In this week’s blog, Business Development Specialist Katherine Lehner shares her experience with developing technical skills and how these skills have helped her in the business realm.
Lehner Reflects on her Initial Exposure to the Tool:
Coming into my first internship with virtually no technical skills, I decided to test out the Praescient i2 Analyst’s Notebook self-paced learning platform. Upon receiving training on the foundational components of ANB I realized that the more you know about Analyst’s Notebook, the more you can use it to your advantage– so module by module, I delved into ANB’s entity, link, attribute, and chart tools. Quickly, I discovered that Analyst’s Notebook is not only central to the Intelligence Community, but learning its ins and outs can also facilitate growth in the business realm.
What is ANB?
For those that are unfamiliar, i2 Analyst’s Notebook (otherwise known as “ANB”) is a software product that provides visual and data analysis to collect, manage, and organize information and intelligence. ANB allows analysts to detect criminal, cyber, and fraudulent trends within large amounts of data using advanced features, such as with geospatial and temporal assessment tools, social network analysis, and connected network visualizations.
Analysis and Business Crossover
As intelligence analysts strive to identify and mitigate threats to national security, another key component to government contracting success within the Intelligence Community is a business development team. At Praescient, the Business Development team understands the needs and mission sets of prospective customers while simultaneously balancing risks, managing budgets, and expanding company growth. Ultimately, a proficient Business Development Specialist needs to have strong research, writing, and especially, strategic analysis.
Product Knowledge Grows Business
If those that sell and market the product do not fully comprehend what the product actually is, are they really able to fulfill a customer’s needs to their utmost satisfaction? As one of Praescient’s Business Development Specialists, ANB brought me closer to both the product and the company. Analyst’s Notebook enabled me to investigate patterns between people, organizations, and events, ultimately digging deeper into identifying, analyzing, and capitalizing on the connections between data analytics and business growth.
Reading business proposal upon proposal and past performance upon performance, I began to notice a trend: much of the language that was taught to me on Praescient’s ANB learning platform was replicated on the pages of these professional contracts. To what once was foreign to me, I now understood the meanings of language such as “temporal analysis” or “using entities to social network.” Witnessing ANB’s verbiage come to life truly felt as though it was a full-circle moment.
Employing Analyst’s Notebook to develop new technical skills gave me a completely different outlook on Business Development. ANB granted me an overall greater sense of understanding, involvement, and connection to the products and services that I was advertising for. If someone with no prior data analytics knowledge can reap the benefits of Analyst’s Notebook, anyone can.
Praescient Analytics provides advanced training courses to master the practice of i2 Analyst’s Notebook. With platforms being both in-person and online, Praescient’s ANB courses are carefully crafted by Praescient analysts to become a window into advanced analysis, innovative technology tools, and modern crime investigations.