What is business analytics?

In making business decisions, companies need to rely on data that was obtained in good quality. There are two major sections in business analytics: business intelligence and statistic analysis. The business intelligence, which is done in most projects, is about studying the historical data in order to know the changes over a period of time.The other section is the statistic analysis which includes the placement of statistical algorithms in order to get a predictive analysis and predict the future about a specific product or a service you are offering. In addition, it might mean using advanced analytics methods besides the statistical analysis, such as cluster analysis, to make targeting easier by setting customers into groups based on differences and similarities between them across the data. 

There are some main differences between the two building blocks of business analytics, the business intelligence and the advanced analysis: business intelligence includes key performance indicators, metrics, dashboards, and monitoring and alerting that are automated. On the contrary, advanced analysis involves predictive modelling, data mining, big data and text analytics and quantitative analytics.

In conclusion, both components are important to make the enterprise take a decision and truly understands the target market. Companies need skilled analysts and good data quality to take the best action at the right time.

http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/business-analytics-BA