Business intelligence, or BI, is the application of data analysis techniques to business information, with a goal of extracting insights about company performance. BI tools can produce business analytics that reveal patterns in historical and current data as well as predictive modeling to peer into the future. In today’s incredibly complex business world, these insights are increasingly important for helping companies navigate everyday problem solving challenges and make informed long-term strategic management decisions.

As part of the larger field of data science, business intelligence requires data infrastructure. This may be as simple as programming in Microsoft Excel, but more sophisticated approaches to business intelligence may harness a relational database management system (RDBMS) such as MySQL as well as data analysis in Python or R. And, because conveying insights quickly and clearly is key to business intelligence, this approach often uses data visualization programs such as Tableau to create compelling graphs or useful dashboards to display key business metrics in real time.

Business intelligence is a key area of expertise for many management analysts and consultants, since data-driven insights and analytics are increasingly essential for convincing decision-makers to accept recommendations for organizational or operational changes. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, jobs in this highly-compensated field are expected to grow much faster than average as more and more companies seek to gain a competitive edge by hiring these experts in business intelligence.

The growing demand for business intelligence is also creating career opportunities for data scientists and software developers with an interest in this field. If you have skills in data analysis and an interest in applying them to solving business problems, you can find work at software companies with BI products as well as in-house at larger corporations.

Certainly. Coursera has a wealth of opportunities to learn remotely about business as well as data science, and business intelligence lies squarely at the intersection of these two disciplines. You can take individual courses as well as multi-course Specializations in business intelligence and related topics offered by top-ranked institutions such as the University of Colorado, the University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University. And, if you want to dive even deeper into the use of data for business, can even pursue a professional certification in data science from IBM.

Regardless of your needs, the ability to view course materials and complete assignments on a flexible schedule makes learning online with Coursera a great fit for mid-career business professionals looking to upgrade their skill set.