Business Analyst Query

shaz77_2

Hi All,

I've just been offered the a role as a Business Analyst within the insurance firm that I work for. I got a little induction today and I am due to start in 2 weeks, I have a strong IT background which has not been utilised much as of late, 2 key applications that I need to get to grips with are Micro Strategy (which I have never used before) and MS Excel which as of late I have only been performing basic tasks on.

The job seems to involve pulling information from the Micro Strategy application and identifying trends e.g. if sales of insurance products are going up or not etc?

I don't want to look too much of a novice when I start and I was wondering if anyone has any advice or if there are any online features that would allow me to get to grips with the 2 applications mentioned?

Thanks in advance.

wearethedogs

Doesnt really sound like a BA role to me so can't really help. If you are interested in a bit of background to business analysis see

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CFHw8jSEWwkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=BABOK&hl=en&ei=tW2wTrzOL8_U8QPQjcW5Ag&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

In reality business analysis is all common sense.

MS Excel on the other hand, there are lots of free resources online. Id find it easier to learn on the job though as then you'll know what you need to be able to do.

concerned43

I take it someone was in the job before you and will, I suspect they already have reports in place to download information from one system to the other. If this is the case then I would look on the system for all the previous employee's templates and play around with them until you get used to the software.

InsideInsurance

In the insurance industry it doesnt sound like a BA - a BA is normally involved in change projects and are responsible for identifying the business' requirements, designing new processes and assisting in things like capacity planning, business case development, testing etc. What you are describing is more of a MI/ BI team type role

You can look at the BI software http://www.microstrategy.co.uk/bi-applications/Industries/Insurance.asp which has a demo. Ultimately it is a data warehouse tool so if you've had experience of Cognos, Business Objects, SAS etc I am sure its not that discimilar. In general you can refresh your knowledge of cubes with their dimensions etc

Excel there are hundreds of websites to help you with, mainly look at things like pivit tables, vlookup etc

2nd_Time_Lucky

for excel skills i can highly recommend the Smart Method- it takes you right from the absolute beginning of Excel and through to advanced.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Learn-Excel-Essential-Skills-Method/dp/0955459915/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320232036&sr=8-1

i knew next to nothing about excel and was told i would have to sit an excel test for a second interview only 6 days away :eek: thanks to the method i managed to do the test ok (then got turned down for the job for being "bright and bubbly" in the interview:()

Lizling

My first job was what you’ve described and I had Business Analyst in my title. It’s a term that’s used to mean more than 1 thing, and in my case it was BI/MIS. Basically, an analyst of business statistics who also handled reporting systems.

Have a good practice with Excel first if you can – preferably in the version you’ll be using at work because 2007 is quite different to earlier versions. If my experience is anything to go by, key stuff to learn is pivot tables, Vlookups, charts, Hlookups, If formulas (if, sumif, countif etc) and ideally conditional formatting, offset and match, more of less in that order. That’ll let you handle most things and anything more you’ll be able to learn on the job.

R8ch3l

Make sure you're really familiar with the data filter functionality in excel and learn about Pivot tables.

ultrarunner

Lizling wrote: »

Have a good practice with Excel first if you can – preferably in the version you’ll be using at work because 2007 is quite different to earlier versions. If my experience is anything to go by, key stuff to learn is pivot tables, Vlookups, charts, Hlookups, If formulas (if, sumif, countif etc) and ideally conditional formatting, offset and match, more of less in that order. That’ll let you handle most things and anything more you’ll be able to learn on the job.

I'm a change analyst and use a lot of these functions on a daily basis. The best way to learn is by doing it, but also see if your company has any provision for Excel training for staff.