In recent years, terms like “business intelligence” and “data-driven decision-making” have become a part of the cultural lexicon when it comes to communicating about business and finance. These terms reference the increased role that the collection of information and data has on how companies across industries are run, as well as being cited as the reason for the success of certain companies within ever-changing markets. It has become more important for business professionals and entrepreneurs to have a working knowledge of data analytics tools that incorporate business intelligence.
As a programming language that is well known within the data science industry as well as web development and database design, SQL has also gained popularity within big business. Through business intelligence and data analytics tools, business analysts can use relational database management systems in order to make predictions and offer insight on past trends. Anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in business or data analysis should have some knowledge of how to use SQL tools for business intelligence and analytics.
What is Business Intelligence and Analytics?
Business Intelligence (BI) is closely related to data science and analytics, as business intelligence tools collect information and data in order to make decisions or craft business strategies. BI and Analytics platforms and tools focus on using databases, or other stores of data, in order to address problems or offer solutions to questions that a company might have. For business analysts, these tools are commonly used to analyze data in order to craft key insights for a business or company. This could be as simple as creating a report based on data collection from the past, or as complex as presenting trends, forecasts, and projections for future quarters.
Why Use SQL for Business Intelligence and Analytics?
While there are countless tools that incorporate business intelligence into the software, many BI tools utilize the SQL programming language and database management systems. This is primarily because most larger companies use SQL databases to store information and data on customer behavior, transaction processing, and other forms of engagement with the company or brand. Acting as the back-end of many websites, SQL databases operate behind the scenes by collecting all of the information and data that is needed to monitor and predict the success of a company. Through learning how to manage a SQL database, data scientists and developers can ensure that they not only know how data is being collected, but where the data goes, and how it can be effectively used.
As a structured querying language, SQL is especially useful for business analysts because it allows you to navigate these large stores or databases of information and data. And, while using SQL is expected for larger businesses and companies which tend to have a multi-nodal data warehouse of databases, even smaller businesses can use SQL databases to store customer data. Whether you need to know more about the fastest-selling product at a store, compare how your competitors are doing in the same industry, or even construct a forecast for future consumer buying habits and trends, there are many ways that SQL databases can be used along with some of the most popular business intelligence and data analytics tools.
Top SQL Business Intelligence and Analytics Tools
Most of the top companies creating relational database management systems are also creating SQL tools for business intelligence (BI). These BI platforms are especially useful for business analysts as each of these tools is essential to the exploration and visualization of datasets. And, with so many SQL BI and Analytics tools to choose from, the following list includes some of the top tools on the market right now.
- SQL Server Business Intelligence - As one of many data analytics tools from Microsoft, SQL Server Business Intelligence is also compatible with products like Microsoft Power BI, which can be used to access cloud-based data, construct data models, and easily share data findings across platforms.
- Microsoft Power BI - Compatible with SQL Server Business Intelligence, Microsoft Power BI is primarily used as a data visualization and reporting tool. After analyzing data with SQL Server, or another database management or data analytics tool, Power BI allows you to create dashboards, reports, and other interesting methods of presenting information and data to share with stakeholders and collaborators.
- Google Looker - As part of the Google Cloud products, Google Looker is presented as a faster and more efficient enterprise tool for business intelligence. This platform is primarily used in partnership with database management systems which can be used to question and query any of your data collection(s).
- Holistics - Presented as a “self-service business intelligence platform”, Holistics is accessible to beginners and business professionals in data analytics. This product utilizes SQL to analyze datasets and produce reports and charts based on carefully curated metrics.
- Tableau - Known as one of the top business intelligence and analytics tools for Microsoft SQL Server, Tableau can also be used to create data visualizations and dashboards in conjunction with multiple services and platforms, such as Hadoop. Then, these visualizations can be easily shared via the web or mobile applications for ease of accessibility, interactivity, and audience engagement.
Each of these SQL-compatible BI and Analytics tools offers its own unique features which make predictions about business trends based on past data collections through deliverables, such as data visualizations, models, and reports. These deliverables can then be presented during meetings with company stakeholders, in addition to being displayed on a website, an application, or even in a corporate brochure. Learning SQL for business intelligence and analytics allows industry professionals to produce high-quality projects and deliverables.
Want to learn SQL for Business Intelligence and Analytics?
Whether you are a data scientist, developer, or business analyst, learning SQL is essential to understanding how to work with relational databases and many popular business intelligence and data analytics tools. For analysts that want to learn more about the SQL programming language, Noble Desktop offers multiple SQL courses which focus on instruction in relational database management systems and various forms of querying. Building on that knowledge, there are also specific bootcamps and certificate programs that allow students and professionals alike to dig deeper into the world of business intelligence.
The Data Analytics Certificate is geared towards business analysts that want to learn how to use relational databases for data analytics. In addition, the Data Analytics Technologies Bootcamp focuses on multiple tools, such as SQL, Excel, and Tableau by using these data analytics tools to make business decisions. By learning the tools and programming languages that are relevant to data analytics and business intelligence, anyone can improve their chances at starting or building a career as a Business Analyst!