well as predictive modeling.
- To communicate the findings that are easy to read/interpret by the management and consumers.
Evolution of Business Analytics
In the past decade, business analytics has emerged as an advanced pool of tools and techniques backed by automation as well as big data. Initially, business analytics was only used by massive MNCs. However, it was adopted by businesses later for report-building, data entry, and presentations through applications like MS Excel.
With time, as big data came into the picture, more advanced applications have come to use that involve the usage of multi-dimensional data analytics and data processing. So, fundamentally, the evolution of business analytics can be traced to the use of automation for analysis as well as big data.
The demand for better and compatible tools kept increasing and motivated businesses/companies to enhance the then-existing software and tools. There was a need for more capable tools/techniques/applications to interpret massive sets of data that may be from different sources (like the cloud, distributed file systems, etc.).
That is how the idea of business analysis came into play, and business analysts were required to carry out predictions and forecasts. In a nutshell, all this technology existed. However, due to big data and the growing need of the industries, an advancement was needed that was eventually served by Business Analytics.
Also, it would not be wrong to say that business analytics has evolved primarily in four spheres namely – AI and Automated Analytics, Real-time Analytics, Predictive Analytics, and Big Data.
Types of Business Analytics
While pursuing a business analytics course, you may learn about the following types of business analytics-
1. Descriptive Analytics:
The first and foremost category is that of descriptive analytics, wherein raw data from different sources is shuffled to provide useful insights. Consequently, it helps to understand the effect of past actions. The interpretations made through descriptive analysis help you to only understand what is right or wrong without any in-depth explanation.
Hence, most businesses/organizations do not trust the results of descriptive analytics and prefer to combine them with other types of business analytics. To an extent, the interpretations made through descriptive analytics may help investors, stockholders, and leaders.
Two pivotal parameters of descriptive analytics include mining and data aggregation. A few examples of descriptive analytics include – Financial statement analysis: which is useful to understand the financial health of the company, and Traffic & engagement reports: to analyze the engagement metrics of the website.
2. Diagnostic Analytics:
Another type of business analytics is primarily used to decide whether a particular thing has happened in the past or not. It involves the process of data discovery, data mining, correlations, and drill-down. It entails data investigation to find out the driving parameters of a particular event. It is used to find the elements that are responsible for a particular outcome.
The process of diagnostic analysis uses the concept of likelihoods and probabilities. In a nutshell, diagnostic analytics provides insight into particular problems for businesses and companies.
Some examples of diagnostic analytics – Interpreting market demand: used to fathom the market needs before the sales to meet the supply, Customer Behaviour explanation: helpful in understanding the needs of consumers to make business operations plans, Technology problem identification and Improvement of Company Culture!
3. Predictive Analytics:
The third type is predictive analytics, and it is mostly used by business analysts to know what would/might happen in the future. So, while studying the business analytics course, you would want to focus on this topic! The interesting thing about predictive analytics is that it combines the interpretations made through diagnostic and descriptive analytics to estimate future patterns.
Therefore, it is an important tool for business analytics. Primarily, predictive analysis is used for sentiment analysis wherein different online reviews/opinions are collected and then analyzed to estimate the final sentiment of people.
A couple of examples of predictive analytics include – Future cash flow forecasting and determining the staffing requirements in the Entertainment & Hospitality sector and Manufacturing industry to avoid any kind of malfunction.
4. Prescriptive Analytics:
Although prescriptive analytics forms the basis of the other three types of business analytics, it is a few steps ahead of them (with regard to estimating future solutions). Prescriptive analytics is used to interpret favorable results in accordance with a predefined game plan and then propose another course of action to get desired results.
In most cases, it uses a strong feedback system that learns, un-learns, and regularly updates the connectivity between the course of action and outcomes. It can be understood as an emerging tool like AI, Algorithms, Deep Learning, etc wherein it requires both external and internal past data to give a desired outcome.
A few examples of prescriptive analytics include – Venture capital wherein it helps to make investment decisions, Sales: to predict the chances of converting a lead into conversion, and the Banking sector: wherein is used to detect any kind of fraudulent activities.
Other Courses Available in Nigeria You Must Check
How Business Analytics Aids in Making Sound Business Decisions?
A report released by New Vantage Partner in 2020 indicated that around 64.8% of Fortune 1000 firms invested approximately $50 million towards the business analytics for their respective companies/business. This number gives a glimpse of the advancement that has taken place in this sector (in the last few years).
The Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria would tell you about the core competence of business analytics is to make precise decisions based on past trends/patterns and facts. On the contrary, if the decisions were made through old tools or mere gut/instincts, then it would result in expensive investments and it might not even be the desired outcome.
However, the insights derived through business help to make the process systematic and optimize overall working. Furthermore, it helps in mitigating the gray areas of the business process, and the management is prepared for many unannounced issues that may occur every now and then.
When you study business analytics you may be learning about ways in which business can effectively optimize their operation. These include:
- Evaluation of future decisions based on the past patterns/trends/initiatives that let them make effective business plans.
- Evaluation of employee performance, efforts, and productivity working within the organization.
- To determine the future and current staffing requirements that help the company to perform well.
- To determine how good investments would perform and accordingly fine-tune the financial expenses.
- To identify the demand for a concerned product/service based on the market sentiments and behavior to accordingly decide the supply!
Benefits of Using Business Analytics
Once done with the business analytics courses, you would be able to help companies with varied things and some of which are highlighted below:
1. Personalisation of Consumer Experience
Companies/businesses tend to gather various customer data through different channels including social media, emails, e-commerce sites, etc. By using different tools of business analytics you can create optimized consumer profiles using the collected data. And, then gain useful insights to provide them with a personalized journey/experience.
2. Ameliorating the Decision-making Process
Enterprises/ businesses often use data analytics to get a defined guide regarding business plans and combating financial losses. Through techniques like predictive analysis (that you will be studying about in your Business Analytics Courses, you can suggest the probable outcomes of the changes taking place in the business.
3. Streamlining Business Operations
Companies use business analytics tools and techniques to upscale their operational efficacy. You can do data gathering and analysis with regards to the supply chain to showcase the delays in manufacturing and production as well as predictions about the issues that may occur in the past.
4. Mitigating Risks and Managing the Setbacks
Enterprises/businesses are surrounded by risks most of the time. It can range from uncollected receivables to consumer theft, employee safety, or legal liability. Well, in such cases, data analytics comes handy to predict the events /actions of the future and save the business from potential problems/risks.
5. Security Enhancement
It is often quoted that the next world war may occur due to data and its security is of utmost importance for companies all around the globe. You can learn through Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria how business analytics aids in diagnosing breaches from the past. And, accordingly, safeguard the data!
Job Profiles Available after Completing Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria
We live in a world that is driven by data wherein we produce and consume data like never before. As mentioned in the former part of the blog, big data is the star of the show in current times. This is estimated to grow even more.
Therefore, the demand for job profiles in the business analytics field is sought to also grow. Once you are done with your business analytics course, you will have multiple opportunities to act upon and build your professional career accordingly. A handful of the roles you can consider exploring after completing the business analytics course include-
| Management Consultant/ Analyst | Research Analyst |
| Data Scientist/ Analyst | Program & Analytics Specialist |
| Business Intelligence Analyst | Pricing & Revenue Optimisation Analyst |
Since most companies around the globe now rely on harnessing the power of business analytics, many sectors such as logistics, healthcare, e-commerce, finance, food service, entertainment, marketing, etc do need professionals in this field. Therefore, after gaining learnings from business analytics courses in Nigeria, you can also look out for jobs in the above-mentioned sectors.
Best Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria
Now that you are done with reading about business analytics, it is time to turn our focus towards the topic that might be irking your mind- what are the best business analytics courses in Nigeria?
1) Business Analytics Course by COURSERA
One of the leading online platforms in the field of education and learning, Coursera provides business analytics courses in Nigeria that can be opted for by anybody! It has been enrolled by many students worldwide and bridges the human skill gap that exists in the market with regard to business analysis and data analysis.
If you choose to enroll in this course then you will be learning about the tools and techniques of business analysis coupled with R programming language. The course curriculum revolves around teaching data cleaning, reshaping, transformation, and aggregation.
Furthermore, you will be gaining knowledge on the usage of RStudio which is a very useful IDE (integrated development environment). The sessions are interactive and come with a flexible deadline so that different people do not face issues in attending the classes and it approximately takes 15 hours to complete the course.
2) Business Analytics Course By UDEMY
Just like Coursera, Udemy also provides online and easily accessible business analytics courses in Nigeria. One of the interesting points about this course is the fact that it offers both free and paid versions of business analytics courses with R language.
On one hand, the paid version of the course includes video sessions, certification, interaction with the experts/instructors, assignments, and guidance. Whereas, free courses include only video sessions. There are a total of 23 sessions with 114 lectures and it takes around 18-20 hours to complete it.
In order to enroll for the business analytics course by Udemy, you just need a decent internet connection and a laptop (to install the R language) and you will be sorted. Moreover, it is not necessary to have knowledge of coding in order to attend the classes for this course.
However, having a prior understanding of the same is useful for students. The course is perfect for beginners, entrepreneurs, and working professionals like statisticians.
Also Read:
- Business Analytics Courses in Melbourne
- Business Analytics Courses in Singapore
- Business Analytics Courses in Malaysia
- Business Analytics Courses in Doha
- Business Analytics Courses in Amsterdam
- Business Analytics Courses in Germany
3) Business Analytics Course By SIMPLILEARN
Next in line is the business analytics course provided by Simplilearn. It is one of the top business analytics courses in Nigeria and the students enrolling gain expertise in Agile Scrum Master, Tableau, Excel, SQL, CCBA as well as Agile Scrum Foundation.
Not only this but you will also be trained to build interactive dashboards, the process to work with SQL databases, and gain all the competencies of a business analyst. The course is offered in collaboration with IBM and there is no hard and fast prerequisite for enrollment. Furthermore, there are mentoring sessions with industry experts wherein you are trained for 8 in the span of 4 weeks.
The hands-on projects such as Sales performance analysis, customer analysis, and Product Analysis help you to build a good portfolio to bag your job after completing the courses.
4) Business Analytics Course by EDUREKA
Edureka is an established online education institute known for providing training and career development courses. It offers a number of management skills and training courses and business analytics is one of them. Edureka offers Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria wherein the students gain knowledge of R programming language, Exploratory Data Analysis, Data Manipulation, Data Visualisation, Data Mining, Regression, RStudio, Sentiment Analysis, etc.
The interactive sessions offered by Edureka are of 30 hours. And, the weekend sessions last for 10 sessions (each of 3 hours) and weekday sessions last for 15 sessions. Furthermore, if you choose to do Edureka’s Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria then you will get a chance to work on live projects based on use cases.
Once you enroll in this course, you will get your personal Learning Management System (LMS) that comes with quizzes, presentations, an installation guide, and online customer support services. They also have a community forum for all learners to facilitate peer-to-peer discussions and interactions.
5) Business Process Analytics in R (language) Course by DATACAMP
Datacamp offers Business Analytics courses in Nigeria with certification. The course curriculum revolves around teaching students about data mining with R programming language and ways to analyze different business systems. The business analytics course by Datacamp is divided into four chapters wherein the 1st chapter is all about data analysis (including topics on extraction, processing, and analysis).
The 2nd and 3rd chapters cover topics like R perspective angles and preprocessing of data like filtering, enriching, and aggregation events. The final chapter of the business analytics course includes case studies on data transformation and data exploration. The sessions provided by Datacamp do not need any payment for the installation.
It also provides hands-training in business analytics subjects and facilitates the learners with a tableau certification. The entire course consists of 58 exercises, 16 videos as well as 4 hours of interactive sessions wherein you can ask your queries.
This brings us to the end of this blog. Hope you gained useful knowledge about what is business analytics, what are the benefits to use it in today’s fast-moving world, how it helps businesses to scale up, what are the job roles in this field, and the top business analytics courses in Nigeria. You can explore more about these courses by visiting the respective official websites of these online platforms.
FAQs
Q1) What is Business Analytics?
The concept of business analytics revolves around gathering and processing past data, and patterns and then analyzing them to interpret root causes or trends from the past event. Finally, the derived insights are applied to business operations (across different divisions) to mitigate risks, scale up and ensure financial health!
Q2) How is Business Analytics beneficial?
Several benefits of business analytics include:
- To streamline operational efficiency
- To prevent potential risks and setbacks that may occur.
- To personalize user experience
- To improve decision-making, etc.
Q3) What are the job roles you can take after completing the business analytics course?
There are many lucrative career options you can consider taking up after completing Business Analytics Courses in Nigeria and some of them include – Supply chain analyst, Business Analyst, Research Analyst, Program and Analytics Specialist, etc.
