What is business intelligence?

<text variant="body1">Organizations of all types and sizes have business processes that generate massive volumes of data. Information is constantly created by computers, the internet, phones, texts, streaming video, photographs, sensors, and more. In the global digital landscape, data is increasingly imprecise, chaotic, and unstructured. As the speed and variety of data increase exponentially, organizations are struggling to keep pace. <text variant="body1">Business intelligence is the work involved in gathering, structuring, interpreting, monitoring, and reporting this data in accessible formats that enable stakeholders to understand and use it effectively. Organizations rely on this information to make better strategic and operational business decisions. As a result, there is high demand in the marketplace for business intelligence professionals with the skills and expertise to achieve these goals.

Which jobs will this certificate help me prepare for?

After completing all three courses in this certificate program, you’ll have the skills required for jobs like BI analyst, BI engineer, and BI developer.

What tools and platforms are taught in the curriculum?

Business intelligence and data analytics share many of the same tools. During this certificate program, you’ll gain knowledge of tools and platforms including BigQuery, Dataflow, Python, Sheets, SQL, and Tableau.

Do I need to take the course in a certain order?

We highly recommend completing the three courses in the order presented because the content in each course builds on information covered in earlier courses.

What will I get if I subscribe to this Certificate?

When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Certificate, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.

Foundations of Business Intelligence

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Foundations of Business Intelligence

This course is part of Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate

Instructor: Google Career Certificates

208,988 already enrolled

Included with Learn more

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

2,159 reviews

Advanced level

Designed for those already in the industry

Flexible schedule

2 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

2,159 reviews

Advanced level

Designed for those already in the industry

Flexible schedule

2 weeks at 10 hours a week

Learn at your own pace

What you'll learn

Understand common careers and industries that use BI
Investigate the impact data can have on business decision-making
Explain the important role that BI professionals have in businesses
Develop a BI project plan

Skills you'll gain

Tools you'll learn

Dashboard

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

16 assignments¹

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Taught in English

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Build your Data Analysis expertise

This course is part of the Google Business Intelligence Professional Certificate

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Professional Certificate.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate from Google

There are 4 modules in this course

This is the first of four courses in the Google Business Intelligence Certificate, which will help develop the skills needed to apply for entry-level roles as a business intelligence (BI) professional. People who work in BI help organizations access the right data, use data to help businesses grow and improve, and put insights into action. In this course, you’ll discover the role of BI professionals within an organization and explore BI tools you can use on the job.

Google employees who currently work in BI will guide you through this course by providing hands-on activities that simulate job tasks, sharing examples from their day-to-day work, and helping you build business intelligence skills to prepare for a career in the field. Learners who complete the four courses in this certificate program will have the skills needed to apply for business intelligence jobs. This certificate program assumes prior knowledge of foundational analytical principles, skills, and tools covered in the Google Data Analytics Certificate. By the end of this course, you will: -Make key distinctions between business intelligence (BI) and data analysis -Explore how data is used in business processes and decision-making -Describe ways that BI professionals impact their organizations -Identify the uses and benefits of BI tools, including data models, pipelines, data visualizations, and dashboards -Acquire, manipulate, and integrate data using key BI concepts -Select and define metrics that are relevant to project goals and stakeholder questions -Develop and execute a BI project by working with stakeholders to determine project requirements, execute tasks, and deliver insights that guide decision-making

Begin learning about business intelligence and the roles of BI analysts and engineers within organizations. You’ll discover the tools and techniques BI professionals use to make business decisions and improve processes. In addition, you’ll explore the similarities and differences between BI and data analytics.

What's included

16 videos15 readings7 assignments4 plugins

16 videosTotal 63 minutes

Welcome to the Google Business Intelligence Certificate6 minutes
Introduction to Course 13 minutes
Get started with your Google Business Intelligence Certificate2 minutes
Sally: Personal career journey2 minutes
Explore business intelligence careers4 minutes
Business intelligence teams and partners4 minutes
Business intelligence maximizes the value of data analytics5 minutes
The stages of business intelligence4 minutes
Contribute to a winning business intelligence strategy5 minutes
The business intelligence professional’s toolbox5 minutes
Wrap-up1 minute
Gagan: Get connected3 minutes
Quiz-taking tips and techniques2 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about the data analysis process7 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about data strategy6 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about data governance3 minutes

15 readingsTotal 88 minutes

Google Business Intelligence Certificate program and Course 1 overview 4 minutes
Helpful resources and tips 8 minutes
Get the latest updates from Google4 minutes
Business intelligence drives change8 minutes
Collaboration with business intelligence partners8 minutes
Compare data analysis and business intelligence4 minutes
Key business intelligence documents8 minutes
Activity Exemplar: Complete the business intelligence documents8 minutes
Case study: FeatureBase, Part 1: Fine tuning metrics for data collection8 minutes
Review technologies and best practices8 minutes
Prepare to assess your readiness for the Google Business Intelligence Certificate4 minutes
Understand your readiness score4 minutes
Participate in program surveys4 minutes
Get to know other learners4 minutes
Glossary terms from course 1, module 14 minutes

7 assignmentsTotal 200 minutes

Reflection: How BI supports organizations30 minutes
Test your knowledge: Organizations and teams that benefit from business intelligence15 minutes
Test your knowledge: Business intelligence structures and stages 15 minutes
Activity: Complete the business intelligence documents 60 minutes
Test your knowledge: How business intelligence makes an impact15 minutes
Assess your readiness for the Google Business Intelligence Certificate15 minutes
Module 1 challenge50 minutes

4 pluginsTotal 60 minutes

Collaborate: Work as a team15 minutes
Explore: Your business intelligence toolbox15 minutes
Commit to completing the program 15 minutes
Google Business Intelligence Certificate participant entry survey15 minutes

Explore the BI process, which involves engaging with stakeholders, using tools to make the most of available data, and applying the power of rapid monitoring to make smart business decisions. In addition, you’ll start building career resources by enhancing your online presence, developing strategies for networking and mentorship, and creating a portfolio that will impress future hiring managers.

What's included

11 videos6 readings3 assignments1 app item1 plugin

11 videosTotal 47 minutes

Welcome to module 23 minutes
Business intelligence stakeholders5 minutes
Become an expert business intelligence communicator5 minutes
The value of near-real-time monitoring4 minutes
Anita: My path to BI3 minutes
Jerrod: The incredible value of mentorship3 minutes
Wrap-up1 minute
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about stakeholders5 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about asking effective questions7 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about bias3 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about creating a resume9 minutes

6 readingsTotal 36 minutes

Know your stakeholders and their goals8 minutes
Best practices for communicating with stakeholders8 minutes
Get learning assistance with Google AI Pro at no cost4 minutes
How companies benefit from near-real-time intelligence4 minutes
The many benefits of mentorships8 minutes
Glossary terms from course 1, module 24 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 70 minutes

Test your knowledge: Business intelligence analysts and engineers—the ultimate team players15 minutes
Test your knowledge: Near-real-time monitoring 15 minutes
Module 2 challenge40 minutes

1 app itemTotal 4 minutes

Redeem Your Google AI Pro Trial4 minutes

1 pluginTotal 15 minutes

Monitor: Gain real-time intelligence15 minutes

Consider the importance of context from a BI perspective. You’ll explore data limitations, including how to address constant changes and access big-picture insights in a timely manner. You’ll also discover strategies that BI professionals use to anticipate and overcome these limitations. Finally, you’ll develop an understanding of how context influences metrics.

What's included

7 videos9 readings3 assignments1 plugin

7 videosTotal 24 minutes

Welcome to module 32 minutes
Reexamine the importance of context5 minutes
Data availability in a world of constant change5 minutes
Meghna: Beware of bias3 minutes
Meaningful metrics4 minutes
Wrap-up2 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about data integrity3 minutes

9 readingsTotal 76 minutes

Why context is critical 8 minutes
Data ethics and the importance of data privacy8 minutes
Anticipate data limitations4 minutes
How to identify key metrics for a project 8 minutes
North star metrics8 minutes
Bridge the gap from current state to ideal state 8 minutes
Case study: USDM - Selecting key project metrics8 minutes
Glossary terms from course 1, module 34 minutes
[Optional] Review Google Data Analytics Certificate content about context20 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 70 minutes

Test your knowledge: Constant change and other limitations15 minutes
Test your knowledge: Move beyond data limitations15 minutes
Module 3 challenge40 minutes

1 pluginTotal 15 minutes

Identify: Meaningful metrics15 minutes

Finally, you’ll complete an end-of-course project. The project is an opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge you developed during this course in a workplace scenario. For this project, you’ll prepare project planning documents and solve a business problem using BI.

What's included

5 videos11 readings3 assignments

5 videosTotal 14 minutes

Welcome to module 45 minutes
Patrick: Be a candidate of choice 3 minutes
Introduction to your end-of-course project3 minutes
End-of-course project review2 minutes
Course wrap-up2 minutes

11 readingsTotal 46 minutes

End-of-course project introduction8 minutes
Design effective executive summaries4 minutes
Explore Course 1 end-of-course project scenarios4 minutes
Course 1 workplace scenario overview: Cyclistic8 minutes
Activity Exemplar: Complete the business intelligence project documents for Cyclistic4 minutes
Course 1 workplace scenario overview: Google Fiber4 minutes
Activity Exemplar: Complete the business intelligence documents for Google Fiber4 minutes
Join the community2 minutes
Glossary terms from module 44 minutes
Course 1 glossary2 minutes
Get started on Course 22 minutes

3 assignmentsTotal 65 minutes

Activity: Complete the business intelligence project documents for Cyclistic30 minutes
Activity: Complete the business intelligence documents for Google Fiber30 minutes
Assess your Course 1 end-of-course project5 minutes

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Google Career Certificates

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Reviewed on Jan 27, 2026

A well- structured and beginner-friendly course that clearly explains the foundations of business intelligence.Highly recommended

Reviewed on Aug 29, 2023

Very insightful course, packed with useful information for someone that is about to embark on Business Intelligence.

Reviewed on Jan 23, 2024

The course is basic important for any one who wants to improve skills and knowledge to plan, prepare documents, solving a problem and manage business operations.

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Frequently asked questions

Organizations of all types and sizes have business processes that generate massive volumes of data. Information is constantly created by computers, the internet, phones, texts, streaming video, photographs, sensors, and more. In the global digital landscape, data is increasingly imprecise, chaotic, and unstructured. As the speed and variety of data increase exponentially, organizations are struggling to keep pace.

Business intelligence is the work involved in gathering, structuring, interpreting, monitoring, and reporting this data in accessible formats that enable stakeholders to understand and use it effectively. Organizations rely on this information to make better strategic and operational business decisions. As a result, there is high demand in the marketplace for business intelligence professionals with the skills and expertise to achieve these goals.

Business intelligence professionals are critical to many organizations today. They use data to help solve business problems, performing a variety of tasks that enable decision makers to understand and use data effectively. Some common responsibilities of BI professionals include gathering project requirements from stakeholders, retrieving and organizing large datasets, and creating visualizations and dashboards to report insights to others. Organizations use the intelligence they share to make decisions, develop new processes, create business strategies, and conduct deeper analyses.

As businesses generate more and more data, there is increased demand for BI professionals to transform this data into meaningful business insights. BI skills are transferable to jobs across multiple industries, including financial services, education, healthcare, and manufacturing. The Google Business Intelligence Certificate will help you prepare for a job in the BI field.

This certificate program assumes prior knowledge of foundational analytical principles, skills, and tools. To succeed in this certificate program, you should already know about data types, data strategy, data integrity, data cleaning, data aggregation, data analysis, and best practices when sharing information. You should also have an understanding of spreadsheets, databases and structured query language, programming concepts, data visualization, and dashboards.

The content in this certificate program builds upon data analytics concepts taught in the Google Data Analytics Certificate. If you haven’t completed that program, or if you’re unsure whether you have the necessary prerequisites, you can take an ungraded assessment in Course 1 Week 1 of this certificate program to evaluate your readiness.

You’ll learn job-ready skills through interactive content — like activities, quizzes, and discussion prompts — in under two months, with less than 10 hours of flexible study a week. Along the way, you’ll work through a curriculum designed by Google employees who work in the field, with input from top employers and industry leaders. You’ll even have the opportunity to complete end-of-course projects that you can share with potential employers to showcase your business intelligence skills. After you’ve graduated from the program, you’ll have access to career resources and be connected directly with employers hiring for open entry-level roles in business intelligence.

To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.