In today’s life, competition in the business environment has become fierce. The purpose of all companies is to increase their revenues and minimize their costs. That will happen if they managed to enhance productivity and perform customer management roles efficiently.

1. 10 Compelling Reasons Why You Need a Data Analyst
In today’s life, competition in the business environment has become fierce. The purpose
of all companies is to increase their revenues and minimize their costs. That will happen
if they managed to enhance productivity and perform customer management roles
efficiently. In fact, companies’ managers who depend on feelings and blind faith for
decision making have no evidence to ensure that they are on the right track. For so,
data analytics is essential for these companies if they want to gain the competitive
advantage.
It will help them to take the right decisions about day to day occasions and
opportunities. By hiring a data analyst, managers will rely on an accurate source of
information and metrics that will help them to take the right decisions by which costs
would be minimized and revenues would be maximized.
Why data is important
By collecting and processing the right data, there would be enough information about
customers, the market, and the company itself provided by a data analyst that would be
translated into better insights for accurate decisions.
For example, data collected about customers who are interested in fashion in a specific
country are analyzed to provide information for better insights by which the manager of
the marketing department will be able to take the right decision about the accurate
marketing campaign to launch.
What does a data analyst do?
He collects different types of data related to customers, the economy and the business
process such as inventories, costs, the market volume, sales figures and profit margins,
then he delivers the processed data to managers of different departments to determine
the predicted market share, the accurate product price and successful cost minimization
strategies.
A data analyst caries on the responsibility of answering manager questions, for so he
follows many systemized steps including the following:
• Find primary sources and secondary sources to collect the right data.
• Filter these data to get what is needed.
• Make a database.
• Process data to produce the required information.
• Cooperate with managers to prioritize information based on its importance.
• Help managers to improve the company’s process for better dealing with
opportunities.

2. What are the skills required for data analyst?
A data analyst has to find important areas about the business that require more
attention, then he informs managers about these areas. To be successful in that
purpose, a data analyst should acquire the following skills:
• Data visualization: by converting data into visual graphs that are meaningful,
attractive and easy to understand, a data analyst helps managers to easily
interpret these visual graphs into accurate decisions.
• Technical skills: a data analyst should have experience in using spreadsheets to
show hidden data that was missed by managers to have better insights for
decision making. A data analyst should be perfect in using Microsoft tools and
sometimes he needs to have experience in programming languages such as
python.
• Data telling: a good data analyst should be able to discuss the processed data
with management in an exciting storytelling form that goes further to show
possible interpretations.
• Data coding: a data analyst should be able to use the programing language
python to efficiently analyze data and introduce it in tables and visual forms.
• Domain experience: it is rare to find a domain experience in most of data
analysts, but a data analyst with domain experience can be unique for business
managers who want to hire the best. This expertise will help to separate and
identify important patterns of the business.
10 Reasons why management needs a data analyst
The overall goal of a business is to achieve growth over other competitors. To achieve
growth, management needs accurate information for effective usage of resources and
accurate targeted advertising campaigns. Without a data analyst, collecting data will be
based on the quantity and it will be too much to process in an efficient time. But, by
hiring a data analyst, he will collect data based on the quality not the quantity and this
will ensure improvements in 10 areas of the business that would help it to grow over
competitors.
Access to Data
Web design firm Lilo Perth mentioned that a data analyst can provide analytics about
the stored data to be easily accessed by different departments of the company. He can
apply techniques such as electronic data processing (EDP) by which related data is

3. available to be accessed by only its related user. Other users may be allowed or not
allowed to access such data based on security conditions.
Save time
Management have a lot of tasks and responsibilities. So, there is no time to have
access to the large available data for getting the required information. A data analysis
carries on the responsibility of converting these data into a meaningful and easy to
interpret visual form to help managers take decisions in an efficient time.
Improved Performance
The performance of the company increases by its ability to use resources in the most
efficient way that meets customer needs. A data analyst provides precise information
about the available resources of the company and either these resources are enough to
cover clients’ requests or not enough. So, management will be able to use the available
resources for specific customer orders and it won’t get involved in orders that can’t be
afford. This will lead to having happy and loyal customers without complains.
Profitable pricing
A data analytics can provide useful information by which the company would get
resources for reasonable costs. So, the company could transform these resources into
products with reasonable prices. As a result, more customers will be attracted to buy the
company’s products over competitors’ products.
Quality and consistency
By gathering data from reliable resources, a data analytics manages to provide the
desired output for management by processing these data. While data is gathered from
different departments and divisions of the company and it is presented in a perfect
arrangement, so management will get a trusted information for accurate business
choices.
Decision making based on evidence
For management, the best decision could be described as the decision that is taken
quickly, accurately and based on evidence. This differentiate between companies in
competition. Late decisions for some companies may result in losing competition
against other company with efficient decision making. While a data analyst provides
information from reliable resources in an easy to interpret visual form, so management
will be able to take the best decision in a timely basis.
Testing decisions
Data analysts don’t only help management to take decisions, they also track the effect
of these decisions on the company and on customers. They collect results and provide
feedbacks for managers as a learning resource by which they can deduct either their
decisions are successful enough to keep going or they need to be modified.

4. Providing Relevant Products
Products are the key to succeed and win competitions for companies. The product
management team has the responsibility of detecting ongoing trends among people to
improve their strategies for innovation of products and services. So, they will need the
help of a data analyst to gather information about what is going on in people’s thoughts
to know what is demanded and expected to be demanded by them. That will help the
company to produce the required products before being requested.
Improving the Customer Experience
By tracking customers’ reactions to the company’s products on a regular basis, a data
analyst helps management to know what improvements are required for products to
keep loyal customers. Analytics about expected sales also enables management to
determine how much inventory should be kept to improve the operations efficiency and
effectiveness because keeping excess or less inventory may lead to higher product
costs which in turn will increase prices that would cause customer dissatisfaction.
Successful marketing campaign
The company’s budget should be allocated wisely, a common mistake by a lot of
companies is to waste a big portion of the campaign budget on unrelated customers or
an unrelated region. So, a data analyst is essential to collect and process data about
customers and areas that should be interested in having the company’s products and
services. This will result in a marketing insight that will direct the marketing campaign
successfully to reach the correct market.
So, regardless the size of your business, the way to achieve growth and get over
competitors, you should pay attention to data and to professional data analysts who
know how to effectively process it.