Business analytics in ITs Companies is a  form of data collection and representation that takes a data-driven  approach to the world of business, using statistics and data modeling to  develop new business insights. It is a multi-disciplinary activity: the  value from insight comes not from the activity but from the execution.  Often, this crosses a variety of departments within an organization –  few analytics groups have responsibility for both the insight creation  and the execution of that insight. Because of this, selling the value of  analytics isn’t just a goal for managers; it’s a necessary criterion  for success.

Type of Business Analytics

Descriptive Analytics – Many organizations are still in the  descriptive stage, utilizing traditional BI approaches: get all your  data together and use visualization to get quick views on what has  happened.

Diagnostic Analytics is about figuring out why did an event happen,  and uses techniques such as drill-down, data discovery, data mining,  and correlations. 

Predictive Analytics is a form of advanced analytics that uses both  new and historical data to forecast activity, behavior and trends. It  involves applying statistical analysis techniques,  analytical queries and automated machine learning algorithms to data  sets to create predictive models that place a numerical value on the  likelihood of an event happening. Typically, this is done by using  existing data to train predictive machine learning (ML) models.

Prescriptive Analytics refers to analytics that seek to provide  optimal recommendations during a decision-making process. Unlike  observational analytics or predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics  determines ways in which business processes should evolve or be  modified.

It may appear that these analytics techniques need to implement  sequentially, however, organizations and institutions are able to jump  into any of these with the availability of numerous BI tools available  in the market. It is definitely recommended to build these in stages as  the sequence forms a solid foundation.