Business Intelligence Education

1. Business Intelligence Education Jack G. Zheng http://jackzheng.net

2. A request from LinkedIn Morning! Asking for a bit of help please :) I am looking to network through you to see if you know anyone within your networking circle that may be looking for one of the following job opportunities in a full-time permanent capacity (Salary up to $135K (for the right individual w/ possible sign-on bonus) + Benefits) in the Alpharetta, GA area: * BI Analyst* BI Developer * BI Architect * ETL Informatica Developer …My client is a $10B firm that is rapidly growing and using cutting edge technology. … Executive IT Recruiter The Intersect Group

3. Questions • What is BI? • What is the job prospects of BI? • Why should higher education care about BI? • What are the ways to offer BI education? • How’s BI education in Metro Atlanta?

4. What is Business Intelligence? • Business Intelligence is a set of methods, processes, architectures, applications, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information used to enable more effective strategic, tactical, and operational insights and decision-making. - Forrester

5. Major BI Components • Data management • Data warehouse, data integration, data modeling, etc. • Data analysis • Query, OLAP, analytics, data mining, etc. • Presentation and delivery • Reports, business information visualization, dashboards, etc. • Portal, knowledge management, web/mobile platform, etc. • (Business) Applications • Market research, strategic planning, budgeting, performance management, CRM, etc.

6. Why Do We Care About BI? • Market growth • Forrester Research expects the BI market to generate more than $12 billion in revenue in 2014, vs. $8.5 billion in 2008. • Job demand • BI software tops the list of technology priorities for companies since 2007 (first from 2007 to 2009); only 27 percent of CIOs believe that they have the right number of skilled people to meet business needs – Gartner EXP CIO survey. • Growing student interests • BI Congress survey • My own experience

7. BI Career Perspectives Data from BI Congress Survey 2010

8. Business Intelligence Analysts • Business skills requirements • Generate standard or custom reports summarizing business, financial, or economic data for review by executives, managers, clients, and other stakeholders. • Analyze competitive market strategies through analysis of related product, market, or share trends. • Collect business intelligence data from available industry reports, public information, field reports, or purchased sources. • Maintain library of model documents, templates, or other reusable knowledge assets. • Technical skill requirements • Create business intelligence tools or systems, including design of related databases, spreadsheets, or outputs. • Maintain or update business intelligence tools, databases, dashboards, systems, or methods. • Provide technical support for existing reports, dashboards, or other tools.

9. What are employers looking for? Data from BI Congress Survey 2010

10. Where is BI education offered? Data from BI Congress Survey 2010

11. Why business schools? Data from BI Congress Survey 2010

12. Why business schools? • Gartner Reports: • By 2012, business units will control at least 40 per cent of the total budget for BI. • IT divisions excel at building BI infrastructure; but business users have lost confidence in the ability of them to deliver the information they need to make decisions. • Business units drive analysis and performance management initiatives, mainly using spreadsheets plus analytic and packaged business applications to automate the process.

13. What can business school offer? • A combination of business knowledge and BI tool training • Understanding of the business • Prepared student with solid business background • Incorporate real world application domains and cases, like marketing, finance, sales, etc. • Effectively use IT tools • Spreadsheet-based analysis and reporting is still common • OLAP application is common in today’s business to work with large quantity of data • Work with multiple heterogeneous data sources • Business information presentation (through charting and dashboard tools) is important • Use the right tool to design and deliver reports • Rely on IT tools for advanced analytics

14. What are the ways to offer BI Education? • BI content in existing non-BI courses • BI courses • BI tracks, concentrations, or minors • BI certificate/degree programs Data from BI Congress Survey 2010

15. BI Courses • Introductory/overview course • Courses that focus on a particular BI component • Data: data warehouse, data modeling, data integration • Analysis: business analytics, statistics, data mining • Presentation: report design, business information visualization, dashboards • Management oriented courses • BI delivery/management • Domain specific BI: finance, CRM/marketing, performance management, web analytics, etc. • Knowledge management and systems • Advanced/specialized topics • Visual analytics

16. Notable BI Degree Programs • Saint Joseph’s University: undergraduate minor in BI, and MS in BI • http://www.sju.edu/academics/hsb/grad/msbi/about.html • The University of Northern Virginia: Master of Business Intelligence • http://www.unva.edu/mbi.htm • Texas Tech University: MSBA BI • http://ms.ba.ttu.edu/Concentrations/MSmis.asp • University of Denver: MSBI • http://www.daniels.du.edu/schoolsdepartments/itec/degreesprograms/graduate/graduate.html

17. Example Curriculum • Foundation (prerequisite) courses • Database, system analysis, business analysis • An example BI track (3 to 4 courses) • 1 BI overview course • 1 or 2 courses focusing on a BI component • 1 domain specific course • An example BI program (6 to 8 courses) • 2 to 3 core courses: BI overview, OLAP and query • 3 to 4 specialized courses • Analysis/management track: business information visualization, performance management, knowledge management, health informatics, financial modeling, etc. • Technical/development track: data warehouse, data mining, report and dashboard design, BI system development. • 1 or 2 selective courses on advanced/special topics

18. What BI Education Resources Are Available? • Academic resources • Teradata University Network • AIS DSS-SIG • BI Congress • Industry softwaresupport Data from BI Congress Survey 2010

19. BI Education in Metro Atlanta • GATech: no major courses known • Emory • Business college: 2 or 3 courses that focused on analytics (using spreadsheets) • CS: courses focused on database and data mining • GSU • Business college: a general BI course and a data mining course is offered as electives in the management science department (both under and graduate level) • CS: focused on data mining and artificial intelligence • SPSU • Engineering oriented; very few business oriented courses; a few courses focused on data management • KSU • A track with 2 courses focused on data warehouse and data mining (electives) • Mercer: none

20. Conclusion • BI is a discipline that combines the skills in business and information technology • BI market is growing as well as the job demand • Very few educational resources are provided in metro Atlanta universities

21. References and Resources • Wixom, B. H. and T. Ariyachandra (2011). State of Business Intelligence in Academia 2010, BI Congress II. • D. J. Power, A Brief History of Decision Support Systems, version 4.1 • http://dssresources.com/history/dsshistory.html • Gartner reports and new release • http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=856714 • Forrester, Topic Overview: Business Intelligence • http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/topic_overview_business_intelligence/q/id/39218/t/2