Business Analyst

[DimPrawn]

Does anyone uses MS SQL Server Reporting Services or is that another dead-end MS tech waiting to happen?

[mace]

Interesting. Are you only building reports and/or are you doing anything on the back end? What version and package are you using? What industry are you in? What is considered a reasonable rate?

With all these packages - what sort of level is required and how high is the learning curve?

You can find average rates on itjobswatch.co.uk and jobstats. £300-400 per day as a contractor is probably about right. It'll take you about 6 months to be considered a junior level analyst and about 2 years experience to be seriously considered by an agent for a contract role. Career path for a reporting analyst is either to become a BA or move up the management path as a head of BI. Relatively stable.

[mace]

Does anyone uses MS SQL Server Reporting Services or is that another dead-end MS tech waiting to happen?

I see SSRS and SSAS crop up in job ads a lot but you need to be a bit of a techie to create reports or analysis cubes using those tools, whereas Cognos/Business Objects can be used by business users who are technically minded.

[singhr]

create 2-3 role specific CV's, sling em out there and see what sticks. I am a BA working in Financial Services in London and still seeing a stready trickle of opportunities. Good luck

[Bumfluff]

Interesting. Are you only building reports and/or are you doing anything on the back end? What version and package are you using? What industry are you in? What is considered a reasonable rate?

With all these packages - what sort of level is required and how high is the learning curve?

Over the years I've done pretty much everything with BO both installing configuring the app, building the universe and reports and all the db stuff PL/SQL, data modelling, the BA side of things depends what the client wants, current gig I set everything up from scratch, did the requirments gathering, designed the datamodel, built the ETL jobs, did the BO install, built the universes and built the reports.

I'm currently working with XI R3.1 just upgrading to XI R3.2, but lots of places are still on 6.5 and R2 which are quite different beasts, you need to know R2 or R3 really, 6.5 is nearly end of life.

I've only worked in the finance / banking side and nearly all banks use it somewhere along the line. Rate wise I know an ex-client was looking for a reporting BA recently and the daily rate was £500-£550 a day and level of technical knowledge need was just be able to build reports but not to complex, the main focus was around validating data sources and calcs. A reporting BA they took on as a permy at my current gig came in at £67.5k.

BO is pretty easy to learn but it can be pretty cr*p at doing simple things so its pretty stressy, if I had my time again I would probably avoid working with BO but then again it has been good to me, I have a love / hate relationship with it.

[Pogle]

I'm currently working with XI R3.1 just upgrading to XI R3.2, but lots of places are still on 6.5 and R2 which are quite different beasts, you need to know R2 or R3 really, 6.5 is nearly end of life.

Agreed, when I started using BODI it wasn't even owned by BOBJ - Acta 4 I think it was called. I know places still using 6.2 even though its well out of support you really need to be proficient in the older versions and not just the latest one

BO is pretty easy to learn but it can be pretty cr*p at doing simple things so its pretty stressy, if I had my time again I would probably avoid working with BO but then again it has been good to me, I have a love / hate relationship with it.

I disagree I find it very easy to use for both simple and complex problems and frankly love it. I've used Cognos & SSIS also, but much prefer BOBJ.Its not something you can learn in 2 days though and many of the jobs I'm seeing nowadays require several years experience also you'll need SQL server and Oracle database experience and data warehousing design too.

Good luck with it all

[Bumfluff]

Agreed, when I started using BODI it wasn't even owned by BOBJ - Acta 4 I think it was called. I know places still using 6.2 even though its well out of support you really need to be proficient in the older versions and not just the latest one



I disagree I find it very easy to use for both simple and complex problems and frankly love it. I've used Cognos & SSIS also, but much prefer BOBJ.Its not something you can learn in 2 days though and many of the jobs I'm seeing nowadays require several years experience also you'll need SQL server and Oracle database experience and data warehousing design too.

Good luck with it all

By simple I mean things like not being able to make the line of line graph thicker than the default, it's internal load balancing does not work, the fact the report servers won't release memory correctly when a report is closed so nearly daily restarts are required. All the issues are in Webi not the full client, full client is ok but BO are not developing that anymore there focus is Webi and that gets all the new functionality.

[dmuk]

Thanks again for all the great input.

I think this is where I am having trouble moving forward:
- I have used a lot of these tools to manipulate and transform data (ie used the reporting/querying tools).
- I have dealt with DBA's and alike to improve the data/reporting.
- However I have not been directly involved in the physical implementation/roll out of the databases (ie installing the infrastructure).

Is the third point holding me back?

I see plenty of MI roles paying £200 per day and I see a lot of MI BA roles £350+.

How can I repackage/sell my skill set for the BA/reporting analyst roles?
I am happy to do the ground work, just trying to work out where to focus.

Do I need to spend some time as a junior DBA?

[Ruprect]

- However I have not been directly involved in the physical implementation/roll out of the databases (ie installing the infrastructure).

Isn't this the role of tech and DBAs?

[TheFaQQer]

How can I repackage/sell my skill set for the BA/reporting analyst roles?

Lie - just tell them you were the business analyst rather than writing the reports. Make out that you have the skills and experience, blag the job, get the experience. Then you won't need to blag it any more.