15 Best Online Business Analytics Programs

More than any oth­er time, busi­ness­es now rely on data, met­rics, and ana­lyt­ics to cre­ate and imple­ment cor­po­rate and busi­ness strate­gies in an effort to reach defined objec­tives at an accel­er­at­ed pace. Because of this, the demand for pro­fes­sion­als with ana­lyt­i­cal skills who have earned one of the on-cam­pus or online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees has seen some recent impres­sive growth.

So, those pro­fes­sion­als who have earned one of the qual­i­ty busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees online will find their edu­ca­tion well suit­ed and pre­pared for the mod­ern busi­ness land­scape, as they pos­sess the skills required to ana­lyze trends that offer accu­rate pre­dic­tions and a direct strat­e­gy for man­age­r­i­al deci­sion mak­ing. Grad­u­ates who hold a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics online degree are well equipped for a role as a busi­ness ana­lyt­ic leader – a quick-think­ing inno­va­tor with excep­tion­al skills that adapt to rapid­ly evolv­ing and chang­ing busi­ness con­di­tions to solve busi­ness problems.

Methodology: Ranking the Best Online Business Analytics Degrees

For the Bachelor’s Degree Cen­ter rank­ing of the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees, our edi­tors focused on legit­i­mate, accred­it­ed online insti­tu­tions. We have ranked each busi­ness ana­lyt­ics pro­gram accord­ing to tuition cost, stu­dent reviews, and grad­u­ate salaries.

1. Texas A&M University Commerce

Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty Com­merce offers a Bach­e­lor of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BBA) in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics ranked the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree in Texas and beyond. This four-year pro­gram from A&M Com­merce requires 120 cred­it units but does not require a for­eign lan­guage or the­sis. Degree can­di­dates explore the pow­er of har­ness­ing, ana­lyz­ing, and inter­pret­ing Big Data pro­fes­sion­al­ly. Core cours­es for this under­grad­u­ate degree include data and infor­ma­tion man­age­ment, data analy­sis, machine learn­ing, data min­ing, data sci­ence, and big data ana­lyt­ics mod­el­ing, to name a few.

Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty in Com­merce was found­ed as a teacher’s train­ing col­lege in the late 1880s. This high­er edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tion oper­ates satel­lite cam­pus­es in Mesquite & Dal­las, plus course­work through­out the state in oth­er colleges.

What We Like: Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty in Com­merce is orga­nized into five aca­d­e­m­ic schools/colleges in education/human ser­vices, human­i­ties, busi­ness, agri­cul­tur­al sciences/natural resources, and science/engineering.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BBA

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

2. Bellevue University

Belle­vue Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that ranks among the top five best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. Belle­vue University’s 127-cred­it under­grad­u­ate degree busi­ness ana­lyt­ics pro­gram includes these fea­tured class­es – micro­eco­nom­ics, man­ag­ing oper­a­tions in a chang­ing econ­o­my, SQL for ana­lyt­ics, bases SS pro­gram­ming, data ware­hous­ing, machine learn­ing, data sci­ence, data visu­al­iza­tion, and sta­tis­tics for ana­lyt­ics to name a few. Belle­vue main­tains a gen­er­ous cred­it trans­fer pol­i­cy for incom­ing stu­dents that offers an accel­er­at­ed com­ple­tion path.

Belle­vue Uni­ver­si­ty (BU) oper­ates a pri­vate high­er learn­ing insti­tu­tion in sub­ur­ban Nebras­ka with a stu­dent enroll­ment that exceeds 10,150 stu­dents. Active duty and their spous­es receive a dis­count­ed tuition rate. Found­ed as a school focus­ing on adult edu­ca­tion, 80% of Belle­vue University’s stu­dents are 25 or older.

What We Like: Belle­vue Uni­ver­si­ty also main­tains a satel­lite facil­i­ty in Omaha.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

3. Arizona State University

Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Data Ana­lyt­ics that US News ranks the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree in Ari­zona and the coun­try. ASU’s under­grad­u­ate degree has received accred­i­ta­tion from the AACSB. Degree can­di­dates must earn a min­i­mum of 120-semes­ter units – deliv­ered in 7.5‑week mod­ules. Fea­tured class­es include busi­ness data min­ing, data ware­house, dimen­sion­al mod­el­ing, data analy­sis, and enter­prise ana­lyt­ics, machine learn­ing, data sci­ence, among others.

ASU is among the largest pub­lic high­er learn­ing insti­tu­tions in the world, with approx­i­mate­ly 150,000 under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate stu­dents. Estab­lished before Ari­zona became a state in 1885, ASU now oper­ates a vari­ety of cam­pus­es across the state and in Los Ange­les as well.

What We Like: ASU’s fac­ul­ty of 4,700 include Nobel lau­re­ates, Ful­bright Schol­ars, and Pulitzer Prize winners.

Degree: Busi­ness Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

4. Golden Gate University

Gold­en Gate Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Data Ana­lyt­ics track that requires degree can­di­dates to com­plete 123 cred­it units over 3.5 to 4 years. The major­i­ty of instruc­tors at Gold­en Gate Uni­ver­si­ty are work­ing busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als and data sci­en­tists. Fea­tured class­es includ­ed in GGG’s applied busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degree include the law of con­tacts, sales and com­merce, quan­ti­ta­tive flu­en­cy for busi­ness lead­ers, ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods, data sci­ence, machine learn­ing, web ana­lyt­ics, advanced ana­lyt­ics tech­niques, and the prin­ci­ples of oper­a­tions man­age­ment, plus a cap­stone in man­age­ment pol­i­cy, to name a few.

Gold­en Gate Uni­ver­si­ty oper­ates as a non­prof­it, pri­vate insti­tu­tion of high­er learn­ing focus­ing on pro­grams in busi­ness, law, account­ing, and tax­a­tion. Found­ed by the YMCA as a lit­er­ary read­ing group in 1901, Gold­en Gate Uni­ver­si­ty now serves more than 5,200 stu­dents on its San Fran­cis­co cam­pus and online.

What We Like: GGG also main­tains aca­d­e­m­ic facil­i­ties in Seat­tle, Los Ange­les, and Sil­i­con Valley.

Degree: Busi­ness, BS Data Ana­lyt­ics concentration

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

5. CSU Global

CSU Glob­al offers a BS in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems and Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that ranks among Colorado’s most inno­v­a­tive and best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. CSU Glob­al’s online under­grad­u­ate degree explores the many ways to har­ness the pow­er of data sci­ence to dri­ve real-world suc­cess­ful busi­ness oper­a­tions with cut­ting edge ana­lyt­ics tools Degree can­di­dates have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to earn SAS cer­tifi­cates as well. This big data ana­lyt­ics degree from CSU Glob­al has received accred­i­ta­tion from the ACBSP.

CSU Glob­al is the online plat­form of the Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty that was devel­oped in 2007. This dis­tance learn­ing high­er learn­ing insti­tute serves approx­i­mate­ly 19,900 stu­dents each year.

What We Like: CSU Glob­al offers both under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degree pro­grams focused on edu­cat­ing non-tra­di­tion­al learn­ers and work­ing professionals.

Degree: Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems and Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

6. American Public University

Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that is ranked among the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees with ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion in West Vir­ginia. APU offers a gen­er­ous trans­fer cred­it pol­i­cy in which 84% of required cred­its may be trans­ferred if eli­gi­ble. Stu­dents are offered month­ly start dates and these con­cen­tra­tions – gen­er­al, retail man­age­ment, account­ing, entre­pre­neur­ship, human resources, data sci­ence, security& intel­li­gence, and mar­ket­ing. Class­es are deliv­ered in eight- and six­teen-week modules.

Amer­i­can Pub­lic Uni­ver­si­ty is a mem­ber school of the APUS sys­tem that was found­ed as a dis­tance-learn­ing insti­tu­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion in the ear­ly 1990s. The school is pri­mar­i­ly attend­ed to by under­grad­u­ates, who make up about 84% of the 46,000+ stu­dent body.

What We Like: More than half of APU’s stu­dents have been a part of one of the US mil­i­tary programs.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

7. Oregon State University

Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that is con­sid­ered one of the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in the coun­try, accord­ing to US News & World Report. This 180-quar­ter cred­it under­grad­u­ate degree pro­gram from Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty is offered with four start dates and can be com­plet­ed entire­ly online. Ore­gon State University’s degree offers aca­d­e­m­ic tracks in dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing ana­lyt­ics or mar­ket research & con­sumer ana­lyt­ics. Core cours­es and elec­tive cours­es include finan­cial plan­ning, data sci­ence, web ana­lyt­ics, social media ana­lyt­ics, intro­duc­tion to micro­eco­nom­ics, busi­ness deci­sion mak­ing, data min­ing tech­niques, and cal­cu­lus for man­age­ment and social science.

Ore­gon State Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed under the Mor­rill Act in 1856. OSU is one of only four four-des­ig­na­tions schools in the nation – sun, sea, space, and land-grant. The school main­tains sev­er­al cam­pus­es that serve near­ly 32,000 under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate students.

What We Like: OSU’s main cam­pus is locat­ed about an hour to the south of Portland’s downtown.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

8. Grand Canyon University

Grand Canyon Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that pre­pares stu­dents for reward­ing careers in busi­ness and ana­lyt­ics. Grand Canyon University’s best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees require degree can­di­dates to learn to ana­lyze data effec­tive­ly by com­plet­ing course­work in data visu­al­iza­tion, predictive/prescriptive mod­el­ing, and data min­ing, among oth­ers. Poten­tial careers for grad­u­ates include busi­ness intel­li­gence ana­lysts, web ana­lyt­ics, oper­a­tions man­age­ment, and chief exec­u­tives, to name a few. Sam­ple class­es for GCU’s 120 cred­it unit pro­gram include IT project man­age­ment, data­base struc­tures, com­put­er sci­ence, data sci­ence, and data min­ing techniques.

Grand Canyon Uni­ver­si­ty oper­ates as a for-prof­it insti­tu­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion with a Chris­t­ian affil­i­a­tion. The major­i­ty of stu­dents attend­ing class­es offered by Grand Canyon Uni­ver­si­ty attend online, although 25,000 stu­dents attend class­es on the Phoenix and oth­er campuses.

What We Like: The uni­ver­si­ty offers more than two-hun­dred-degree pro­grams in busi­ness, the­ol­o­gy, edu­ca­tion, fine arts, social sci­ence, nurs­ing, and STEM.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

9. Maryville University

Maryville Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BBA in Man­age­ment Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems ranked among the most inno­v­a­tive & best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in Mis­souri. Maryville University’s under­grad­u­ate degree in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics includes these fea­tured class­es, regres­sion analy­sis, data­base man­age­ment sys­tems, math­e­mat­i­cal mod­el­ing, prob­a­bil­i­ty and sta­tis­tics, enter­prise ana­lyt­ics, data sci­ence, com­plex data sets, and data min­ing, to name a few. Grad­u­ates of this ana­lyt­ics degree find reward­ing careers work­ing in pri­vate orga­ni­za­tions, non­prof­its, or gov­ern­men­tal agencies.

Maryville Uni­ver­si­ty is a pri­vate uni­ver­si­ty that was found­ed in the 1870s as an all-female school, with men admit­ted in the late 1960s. The sub­ur­ban cam­pus of Maryville Uni­ver­si­ty is home to approx­i­mate­ly 11,000 under­grad­u­ate and post­grad­u­ate stu­dents each year study­ing for degrees and cer­tifi­cates in nurs­ing, busi­ness, edu­ca­tion, health, and arts/sciences.

What We Like: Maryville Uni­ver­si­ty is locat­ed with­in the greater St. Louis metro area for the con­ve­nience of work­ing professionals.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

10. Colorado Technical University

Col­orado Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BSBA) Data Ana­lyt­ics focus that is avail­able 100% online. Col­orado Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty’s best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees have received ACBSP accred­i­ta­tion and are con­sis­tent­ly rec­og­nized to be one of the lead­ing pro­grams in the coun­try by US News and World Report, with cut­ting edge ana­lyt­ics tools In addi­tion, this BSBA degree from CTU offers fast-track options offer­ing cred­it for life and work expe­ri­ence. Core cours­es include data min­ing for results, enter­prise data, data sci­ence, com­put­er sci­ence, ana­lyt­i­cal rea­son­ing, busi­ness ana­lyt­ics tools, project man­age­ment, and ana­lyt­ics for dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing, to name a few.

Col­orado Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty was estab­lished in the mid-1960s as a for-prof­it school with an ini­tial focus on train­ing stu­dents who were for­mer active mil­i­tary mem­bers. Col­orado Tech­ni­cal Uni­ver­si­ty main­tains an aca­d­e­m­ic facil­i­ty in Auro­ra as well as its main cam­pus in Col­orado Springs.

What We Like: CTU uti­lizes an adap­tive com­put­er learn­ing pro­gram to help cus­tomize pro­grams and instruc­tions to meet stu­dent needs.

Degree: Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion — Data Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

11. Liberty University

Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BA in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion (BABA) Data Ana­lyt­ics con­cen­tra­tion that is among the most inno­v­a­tive and best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in the Com­mon­wealth of Vir­ginia and beyond. Lib­er­ty University’s 120-semes­ter unit data ana­lyt­ic degree pro­gram is accred­it­ed by the ACBSP and offers the oppor­tu­ni­ty to trans­fer up to 75% of pre­vi­ous­ly earned cred­its, if eli­gi­ble. LU’s fea­tured class­es for this degree include prac­ti­cal ana­lyt­ics, com­put­er sci­ence, enter­prise data, quan­ti­ta­tive meth­ods, com­plex data sets, busi­ness and eco­nom­ic fore­cast­ing, data sci­ence, and data­base con­cepts for analytics.

Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty oper­ates as a pri­vate insti­tu­tion of high­er edu­ca­tion with a Chris­t­ian evan­gel­i­cal affil­i­a­tion. Found­ed in the 1970s by Jer­ry Fal­well, Lib­er­ty Uni­ver­si­ty now ranks among the largest Chris­t­ian school in the world, with more than 89,000 stu­dents study­ing on-cam­pus and online.

What We Like: Enrolled stu­dents must adhere to the hon­or code at Lib­er­ty University.

Degree: Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion: Data Ana­lyt­ics, BA

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

12. Bay Path University

Bay Path Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness — Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics empha­sis that ranks among Boston and greater New England’s best online busi­ness degrees. This Bay Path Uni­ver­si­ty under­grad­u­ate degree in data ana­lyt­ics pro­gram includes these fea­tured class­es, meth­ods of applied sta­tis­tics, orga­ni­za­tion devel­op­ment and change, sophis­ti­cat­ed busi­ness ana­lyt­ics tech­niques, data sci­ence, busi­ness process­es, and sys­tems analy­sis and design, to name a few. Degree can­di­dates enrolled in Bay Path University’s data ana­lyt­ics degree are pre­pared for reward­ing careers as a finan­cial ana­lyst, research spe­cial­ist, intel­li­gence expert, data man­age­ment, project man­age­ment, or plan­ning data ana­lyst, among others.

Bay Path Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed in the late 1890s as an all-women’s school. Cur­rent­ly, Bay Path Uni­ver­si­ty offers coed­u­ca­tion­al pro­grams at the grad­u­ate lev­el only. Near­ly 3,300 stu­dents attend class­es on the university’s sub­ur­ban cam­pus and online.

What We Like: Bay Path Uni­ver­si­ty was orig­i­nal­ly char­tered to offer pro­grams in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion, busi­ness teacher train­ing, and sec­re­tar­i­al science.

Degree: Busi­ness: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

13. Regent University

Regent Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that is ranked among the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees in the nation, accord­ing to US News & World Report. Grad­u­ates of Regent University’s data ana­lyt­ics under­grad­u­ate degree find reward­ing careers as an applied busi­ness ana­lyt­ics con­sul­tant, a data min­ing spe­cial­ist, data sci­en­tist, and a data visu­al­iza­tion ana­lyst, among oth­ers. Stu­dents prac­tice deep ana­lyt­i­cal skills through fea­tured core class­es include sys­tem analy­sis and design, busi­ness and orga­ni­za­tion­al con­texts, dis­crete math, infor­ma­tion sys­tems, data man­age­ment, applied data sci­ence, and data­base fun­da­men­tals, plus a cap­stone in data ana­lyt­ics tech­niques to gain hands on expe­ri­ence, to name a few.

Regent Uni­ver­si­ty was found­ed in the 1970s by Pat Robert­son as the Chris­t­ian Broad­cast Net­work Uni­ver­si­ty. The school now serves more than 10,100 under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents each from the Vir­ginia Beach cam­pus and online.

What We Like: Regent University’s cam­pus has been ranked among the most beau­ti­ful in the south­ern US.

Degree: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

14. Suffolk University

Suf­folk Uni­ver­si­ty offers a BS in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion with an aca­d­e­m­ic spe­cial­ty in big data and busi­ness ana­lyt­ics (BDBA) that is among the more inno­v­a­tive of New England’s best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees. Stu­dents are offered these con­cen­tra­tions, Fin­Tech, Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, or Cyber Secu­ri­ty. Fea­tured core class­es include big data and busi­ness intel­li­gence, applied sta­tis­tics and pre­dic­tive ana­lyt­ics, text min­ing, applied busi­ness ana­lyt­ics pro­gram, and data­base management.

Suf­folk Uni­ver­si­ty is a research school that was found­ed by Glea­son Archer in 1906. The university’s urban cam­pus serves approx­i­mate­ly 7,500 under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate stu­dents each year.

What We Like: Suf­folk Uni­ver­si­ty is rec­og­nized as the eighth largest high­er learn­ing insti­tu­tion in the greater metro Boston area.

Degree: Big Data & Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics Major

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

15. American Women’s College

The Amer­i­can Wom­en’s Col­lege offers a BS in Busi­ness with an aca­d­e­m­ic con­cen­tra­tion in Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics that is ranked among the best online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees from an all-women’s school in the north­east. The Amer­i­can Wom­en’s Col­lege offers stu­dents a flat tuition rate to help make bud­get­ing for school eas­i­er. Course­work is deliv­ered in accel­er­at­ed 6‑week mod­ules – for part-time or full-time students.

The Amer­i­can Wom­en’s Col­lege is a school with­in Bay Path Uni­ver­si­ty, a school that was found­ed in the late 1800s in Spring­field, Massachusetts.

What We Like: Aca­d­e­m­ic degree and cer­tifi­cate pro­grams offered by the Amer­i­can Women’s Col­lege are designed for busy work­ing women and offer the flex­i­bil­i­ty of study­ing online class­es at any time of the day.

Degree: Busi­ness: Busi­ness Ana­lyt­ics, BS

Inter­est­ed? Check out the pro­gram website!

Why Should I Get My Business Analytics Online Degree?

To qual­i­fy for high-lev­el man­age­r­i­al posi­tions, grad­u­ates of on-cam­pus or online busi­ness ana­lyt­ics degrees gain a com­pre­hen­sive foun­da­tion of the prin­ci­ples of busi­ness the­o­ry in com­bi­na­tion with strate­gic busi­ness analy­sis for mak­ing busi­ness deci­sions. Online stu­dents also save in finan­cial aid, since most online pro­grams are cheap­er than an on-cam­pus school of business!

These spe­cial­iza­tion degrees online devel­op crit­i­cal think­ing skills for man­age­r­i­al deci­sion mak­ing, as well as tech­ni­cal and ana­lyt­i­cal exper­tise, that help busi­ness ana­lyst pro­fes­sion­als cre­ate busi­ness lead­er­ship strate­gies with advanced tools that shape the direc­tion of the com­pa­ny or orga­ni­za­tion. You don’t need a tech­ni­cal back­ground or hands-on expe­ri­ence to start these inter­ac­tive online pro­grams. Online stu­dents often don’t even need to take the GRE or GMAT, and their GPA is less impor­tant than work experience.

Mid-career pro­fes­sion­als with an inter­est in becom­ing a leader in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics, even with­out tech­ni­cal back­grounds, will gain the expe­ri­ence in busi­ness process to advance with­in the field by earn­ing an online degree.

Check with the school to learn the appli­ca­tion dead­line, cred­it hours, and admis­sion requirements.

What is Business Analytics?

Before you dive head­first into a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics pro­gram, make sure you have answered these questions –

• What is busi­ness ana­lyt­ics, and how long does the degree take to earn?
• What is ana­lyt­ics and busi­ness intel­li­gence – do they differ?

As you, the stu­dent, on a mis­sion to find the right school and pro­gram, you will dis­cov­er the answer to ques­tions like What is busi­ness ana­lyt­ics? and What is ana­lyt­ics and busi­ness intel­li­gence? – you will begin to under­stand that it is the math­e­mat­i­cal and ana­lyt­i­cal process that uses tech­nol­o­gy, his­tor­i­cal data, and sta­tis­ti­cal meth­ods and tech­niques to trans­form data that seeks to solve com­plex busi­ness prob­lems and improve a busi­ness or organization’s strate­gic deci­sion-mak­ing abil­i­ties by using reli­able data-dri­ven busi­ness decisions.

There are dif­fer­ent fun­da­men­tal types of busi­ness analytics.

• Descrip­tive ana­lyt­ics seeks to iden­ti­fy trends to be used for future predictions.
• Pre­dic­tive ana­lyt­ics iden­ti­fies those events and poten­tial outcomes.
• Pre­scrip­tive ana­lyt­ics are the tools used when for­mu­lat­ing final deci­sions that offer var­i­ous poten­tial outcomes.

More specif­i­cal­ly, the BA field refers to the ana­lyt­ic meth­ods that include sta­tis­ti­cal and pre­dic­tive analy­sis to trans­form raw data into iden­ti­fi­able trends and even­tu­al out­comes. The main com­po­nents that define what busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is – as follows –

• Data Col­lec­tion – the process by which data is gath­ered and organized.
• Data Min­ing – the process of sort­ing through large over­whelm­ing sets of data to estab­lish rela­tion­ships and trends.
• Text Min­ing – quan­ti­ta­tive and qual­i­ta­tive analy­sis of large, typ­i­cal­ly unstruc­tured sets of text data.
• Sequence/Relationship Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion – iden­ti­fy­ing actions that can be pre­dict­ed based on their asso­ci­a­tion with oth­er vari­ables or actions.

The next sequence of steps includes –

• Fore­cast­ing – the process by which one ana­lyzes his­tor­i­cal data from a defined peri­od to help cre­ate well-informed esti­mates of the prob­a­bil­i­ty of future events or behaviors.
• Pre­dic­tive Ana­lyt­ics – the process of apply­ing sta­tis­tic meth­ods and ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods in the cre­ation of an array of orga­ni­za­tion­al out­comes through var­i­ous pre­dic­tive models.
• Opti­miza­tion – the use of sim­u­la­tion tech­niques to test best-case sce­nar­ios for those pre­dict­ed trends.
• Data Visu­al­iza­tion – visu­al tech­niques to enhance the rep­re­sen­ta­tions and the time it takes to under­stand the graphed or chart­ed data.

Data-dri­ven deci­sion mak­ing is the key to mod­ern business.

What Does a Business Analytics Professional Do?

The sim­plest busi­ness ana­lyt­ics job descrip­tion is as follows –

A pro­fes­sion­al ana­lyst is tasked with the respon­si­bil­i­ties of col­lect­ing data, apply­ing pre­dic­tive algo­rith­mic tech­niques with the objec­tive to ana­lyze the data col­lect­ed with the spe­cif­ic objec­tive to devel­op and iden­ti­fy pat­terns that are either pos­i­tive and ben­e­fi­cial to future busi­ness or use the same data to help avert hard-to-detect pot­holes that may dam­age the busi­ness earn­ings and oper­a­tions.
Earn­ing a BA degree offers diverse paths that lead to a vari­ety of relat­ed busi­ness ana­lyt­ic and busi­ness intel­li­gence jobs – most­ly at the upper-lev­el man­age­ment lev­el, as follows –

A Direc­tor of Busi­ness Job Ana­lyt­ics Descrip­tion would resem­ble that of a sea­soned busi­ness ana­lyt­ics job descrip­tion, except it is like­ly a direc­tor will be pro­fes­sion­al­ly respon­si­ble for the upper-lev­el man­age­ment tasks defined in a stan­dard busi­ness ana­lyt­ics man­ag­er job descrip­tion.
And, for the record, a busi­ness intel­li­gence and ana­lyt­ics job descrip­tion is often more com­pre­hen­sive craft­ed by a slice of the sec­tor or even a spe­cif­ic com­pa­ny with a unique job offering.

Skills will also trans­fer to areas like health­care, infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy, sup­ply chain man­age­ment, and more. Master’s degree pro­grams like a mas­ter of busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion (online MBA pro­grams) offer many oppor­tu­ni­ties to meet your career goals. The Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics shows that an MBA makes more than a pro­fes­sion­al with just a bachelor’s.

Do I Need an Online Master of Science in Business Analytics

An online mas­ter of sci­ence in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics is a good idea if you want to move up in your career. Look for an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary grad­u­ate pro­gram for your online mas­ter of sci­ence in busi­ness ana­lyt­ics. An online mas­ter of sci­ence in busi­ness with a busi­ness ana­lyt­ics option is easy to find. An online mas­ter of sci­ence can be fast – as lit­tle as a year – but an online MS (or any master’s degree) is only as good as the school it comes from. Choose your online master’s degree wise­ly. A busi­ness intel­li­gence cer­tifi­cate is a cheap­er way to get a bump with­out finan­cial aid.

Relat­ed Rankings:

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Busi­ness Analytics

25 Best Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

15 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

10 Fastest Online Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Analytics

25 Best Online Bach­e­lor’s in Data Science

10 Most Afford­able Bach­e­lor’s in Data Science