Business Intelligence (BI); the term is bandied about so frequently today that it might seem like everyone except you already understands it. The truth is that like its partner “Big Data”, business intelligence is actually not well understood at all. Most people who talk about business intelligence have at best a general notion of what it means and almost no experience with actually using BI in a meaningful way. However, BI is an important new tool for modern business. This course goes in depth on the importance of business intelligence and how to use it for your business, beginning with the fundamentals of business intelligence. The course also covers how to collect, clean, and work with data, the fundamentals of data analysis and how to structure data correctly to apply and use it, as well as how business intelligence can help with pricing strategy and financial forecasting.

Learning Objectives
  • Recognize what business intelligence (BI) is and explore how business intelligence works on a theoretical basis
  • Identify what steps firms need to take to implement business intelligence and what areas where business intelligence can alter the way a company conducts operations
  • Explore how to critically examine databases produced by Business Intelligence (BI) software packages like those from Salesforce, Tableau, Oracle, IBM for issues or concerns
  • Recognize how to gather relevant data from publicly available databases
  • Explore how to merge datasets together based on unique identifiers to create a single useable database
  • Identify and examine data via automated tools and processes to weed out questionable or erroneous data points
  • Discover how to evaluate data for accuracy using Benford’s Law
  • Explore how to develop ratios and relative metrics to better evaluate data, how to develop moving average and other tools to smooth data over time, how to create binary variables and decile rankings to evaluate data structure, how to run basic univariable analysis of means, medians, and percentiles on a dataset, how to run simple regression analysis on a dataset, how to run instrumental variables analysis on a dataset, how to run probit/logit analysis on a dataset, how to run fixed effects regression on a dataset, and how to run difference-in-differences analysis on a dataset
  • Recognize univariate statistics and differences between statistics and the coefficients on regression analysis
  • Identify precision of coefficient estimates based on confidence intervals and the driving factors of a business outcome based on statistical significance
  • Recognize the differences between statistically and economically significant coefficients
  • Explore limitations on specific statistical tests used in business intelligence, the basics of pricing and why it matters for business, and what price discrimination is and how it can be useful to a firm
  • Identify different types of price discrimination and their uses
  • Explore how to use price discrimination to maximize profits and revenues and how to apply Business Intelligence (BI) techniques to pricing analysis
  • Discover how to create a basic set of income statement, cash flow, and balance sheet forecasts and recognize the linkages between different items across the financial statements
  • Identify how changes in growth assumptions impact financial forecasts and explore the use of regression analysis to determine forecast growth rates using outside variables (e.g., GDP and inflation) 
Last updated/reviewed: March 22, 2024
20 Reviews (100 ratings)

Reviews

4
Member's Profile
Instructor does a good job of trying to explain this information. This course seems to be more for IT and statisticians than for financial experts. We would utilize the data pulled and provided to us. This topic is hard without an IT background.
5
Anonymous Author
It covers several different topics. I thought the part about gathering and cleaning data brought up some interesting ideas. The data analysis included discussing regression analysis, which I already had some familiarity with.
2
Anonymous Author
Material did not cover some of the items that were asked in the final exam. Some of the final exam questions were too deep of a dive in the BI terminology for a CPA without experience in BI to fully grasp in a 6 hour course.
4
Member's Profile
A comprehensive, well-presented overview of the key steps in implementing business intelligence. Dr. McDonald has an excellent teaching style and I will be seeking out other courses that he has developed for Illumeo.
3
Anonymous Author
This course was a refresher to college-level statistics as much as it was about business intelligence. The material is somewhat challenging for those who haven't been immersed in statistics recently.
4
Member's Profile
A lot of useful information, and a good general overview of the field. It could be better organized - I would suggest breaking off the entire statistical element and turning it into a different course.
3
Anonymous Author
Solid content giving broad overview of business analytics techniques and strength's / weaknesses of each. Final exam had some duplicate questions and some questions with obviously wrong choices.
4
Anonymous Author
Very good overview of the topic. I would recommend doing each course separately rather than in bulk because it is easier to retain information for the test that way, though.
3
Anonymous Author
Very heavy on statistics and finance. I think these days when people hear about BI, they tend to think more about Tableau/Power BI, data modeling, etc.
4
Anonymous Author
Lots of material covered in a short concise way, with great info on a process that is often a bigger challenge for organizations.
3
Member's Profile
The content is good, but the test questions are sometimes ambiguously worded and questions are duplicated. I still recommend it.
5
Member's Profile
This course is very informative. The examples were very useful and I will definitely recommend this course.
5
Member's Profile
Such an interesting topic and shows real world examples and lays out formulas, concept and how to use.
4
Member's Profile
This is a wonderful course in data analysis using statistics. Highly recommended.
2
Anonymous Author
Many supporting materials didn't open. Many supporting materials didn't open.
5
Member's Profile
Fantastic brush up on the importance and techniques of business intelligence!
2
Anonymous Author
The course is difficult to follow and the concepts are not well laid out
5
Member's Profile
I thought this course was very well laid out and informative.
2
Anonymous Author
This course was way more technical than I was expecting.
5
Anonymous Author
This cell has a minimum character limit. Filler. Filler.
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Prerequisites
Course Complexity: Intermediate

No Advanced Preparation or Prerequisites are needed for this course. 

However, basic understanding of concepts in statistics is helpful but not required – mean, median, standard deviation, and what data is for instance.

 

Education Provider Information
Company: Illumeo, Inc., 75 East Santa Clara St., Suite 1215, San Jose, CA 95113
Contact: For more information regarding this course, including complaint and cancellation policies, please contact our offices at (408) 400- 3993 or send an e-mail to .
Instructor for this course
  Course Overview CPE
Course Syllabus
  Business Intelligence (BI) - The fundamentals of BI; What it does and why it's so essential54:32
  Business Intelligence – Collecting, Cleaning, and Merging Data 41:45
  Business Intelligence - Structuring Data for Analysis Full Video52:59
  Business Intelligence - Fundamentals of Data Analysis58:23
  Business Intelligence – Applying and Using Data Analysis30:39
  Pricing Strategy with Business Intelligence 56:29
  Financial Forecasting44:22
SUPPORTING MATERIALS
  Business Intelligence Combined Supporting MaterialsZIP
REVIEW AND TEST
  REVIEW QUESTIONSquiz
 FINAL EXAMexam