What exactly are data analysts and what do they do for your company? Where is their value to you as a business? Data analysis provides a way of looking into your company and customer information over a period of time to make future business decisions that can positively affect your bottom dollar. Analysts are needed in every field including, but not limited to bakeries, gyms, call centers, healthcare, financial institutions, ecommerce and SAAS companies.
The bakery needs to know what prices to sell their muffins at and if cupcakes are performing 16% better over cookies. Therefore they should put them at eye level in the display to sell even more. The gym needs to know how long they retain their customers for on average, why people leave, and what is the most popular membership level. This will influence their marketing and sales when January hits. Healthcare might need to know the common sickness/diseases to focus their research efforts. An in patient care facility or nursing home may need to know the common reasons for falls in order to put training or preventive measures in place. Financial institutions need to have a way to value companies and define whether they are a good investment or not. Ecommerce companies need to know the top performing products so they can focus those categories on their home page or be ready for Black Friday sales marketing. What is trending last year does not always have a direct impact on what is trending for this year. SAAS (software as a service, think Netflix), needs both reactive financial modeling and predictive financial modeling. They need to know the impact of increasing their costs. At what percentage can they increase their rate but not lose customers to where there is a negative impact.
So you see no matter what your business is there are problems that need solutions. Data analysts use your data to provide insight on where to dive deeper and what could potentially be a recommendation for the company. It is not their job to make decisions, but rather offer insights into your business.