If you are interested in Business Intelligence, in this article we explain the benefits that an investment in this type of training can bring.

Before the emergence of the Business Intelligence (BI) area, companies were forced to analyze information manually, wasting a lot of time in the process and failing to guarantee 100% effeciency.

This has changed since the emergence of BI, which has grown rapidly in recent years and is an increasingly sought-after area, since, on the one hand, it helps companies make decisions that benefit their business and, on the other, it offers specialists attractive salaries and career advancement possibilities.

This area uses specific tools for collecting and analyzing data (historical and current) and presenting results - concrete information - in different formats that help companies create more profitable business plans.

In addition, by automating processes related to data collection and analysis, organizations save time and effort that can be invested in other fields.

Essentially, what a Business Intelligence specialist does is, using specific software, tools and systems, to transform raw data into simpler, clearer and more complete information that can be used by all company employees and that allows them to make more informed decisions.

It is also the responsibility of a BI specialist to quickly but thoroughly produce comprehensive trend and behavior forecasting reports, essential to help understand what should be changed in the company to increase its profitability, competitiveness and reputation.

What are the functions of a Business Intelligence specialist?
 

In general, a BI specialist helps to improve the performance of an activity or business, acting in the following operations:

• Manages processes and methods for collecting, transforming and storing data from different company operations or activities;
• Identifies atypical values to analyze the current state of the business, as well as problems and inefficiencies and trends;
• Performs reports for the presentation of results, with clear and concrete information;
• Present the results through the use of specific tools capable of analyzing historical and current data, showing them in intuitive visual formats;
• Proposes strategic changes to benefit the company in the short, medium and long term;
• Constantly updates databases, identifying patterns and promoting possible changes in behavior.

Related article: Business Intelligence: Career e opportunities.
 

Which companies should have Business Intelligence professionals?

Nowadays, it is beneficial for companies in all sectors to use the knowledge of a BI specialist, who must use the most appropriate tools for each objective, depending on the organization in question, to manage their business more effectively.

In this sense, it is essential that the Business Intelligence specialist has a high knowledge of the company they work for, as they can contribute greatly to changing the internal culture of an organization.

This specialist then uses different functionalities such as data visualization, artificial intelligence or machine learning to develop their work, taking into consideration the goals of each company.

For companies, which may be in areas related to technology, health, education and finance, for example, several benefits are created by using BI-related services.

Controlling and predicting consumer trends and sales performance; calculating and managing risks; automating tasks to reduce inefficiencies and receiving instant alerts about anomalies; performing real-time analysis and reporting within the company; centralizing data and making it available throughout the organization and comparing results with the competition are some of the advantages that companies can enjoy.

Business Intelligence training and career possibilities

Investing in Business Intelligence training allows you to increase your skills and knowledge in this area and enhance your distinctive features, creating new job opportunities as you can stand out from other professionals.

In addition, the salary prospects in this area are good, with generally high remuneration and opportunities for growth within companies.

Currently, there are several educational establishments in Portugal that offer different specializations in this area, such as postgraduate and master's degrees.

NOVA IMS offers a postgraduate degree in Business Intelligence that trains specialists and managers capable of designing, building and using Business Intelligence and Analytics processes in order to support decision making in the organization and knowledge management.

The course is aimed at professionals seeking to increase the value built from organizations' data warehouses and technical staff working on Business Intelligence initiatives, including data warehousing, business analytics and data visualization.

In addition, the postgraduate degree in Business Intelligence at NOVA IMS allows access to the Master’s in Information Management, with specialization in Business Intelligence, a course that is ranked, for the 5th consecutive year, as the best Master’s in Business Intelligence and Strategy in the World by Eduniversal, the international agency that publishes the annual ranking of the best Master's and MBAs in the world. This master's degree is offered in two programs, Working hours and After Working Hours format.

About NOVA IMS

NOVA IMS is the School of Information Management and Data Science of the Nova University of Lisbon. It was created in 1989 as a response to the shortage of senior staff specialized in information management, and to the growing need to use new information technologies. The offer of postgraduate and master's degrees is distributed in 7 areas of knowledge.