¶ … facilitating change within an organizational setting, by outlining and recommending solutions that deliver value to stakeholders. It is the set of everyday jobs and practices employed to function as a connection among stakeholders to comprehend the system, strategies, and processes of an organization, and to reach solutions that help the organization to attain its objectives (IIBA, 2015). Business analysis consist of comprehending how organizations operate to achieve their objectives, and describing the competencies required by an organization to deliver products and services to stakeholders. It takes into account the organizational objectives, how those objectives link to specific goals, shaping the strategies, methods, and plans that an organization has to carry out to realize those goals and objectives, and defining how the different business units and interested parties within and outside of that organization interrelate (IIBA, 2015). Benefits and challenges of Performing BA in an organization

The nature of business has transformed drastically in the past three decades through advancements in technology, with a conforming pattern change in the methods and procedures whereby business hurdles are resolved by IT-based solutions. The business analysis benefits the businesses and organizations by ensuring that the business solution suggested by technical experts follows the requirements set, and the initial necessities will take into account business difficulties, diminish business risks or create business value (Erlank, 2012: 4). Several organizations experience poor requirement management that results in numerous project failures. The application of components, methods, undertakings, and processes of business analysis decreases several prevalent project risks. These include generating solutions that do not account for business needs, resistance from users, having to rework projects and scope creep. Business analysis within organizations ensures that quality of solutions generated is far superior and assures greater project success (Erlank, 2012: 4).

There are a numerous benefits of business analysis. Any mistakes or errors within the organization are identified immediately, enabling the organization to respond swiftly to minimize the impact of any operational issue. This benefits the company from consumers not having to cease using its products. Another benefit is that the organization aligns with the latest consumer trends and preferences. An understanding of product or service offerings from competitors, consumer preferences and their behavior enables a company with valuable information as faster decisions can be made to meet the needs of the current consumer base (van Rijmenam, 2015).

One of the major disadvantages of performing business analysis is that the tools necessitated might be costly. However, it also saves a lot of money for the organization. By decreasing the burden on the organization's information and technology and these freed resources can then be used for other activities (van Jijmenam, 2015). The organization also benefits from having better sales insights that brings about additional revenue for the organization. This is because business analysis enables the organization to ascertain precisely how its sales processes manifest and therefore come up with actions to preclude any loss of revenue (van Jijmenam, 2015). One additional benefit is that the organization is able to detect any kind of revenue in its systems; it is able to discern new strategies from its competitors immediately. This enables the organization to have a competitive edge over others in the industry (van Jijmenam, 2015).

There are certain challenges to business analysis. It is time consuming for the organization as it encompasses collection of data from present and previous occurrences, which may take a lot of time. In addition, it also necessitates proper interpretation of data collected. Another challenge lies in the cost or expenses incurred in performing business analysis as some tools for data analysis can be expensive. For instance, web analytic tools and different softwares are costly and increase the outlays of the organization. In addition, it requires qualified and proficient personnel for performing business analysis. This implies hiring new personnel, training personnel or even outsourcing such services to an external establishment (van der Aalst, 2008).

Descriptive Analytics

Descriptive analytics encompasses analyzing the prevailing business setting. In particular, it studies data and analyzes preceding occurrences and setting for ascertaining the approach for the future. The current and past setting and context of an organization are helpful in this regard. Descriptive analytics studies previous performance and appreciates that performance by drawing out past data to analyze past success or failure. Virtually all management reportage for example sales, advertising, operations, and finance, employs this kind of investigation analysis. Different models in this analysis enumerate data relations in a manner that is very often utilized to categorize consumers or prospects into categories and clusters. Different models in predictive analytics that lay emphasis on projecting a particular consumer behavior is credit risk, which ascertains several different associations and links between consumers and products...

Descriptive analytics can be utilized, for instance, to classify consumers in terms of the product inclinations and life stage. These tools for modeling can be used to advance further models that are able to handle a great amount of personalized agents and undertake forecasts. In general, these analytics can assist an organization to examine the historical consumption level of its clients and thereby assist in planning consumer necessities and facilitate the organization in setting optimal prices (Rose Business Technologies, 2012).
Predictive Analytics

Predictive analytics transforms data into information that can be used within the organization. It employs data to ascertain the possible future result of an occurrence or the likelihood of a circumstance taking place. Predictive analytics incorporates an assortment of statistical methods from modeling, machine knowledge, data mining, together with game theory that examine present and past evidences to make calculations regarding future occasions. With respect to business organizations, predictive analytics uses the patterns obtained in data from the past and different transactions to determine risks and prospects. These predictive models predict interrelations amongst several factors to permit evaluation of risk or prospects linked with a certain set of conditions, managing decision making for imminent transactions (Rose Business Technologies, 2012).

The three basic facets of this analytics consist of predictive modeling, analysis of decisions and optimization and profiling of different transactions (Rose Business Technologies, 2012). An instance of performing predictive analytics can be perceived in the optimization of management systems for consumer relationships. These can assist in enabling an organization to examine all consumer data and thereby reveal patterns that forecast consumer behavior (Rose Business Technologies, 2012). Another instance is for an organization that provides a diversified selection of products. The use of predictive analytics can be beneficial in analyzing the buying power of the consumers, their usage level and other consumer behavior. This can bring about effective cross-selling and retailing extra products to prevailing consumers. This leads to a direct increase in profit and stronger consumer relationships (Rose Business Technologies, 2012).

Prescriptive Analytics

The evolving technology of prescriptive analytics exceeds and surpasses descriptive and predictive analytical models. It does so by providing recommendations about different courses of action that ought to be taken and indicates the probable outcome of every decision. Prescriptive analytics by design combines data, mathematical disciplines, business guidelines, and mechanism learning to forecast and then proposes choices to exploit the estimates. Apart from projecting future it also recommends actions to be taken for profitable operations from the forecasts and presents the management with the insinuations of each decision choice. Prescriptive analytics forecasts what will take place, when it will materialize and why it will transpire. In addition, prescriptive analytics can propose decision possibilities on how to exploit a future prospect or alleviate an impending risk and demonstrate the inference of each decision selection. In fact, prescriptive analytics can incessantly and spontaneously process fresh data to enhance and develop prediction precision and deliver better decision selections (Rose Business Technologies, 2012).

Conclusion

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Business analysis consist of comprehending how organizations operate to achieve their objectives, and describing the competencies an organization requires to deliver its products and services to stakeholders. Business analytics like descriptive analytics, predictive analytics and prescriptive analytics enables the company to benefit enormously. However, there are drawbacks to business analysis as it is not only costly but it is also time consuming. To start with, descriptive analytics examine the past performance of an organization that it uses to scrutinize preceding successes and failures. Secondly, predictive analytics converts data into beneficial information that can be utilized within the establishment. It encompasses the use of this data to determine the conceivable future outcome of an event. Third, prescriptive analytics in essence, syndicates data, calculated disciplines, business rules, and mechanism learning to estimate and then suggests sets to make the most of these estimates. In addition to projecting future, it also commends actions to be taken for cost-effective operations from the forecasts and presents the management with the insinuations of each decision choice. In conclusion, this exemplifies the benefits that an organization stands to gain by performing business analysis in its operations.

Works Cited

Erlank, Steve. The Benefits of Business Analysis. IIBA Inside View, 2011. Retrieved from: https://www.iiba.org/News-Events/Newsletters/Archived-Newletters/2011/IIBA_Newsletter_April_2011.aspx

IIBA. What is Business Analysis? International Institute of Business…