Business Analytic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Business Analytic - Essay Example These necessary requirements are as follows: a) Specific – the target must be specific including the number of customers that the organization has to collect annually or the forecasted revenue of a firm, the reduction in delivery time and so on. This target may be attained by carefully selecting relevant information from big data (Barton & Court, 2012). b) Measurable – the target must have the quality of measurement for it to be relevant. The figures must be tangible as it may be difficult to allocate costs and revenues to systems that need enhancement and accordingly measurable targets have to be established. One instance is if the firm is not sure about the number of customers it has, then it has to look for another particular target. c) Agreed – the targets have to be accepted by the organization. In other words, there is essential need for claiming ownership prior to strategy implementation. Without ownership, a strategy may be completely ignored or even coun teracted. Also when the targets are accepted by a firm, some individual are entrusted with the accountability of meeting the targets. d) Realistic – it is very essential that the firm sets realistic and attainable targets. In most firms, targets may be formulated without trying to determine whether they are achievable or not. This may be as an outcome of the corporate culture in the firm, no possible outcomes for meeting specific targets within given deadlines or the possibility for individuals to extend deadline by buying time. e) Time bound – it is extremely necessary for firms to set attainable targets within a specific period of time and it is imperative for the organization to emphasize on meeting deadlines. Also it is very important for firms to understand at an early stage the targets which may not be achievable and accordingly make modifications. Putting the initial letters of the first five words helps one to get the acronym SMART. There are certain reasons fo r the goals to be SMART. This is especially true in the context of business analytics so that they may be accurately defined and operational. Many times, it becomes difficult to implement technical processes in case of ambiguous information and this further complicates calculation and collection of data thereby leading to failure of meeting with the proposed goals. It is important to develop measurable goals as they need to be technically quantified. At the same time, these goals must be attained in a given amount of time for the data system to deliver messages to end users especially when significant values are exceeded. Broadly speaking, the above five needs help to ensure clear understanding of business initiatives. Ambiguous objectives may have diverse interpretations leading to diverse authentic versions. For facilitating efficient reporting, goals need to meet specific deadlines (Laurson & Thorlund, 2010). 2. What are the key competencies required by analysts in the business i ntelligence model? Depending on the organization, the functions of a business analyst may slightly differ, however the core roles of a business analyst remains the same provided the firm wants to smoothly operate the business analytics function. A business analyst should have the required business competencies. The analyst should have thorough understanding of the supporting business process and the manner in which information may be delivered to add to value on a strategic level. Hence the analyst should