Business analytics

Business Analytics: The Key to Successful Software Development

Business analysis in IT is at the intersection of a company’s internal processes and technical models for software implementation. It helps developers identify, capture, and document the business context and goals of a project so they can deliver the most effective, company-specific digital solutions possible.

What does business analytics consist of before software development? When implementing software products, it cannot be skipped, and how artificial intelligence is used in the analysis of business processes - we will tell you further.

What is business analysis before software development

Business analysis before software development is the process of systematically studying the business needs and requirements necessary to create an effective and useful digital product or service. It includes:

• Collection and analysis of customer requirements.
• Study of the company's business processes.
• Receiving and processing business data for previous periods.
• Analysis of the information received, identification of trends and patterns.
• Identifying opportunities to optimize and automate company processes and systems.
• Track and manage requirements changes throughout the project development cycle.

Who is a business analyst in IT

In a development team, a business analyst is a specialist who acts as an intermediary between the business and technical teams to determine and document requirements for a digital product.

He collects, structures and analyzes disparate data about the company's performance from various sources and looks for ways to optimize business processes through innovation. Thanks to this, the software not only takes into account the individual needs of the company, but also enables digital transformation.

The importance of business analysis before digital transformation of a company

Digital transformation of a company is one of the main trends in recent years, helping to make business more efficient, automated and profitable. But it is practically impossible without a preliminary thorough business analysis. Why is that?

Modern companies in various business niches generate huge amounts of data, including:

• Transactional - contain information about sales, purchases, orders and payments.
• Logistics - information on the movement of goods and materials, inventory management and transportation.
• Accounting – balance sheets, profit and loss statements, cash books.
• Budgeting and forecasting – data on planning and forecasting financial indicators.
• Marketing – information about customer behavior and preferences, purchase history, effectiveness of advertising campaigns, etc.
• HR - data on employees, their workload, productivity, career growth and training.

Using all this information about a company's performance, both current and historical, business analysis provides deep insight into internal processes, identifies their weaknesses, and provides informed insight into which technologies will most effectively solve existing business problems and improve its performance.

Business analysis not only allows you to identify a company’s needs, but also helps measure the success of its digital transformation. To do this, analysts identify key performance characteristics (KPIs) of the software and ensure their continuous analysis during the implementation process. This minimizes risks and allows for timely adjustments to strategies based on real data, which helps achieve your goals.

What does business intelligence consist of?

Business intelligence consists of many components that, when functioning together, provide the collection, processing, interpretation and visualization of analytical data about the company's performance. Typically, business analytics is carried out as follows:

• Data collection and analysis. Business process analysts collect and integrate data from various sources: devices, applications, websites, spreadsheets, social networks, etc. The received information is structured, sorted and processed most often using machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies.
• Descriptive analytics. It is a type of data analysis that focuses on describing and interpreting historical data to understand what happened in the past. It helps answer the question: “What is happening and why?”
• Predictive analytics. Based on trends and historical context about the company’s performance, business analysts build predictive models, which are subsequently used to make informed decisions on the implementation of technological solutions for the company’s digital transformation.
• Visualization and reporting. A large number of numbers and models are difficult to understand and analyze, which can lead to deterioration in the quality of decisions made. To remedy this, analysts perform information visualization and reporting. This allows the company owner and developers to easily see a holistic picture of the company’s work and find optimal solutions for developing an effective digital product.

For what types of software development is business analysis required?

Business analysis provides the foundation for successful software planning, development and implementation, and ensures that it meets the company's business objectives and end-user expectations. This makes analytics a critical element in the development of almost any software. Let's consider digital solutions, the implementation of which is definitely impossible without deep business analytics.

• ERP systems . ERPs are complex software platforms that provide management of all key business processes within a company, such as finance, logistics, production, sales, marketing and others. Accordingly, without preliminary business analysis, creating an effective enterprise resource planning system is almost impossible.
• CRM systems . CRM is aimed at automating business processes and improving relationships between a company and its consumers. When developing such systems, business analysis helps determine the company's needs for managing its customer base, interacting with audiences and marketing activities, which helps increase sales and improve the quality of service.
• Websites and mobile applications . Developing digital solutions for customers requires a thorough understanding of the needs and expectations of end users. Business analysis helps in gathering requirements, defining functionality and creating user-friendly interfaces to help the company grow in competitive markets.
• Financial systems . Financial software development requires strict compliance with regulations, data security, and integration with banking systems. Business analysis helps to identify all the necessary functional and non-functional requirements and develop a digital solution that fully meets the legislation and business goals of the organization.
• E-Commerce . E-commerce solutions perform many tasks: they provide convenient shopping, provide functionality for processing and tracking orders, help control warehouse balances, and much more. Moreover, all this takes into account the specific niche, personal needs of the target audience and the business goals of the company. Business analysis helps to identify all key requirements and take them into account during the development process.

4 reasons to use artificial intelligence in business analytics

Artificial intelligence is capable of processing large volumes of structured and unstructured data much faster and more accurately than humans, which is why AI-driven programs are increasingly used in business analytics. What advantages does this give – we will tell you further:

• Expanding business analysis capabilities. Artificial intelligence is much better at understanding the relationships between disparate data, nuances, exceptions, and detecting hidden trends.
• Making informed decisions. AI can anticipate future trends and events based on the analysis of historical data. This allows you to make more informed decisions when designing and developing software.
• Management of risks. The wide capabilities of artificial intelligence in terms of forecasting also allow the company to promptly identify possible risks in the future and prevent negative consequences at an early stage.
• Increasing the authenticity of the analysis. HI reveals hidden connections and trends, providing new insights that are always obvious when using conventional HI tools.

Our experience in business analytics

AVADA MEDIA company has extensive experience in the technical implementation of complex and highly loaded business systems: ERP, CRM, logistics and many other solutions. And to ensure that the digital transformation of our clients’ companies is successful and as smooth as possible, we always build development on the basis of in-depth business analysis.

To obtain the most accurate and reliable analytical results, our experts use advanced methods of mathematical and statistical analysis, visualization tools, as well as innovative solutions based on machine learning and artificial intelligence. We use the information obtained through business analysis to design and offer the client unique technical solutions aimed at optimizing and automating the business, taking into account their individual needs and business goals.

If you want AVADA MEDIA specialists to conduct a business analysis of your company, leave a request below. We will contact you shortly and discuss all questions.