What is Data Analytics?

“I believe that the data will set you free. At the end of the day, it’s about how do you turn those pieces of information into insights that will improve business.”

• Steven Rice, Executive VP, HR, Juniper Networks.

Data is considered a gem today. Everything that we do on our smart devices is related to data. With the huge increase in the amount of data generated every moment, the need for data analytics has become the need of an hour. 

No matter whether the data is generated from a large scale business or it is generated from a person, it has to be analyzed in order to get benefit from it. 

This article shows you how important it is to apply data analytics to your business and eventually you realize how rewarding a career in Data Analytics can be. For launching a career in Data Analytics, you can take up Data Analytics courses for beginners, and get certified to kick start a shining career.

What is Data Analytics?

Data Analytics refers to the process of analyzing the raw data in order to draw conclusions from the information. The techniques and processes that are involved in data analytics have been automated into algorithms and mechanical processes that work over raw data. 

The process of data analytics is carried out in several steps. First, the data requirements are defined and are divided according to the category. Secondly, data is collected through various resources such as cameras, environmental sources, computers, etc. 

The third steps involve the data collected to be organized so that it can be analyzed over the Spreadsheet or any other software. The fourth step is to clean the data and eliminate errors or duplicates before analysis.

Types of data analytics include descriptive analysis, diagnostic analysis, predictive analysis, and prescriptive analysis.

Importance of Data Analytics

As more and more amounts of data are being generated, there are new opportunities to apply data analytics to various parts of the business, science, and daily life. The need to extract useful information from the raw data becomes crucial for every organization. The need for data analytics is made clear by the factors mentioned below.

• • Extract hidden insights: from the raw data available, the hidden insights are collected and analyzed according to the requirements of the business.
• Market analysis: to know about the strengths and weaknesses of competitors, market analysis can be carried out.
• Report Generation: reports are generated after the analysis of data and are sent on to the related teams and candidates who plan a course of action for improvement in business.

• Improvement of Business Requirements: when you analyze the data, it lets you better understand the requirements of customers and act accordingly for the improvement.

Data Analytics allows businesses to optimize their performance. With the help of data analytics, companies find out more efficient ways of doing business and the ways of storing huge amounts of data, eventually reducing costs.

Also Read: Why a product manager needs to know data analytics

Top courses for Data Analytics for Beginners

By now you know how crucial data analytics has become for companies of every size. If you wish to make a career in data analytics, you can go for the certification exam by taking up an online training course. Some of the top online courses for beginners are mentioned below.

• Simplilearn’s Introduction to Data Analytics for Beginners

Specifically designed for beginners, this course helps you learn how to apply data and analytics principles in your business. You learn data visualization, analytics, and data science methodologies that you can apply for driving business decisions better and excellent return over investments.

You also learn about project lifecycles, building analytics framework, the difference between data analytics, data science, and machine learning; and using analytics tools to draw business insights.

• Data Analytics: A Practical Introduction for Absolute Beginners, EdX

Powered by Microsoft, this course brings you from the very beginning of data concepts and structures in context. You will learn how to analyze data, extracting useful insights, understand the environments in which data exists all through our work and life. You will also learn to apply analytics methods to business and industry scenarios. This course paves a way to start your career in data analysis and will understand the career path.

• Introduction to Data Analytics for Business, Coursera

This course is specifically designed for candidates who want exposure to the data analytics practices executed in the business scenario. The analytical processes that are explored in this course are data creation, storage, access, and how the organization utilizes data and building the environment in which analytics can develop.

In addition, this course lets you develop skills and an outlook that will make you become more productive and make you a valuable asset for your organization. 

This course will let you develop the skills in data modeling, data quality, data analysis, and SQL.

• Dataquest

With a well-organized curriculum, Dataquest can be a good choice for learning data analytics. This course makes you learn by working on full-fledged data science projects. There is a Stack community by Dataquest members and you can take their help or advice anytime you wish to. In this course, you learn SQL, Python, data visualization, data cleaning, exploratory data analysis, probability and statistics, web scraping and APIs, and more.

Throughout the curriculum, you will get data science projects so that you can learn how to apply everything you have learned.

• Intro to Data Analysis, Udacity

This course introduces you to the world of data analysis. You learn the steps involved in the data analysis process that may be posing questions, changing data into the format of your choice, making it error-free, exploring the data to find patterns, draw conclusions or predictions, and communicating the results you find out.

The skills you develop by taking this course are Python, SQL, data streaming, and data visualization.

Bottom Line

By now, you know that Data Analytics is going to stay and has a promising future.

The average salary of a data-analyst at entry-level is $83,750, and that of mid-level is $100,250. For senior data-analysts, the average annual salary can range between $118,750 to $142,500.

With such a nice stipend you would surely wish to make a career in this domain. The top online courses are shortlisted and mentioned above. All you need to do is get yourself registered in an online training institute.

So, go ahead, and launch your career in Data Analytics.