Introduction
What is Business Intelligence? What does a Business Intelligence Analyst do? How does the Google Certificate measure up in helping you build a career in this field? This blog post will review the Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate and other things you should know about Business Intelligence.
Among other things, we will explore the following subjects;
- What is business intelligence in simple terms?
- What does a business intelligence analyst do?
- What is the main purpose of business intelligence?
- Is business intelligence in demand?
- Google Business Intelligence Courses -review
- Who Can Take the Certification?
- How much is the Google Business Intelligence Certificate?
- Skills you will gain
- What Jobs Can I Get with the Google Business Intelligence Certificate
- Google Business Intelligence Certificate
- Career Opportunities, Job Roles and Salaries
- How long does the Google Business Intelligence Certification take
- Is Google business intelligence certificate worth it?
What is Business Intelligence in simple terms?
It simply means a set of tools and processes businesses use to analyze data and make informed decisions.
It combines different technologies, tools, and methods to analyze data to find business opportunities, optimize internal processes, spot business problems, identify market trends, etc, Ultimately boosting a business’ overall profitability.
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What does a Business Intelligence Analyst do?
A Business Intelligence Analyst is responsible for the following roles in an organization;
- They collect data from different sources and analyze them for business opportunities
- They prepare analytical reports of a business for management and stakeholders to make informed decisions.
- They help guide a business organization’s decision-making process by providing an easy-to-understand data format – graphs, maps, etc.
- They create dashboards, monitor analytics, and implement new methodologies for data analysis
- They supervise the deployment of data to data warehouses.
Is business intelligence in demand?
There is a good demand for BI. Businesses are much more competitive, needing BI’s to help with decision-making. According to a report by Zippia, the demand for Business Intelligence Analysts will grow by 21% from 2018 to 2028. The US Bureau of Labour Statistics puts the projected growth at 14% from 2020 -2030 – a growth rate above the average for occupations.
The current job opening for Business Intelligence is over 125,000 according to the same Zippia report above.
Is BI and BA the same?
Business Intelligence or BI is often used interchangeably with Business Analytics or BA. They both rely on data to make informed decisions. There is however a slight variation in their meaning.
While BI uses past and current data to explain what happened(the “What” and “How”), BA uses past data to explain current data and to predict what will happen in the future (the “why” and “what next”).
What is the main purpose of business intelligence?
The primary goal of Business Intelligence is to equip businesses and organizations with data insights to make informed and better decisions. Ultimately, to increase profitability.
Google Business Intelligence Courses
The Google Business Intelligence Professional certificate is made up of 3 courses to train you on core concepts of BI and prepare you for the job role. It is a self-taught, 100 percent online program. The courses are independent of each other but as a whole address the major aspects of BI.
The details of each course and brief review are highlighted in the sections below;
Course 1: Foundations of Business Intelligence
This consists of 4 modules; Data-driven results through Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence tools and techniques. Context is crucial for purposeful insights. End-of-Course Project. The course duration is 24 hours.
Review notes:Â This course introduces you to Business Intelligence in general terms, how it works, and its application. If you do not have any foundations, this course gets you up to speed on what the BI is all about. It also addresses how BI analysts will work with other professionals in the Data field.
It then discusses some technical aspects of BI – How you will identify key metrics for a project.
You will learn;
- To understand where and when BI skills are needed – Industry and career.
- Understand the impact data can have on the decision-making process of a business.
- Know the important role that BI professionals have in businesses
- How to develop a BI project planÂ
Course 2: The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines
It consists of 4 modules; Data models and pipelines. Dynamic database design. Optimize ETL processes. End-of-Course Project
The course duration is 23 hours.
Review notes: This course takes a deeper dive at the technical aspect of BI, you will learn about data maths, Data modeling, and databases – data from different sources, and the cleanup process. You will learn about the ETL and ETL processes and their differences. How you will optimize data pipelines and Data scheme validation.
Other things include business rules and performance testing. You will learn;
- How to build data models that answer business questionsÂ
- How to apply the ETL process to workplace scenarios
- Explore ETL tools
- Data pipelines- how you will construct one to deliver a pipeline data
Course 3: Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports
There are 6 modules in this course. Business Intelligence Visualizations. Visualize results, Automate, and monitor. Present business intelligence insights. End-of-Course Project. Putting your Google Business Intelligence Certificate to work. The course duration is 27 hours.
Review notes:Â This course puts into practice the knowledge gained in the first two courses. You will learn to build Dashboards and Reports using Tableau. You will learn how to pick different visualizations for different data or based on what the business or stakeholder may demand.
There are many mini-projects in this course and two final Capstone projects.
You will learn;
- How to design BI visualizations
- How to create presentations to share key BI insights with stakeholders
- Reporting and how to use Dashboard tools
- How to land a job
Who Can Take the Certification?
Although the certificate program is described as “advanced”, it is actually an intermediate level. It assumes you have foundational knowledge in Data Analytics—some basic Python programming language for data analysis, working with spreadsheets, data visualization tools, SQL, understanding of databases, etc.
It is for people who want to pursue a career in Business Intelligence.
Taking the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate or other similar programs can be a good foundation for this course.
How much is the Google Business Intelligence Certificate?
The cost of the certificate is the cost of your subscription to Coursera. This price varies depending on your location. $49 per month (US and Canada) or $39 (varies depending on your location). In the UK, it is UK £47 per month. There is a free 7 days free period.
You can also access the courses for free through the Course Audit option, however, you will not get a certificate of completion if you use this option.
Skills You Will Gain
The certification will teach you skills that are relevant to Business Intelligence, some of these include;
- Data Analysis and Data Modeling
- Business Intelligence
- Dashboarding and Reporting
- Extraction, Transformation And Loading (ETL)Extraction
- SQL and Bigquery
- Business Analysis and Business Process
- Tableau Software
- Data Visualization
How long does the Google Business Intelligence Certification take
The Certification program will take about 2 months to complete. The total course content (for all three component courses ) is about 75 hours.
Google Business Intelligence Certificate
You get a Certificate of Completion from Google for completing the certification program. You can share this certificate on your Resume and on your LinkedIn profile.
Career Opportunities, Job Roles and Salary
The certificate prepares you to work as a Business Intelligence Analyst and similar job roles. The job roles and salaries (according to Glassdoor) are as follows;
- Business Intelligence Analyst – $79K – $126K per year
- Analytics Engineer – $118K – $206K per year
- Business Data Analyst – $84K – $130K per year
- Business Intelligence Engineer – $106K – $164K per year
- Business Intelligence Developer – $111K – $169K per year
- Business Analyst – $94K- $146K per year
Is Google business intelligence certificate worth it?
The Course provides good content materials to prepare you for a Business Intelligence job role. The certificate is from Google – recognized brands- and its cost is relatively cheap. You can share your certificate on Linkedin. You also learn to build your portfolio with it, better resume, and learn skills to help you get a job. While it may not guarantee you a job right away, it is definitely worth taking.
Photo credit: https://www.techtarget.com
Read A REVIEW OF THE MICROSOFT POWER BI DATA ANALYST PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATE
