As we noted in a previous blog, the value of business analysts (BAs) is felt widely across organisations. BAs can function as catalysts for enterprising agility and help organisations develop and improve processes, products, services and technology. BAs have an increasingly pivotal role in modern organisations, particularly when it comes to futureproofing business operations.
According to Praneeth Pancheti, Optivia’s Lead Business Analyst, the value of business analysts lies in their ability to increase a company’s adaptability to evolving business demands, a role he has fulfilled in numerous projects.
“This benefit is achieved through a BA’s unwavering pursuit of the best possible solutions to deliver the best possible outcomes, while consistently operating under the mindset of capitalising on time and cost-effective approaches to business through data,” he says.
How BAs continually contribute to time and cost savings
Business analysts are skilled in identifying and prioritising business requirements, informing data-driven recommendations and demonstrating the value of initiatives to executives and stakeholders through reporting. At every step of a project, BAs are looking for areas of improvement to drive greater efficiencies that have flow-on effects for time and cost savings.
“This extends from people to processes to technology. A BA takes great care in finding a solution that’s not just the right fit now, but also future-fit. This saves organisations money and time in the long run because they can more easily pivot and adapt to developments in the business world without having to reinvent the wheel each time,” says Praneeth.
“As BAs, we lookout for bottlenecks that consume a lot of time and optimise, automate or redesign processes. We are geared to cast our gaze further than what’s immediately in front of us, so we can accommodate a company’s forward planning.”
Advancing mindsets and skills to modernise business operations
1. Empowering collaborative working
In data-driven spaces, there is often the opportunity to democratise not only the data across all business users, but also improve access to processes and technology so people can do their jobs better. BAs working in this space can help companies to increase collaboration both within teams and across organisations by guiding their investment in as well as the implementation of the right technology and education.
“What we are seeing now is that through working more collaboratively and engaging with stakeholders across teams we are creating better, more meaningful dialogues rather than operating separately or in a ‘siloed’ way,” says Praneeth.
2. Leading the way with change management and education
Successful business analysts are often instrumental in training and change management when implementing new technologies or ways of working.
“It’s more apparent than ever before that successful projects involve managing change and people. As BAs, this allows us to challenge the inertia we often see in organisations. Through involved and active education, we’re able to really demonstrate how much the new process, technology or change will transform people’s jobs and wider business operations for the better,” says Praneeth.
3. Giving businesses an edge over competitors
As much as the value of business analysts is built upon demonstrating the direct benefit an initiative has on an organisation, it’s also in setting up ways to obtain a competitive edge over other industry players.
“This is why BAs are gaining more importance in organisations – we use our analytical ability to assess the ongoing success of processes so organisations can be more competitive. Our approach to optimising business processes is forward-thinking, not just cemented in what works for the here and now. It’s about building a trajectory for continual, iterative improvement,” says Praneeth.
“From doing discovery and laying the groundwork, to being across the advent of new technologies, to having advanced analytics skills we’re able to deliver best-fit, best-practice solutions.”
The value of business analysts in futureproofing organisations lies in the foresight they bring to their every solution and innovation. BAs can see the bigger picture, grasp the vision of the organisation and use their operational and technical expertise to find an optimised, future-fit solution. To learn more about how Optivia’s skilled and successful Business Analysts can power incredible efficiencies in your organisation today, contact us.
To learn more about how Optivia’s skilled and experienced business analysts can power incredible efficiencies in your organisation, contact us.
At Optivia our consultants have decades of experience in deploying data modernisation and analytics solutions to solve critical business problems. We are experts at combining industry knowledge with technology, so contact us today to discover how we can deliver seamless transformations for you.