Business Intelligence Concepts, Tools, and Applications

University of Colorado System via Coursera

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Paid Course
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

1 day 11 minutes
Sessions

On-Demand
Level

Intermediate
Subtitles

Arabic, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Italian, German, Russian, English, Spanish, Korean, Hindi, Pashto, Bengali, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Urdu, Kazakh, Swedish, Greek, Thai, Japanese, Azerbaijani, Polish, Farsi, Dutch, Turkish

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Part of

Data Warehousing for Business Intelligence

Overview

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This is the fourth course in the Data Warehouse for Business Intelligence specialization. Ideally, the courses should be taken in sequence. Effectively and efficiently mining data is the very center of any modern business’s competitive strategy, and a data warehouse is a core component of this data mining. The ability to quickly look back at early trends and have the accurate data – properly formatted – is essential to good decision making. By enabling this historical overview, a data warehouse allows decision makers to learn from past trends and challenges. In essence, the benefit of a data warehouse is continuous improvement. By the end of the course, you will be able to enhance Conformity And Quality of Data by gaining the knowledge and skills for using data warehouses for business intelligence purposes and for working as a business intelligence developer. You’ll have the opportunity to work with large data sets in a data warehouse environment and will learn the use of MicroStrategy's Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Visualization capabilities to create visualizations and dashboards. The course gives an overview of how business intelligence technologies can support decision making across any number of business sectors. These technologies have had a profound impact on corporate strategy, performance, and competitiveness and broadly encompass decision support systems, business intelligence systems, and visual analytics. Modules are organized around the business intelligence concepts, tools, and applications, and the use of data warehouse for business reporting and online analytical processing, for creating visualizations and dashboards, and for business performance management and descriptive analytics. This course is intended for business and computer science university students, IT professionals, program managers, business analysts and anyone with career interests in business intelligence. In order to be successful in this course, you should have either completed Course 3 of the Data Warehousing for Business Intelligence Specialization or have some prior experience with data visualization and document management.

Syllabus

Decision Making and Decision Support Systems

Module 1 explains the role of computerized decision support and its importance. It begins by identifying the various types of decisions managers face and the processes through which they make them. It then focuses on decision-making styles, the four stages of Simon’s decision-making process, and common strategies and approaches of decision-makers. In the next two lessons, you will learn about the role of Decision Support Systems (DSS), understand their main components, the various types and classifications of DSS, and how DSS has evolved. Finally, in Lesson 4, we focus on how DSS supports each phase of decision-making and summarize the evolution of DSS applications, highlighting how they have changed over time. I recommend that you visit Ready-Made DSS sites and utilize some of the DSS listed for various types of decisions. To complete the practice assignments for this unit, you have the following options: (1) Install Strategy Desktop and analyze three stand-alone offline dashboards in a peer-evaluated exercise, and/or (2) Use Strategy Library https://education.cloud.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyLibrary/app (for Mac users) to complete the corresponding assignments. Note: Access to the Strategy Platform is only available through the official Strategy corporate website, which requires either a corporate or academic email address. Strategy does not permit the use of personal email accounts.

Business Intelligence Concepts and Platform Capabilities

Now that you understand the conceptual foundation of decision-making and DSS, in module 2, we start by defining business intelligence (BI), its architecture and components, and how they relate to DSS. In lesson 2, you will learn the main components of BI platforms, their capabilities, and understand the competitive landscape of BI platforms. In lesson 3, you will learn the building blocks of business reports, the types of business reports, and the components and structure of business reporting systems. Finally, in lesson 4, you will learn different types of OLAP and their applications, and comprehend the differences between OLAP and OLTP. To complete the practice assignments for this unit, you have the following options: (1) Use Strategy Desktop to create compelling data visualizations to analyze data and acquire insights into business practices in a peer-evaluated exercise, and/or (2) Use Strategy Library https://education.cloud.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyLibrary/app (for Mac users) to complete the corresponding assignments. Note: Access to the Strategy Platform is only available through the official Strategy corporate website, which requires either a corporate or academic email address. Strategy does not permit the use of personal email accounts.

Data Visualization and Dashboard Design

This module continues the top job responsibilities of BI analysts by focusing on creating data visualizations and dashboards. You will first learn the importance of data visualization and the different types of data that can be visually represented. You will then learn about the types of Basic and Composite charts. This will help you determine which visualization is most effective for a given data set and identify best practices for designing data visualizations. In lesson 3, you will learn the common characteristics of a dashboard, the types of dashboards, and the list of attributes of metrics usually included in dashboards. Finally, in lesson 3, you will learn the guidelines for designing a dashboard and the common pitfalls of dashboard design. To complete the practice assignments for this unit, you have the following options: (1) use Strategy Desktop Visual Insight to design a dashboard for a Financial Services company in a peer-evaluated exercise, and/or (2) use Strategy Library https://education.cloud.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyLibrary/app (for Mac users) to complete the corresponding assignments. Note: Access to the Strategy Platform is only available through the official Strategy corporate website, which requires either a corporate or academic email address. Strategy does not permit the use of personal email accounts.

Business Performance Management Systems

This module focuses on how BI is used for Business Performance Management (BPM). You will learn the main components of BPM, the four phases of the BPM cycle, and how organizations typically deploy BPM. In lesson 2, you will learn the purpose of the Performance Measurement System and how organizations need to define the key performance indicators (KPIs) for their performance management system. In lesson 3, you will learn the four balanced scorecard perspectives and the differences between dashboards and scorecards. You will also be able to compare the benefits of using a balanced scorecard versus using Six Sigma in a performance measurement system. Finally, in lesson 4, you will learn the role of visual and business analytics (BA) in BI and how various forms of BA are supported in practice. To complete the practice assignments for this unit, you have the following options: (1) Use Strategy Desktop Visual Insight to design a dashboard for a Financial Services company in a peer-evaluated exercise, apply these concepts to create a dashboard, blend it with external datasets, and explore various visualization capabilities, and find insights faster in a peer-evaluated exercise and/or (2)Use Strategy Library https://education.cloud.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyLibrary/app (for Mac users) to complete the corresponding assignments. Note: Access to the Strategy Platform is only available through the official Strategy corporate website, which requires either a corporate or academic email address. Strategy does not permit the use of personal email accounts.

BI Maturity, Strategy, and Summative Project

Module 5 covers BI maturity and strategy. You will learn about different levels of BI maturity, the factors that impact BI maturity within an organization, and the main challenges and potential solutions for achieving pervasive BI maturity. The last lesson will focus on the critical success factors for implementing a BI strategy, BI framework, and BI implementation targets. Finally, in your summative project for this unit, you have the option to (1) apply these concepts to create a dashboard, blend it with external datasets, and explore various visualization capabilities and find insights faster. In a peer-evaluated exercise, you will use Strategy visual analytics capabilities to analyze KPIs for a fast-food company to find the causes of problems, and/or (2) use Strategy Library https://education.cloud.microstrategy.com/MicroStrategyLibrary/app (for Mac users) to complete the corresponding assignments. Note: Access to the Strategy Platform is only available through the official Strategy corporate website, which requires either a corporate or academic email address. Strategy does not permit the use of personal email accounts.