According to a recent survey conducted by “Times Jobs” – a widely known jobs portal website – on the most demanded job roles, “Analysts” topped the chart. Clearly, Analytics is a sector that’s highly sought after in today’s industrial scenario. But, the question that’s often being asked these days is “whether Analytics is a necessity or not”. Let’s delve deeper into the subject in order to find a probable answer.
After the advent of computers, operating businesses have unquestionably become simpler, faster and more efficient. But, they also pose a serious problem and that is the handling and interpretation of the large amount of data. This is where the analysts get to play their role. But, how important is this role?
Analysts, of which there are many types (data, business, research, financial, system, equity and more), basically help firms to know the various trends of production, sales, profit, scopes of enlargement, potential markets, ways of earning more revenue in future et al. They organize the raw data and make inferences out of them. Based on these inferences, they predict (using Mathematics, Statistics, Econometrics) the path which the company must follow in future to enhance its growth and turnover. With time, since the tastes of consumers as well as the business environments change, so these predictions also have to be altered and updated accordingly, calling for a constant need of analysts.
Presently, almost every medium to large scale industries take the aid of computers. And, as mentioned earlier, the problem of data handling comes along with them. So, yes, Analytics is very important for all these firms. But, the amount of data to be worked on varies from industry to industry. For example, an IT-supported company dealing in international trade will obviously have to deal with a far greater amount of data than a middle-scale cyber café. So, while analytics will be an essential part of the former firm, it won’t be so for the latter. Also, a small scale businessman (e.g., a vegetable grocer) has a very minimal requirement of working with data, other than knowing the existing supply and demand of the market. So, he does the work of a producer, a manager, an analyst and a seller – everything at the same time. Hiring a separate analyst might seem absurd to him.
The necessity of Analytics is, thus, dependent on both the scale and sector of the business to which the firm belongs. It has not yet become a mandatory segment of all industries. After all, there can be no question of any analysis if there is no good/service to be produced and sold!
