Online Master of Science Business Intelligence Program

Online Business Intelligence Master of Science

The Master of Science in Business Intelligence (MS-BI) provides a solid foundation in technology and decision-making tools that will enable you to collect, interpret and utilize information. This is an ideal education for many business positions, such as management analysts.

Management analyst positions are expected to see a 22% growth from 2010-2020, with 157,200 new jobs. (Source: Spring 2012 BLS Occupational Outlook Quarterly)

Through Grantham’s convenient, 100% online format and professionally relevant courses, the Master of Science in Business Intelligence program integrates technological concepts within a relevant, functional business application framework. Upon graduation, you will be armed with an advanced business education in the fields of technology and decision science.

Business Intelligence Program Outcomes

At the successful completion of the program, you should be able to:

  • Create business models for forecasting and business analysis
  • Manage business intelligence technologies
  • Integrate information from the organization into a strategic system that balances growth and sustainability
  • Manage customer relationships to maximize productivity and outcomes
  • Assess workflow, data analysis, and technology necessary to maintain effective operations
  • Utilize systematic approaches to managing technology and innovation
  • Analyze information about an organization\'s operational processes, financial situation, business performance and key indicators
  • Evaluate effectiveness and relevancy of data sets to continually improve quality
  • Assemble project plans to report project progress to stakeholders

Course Highlights & Curriculum

Credit Hour Breakdown

MS-BI Credit Hours 36
Total Credit Hours 36

Curriculum Highlights

Course Number Course Title
BA501 Overview of Business Intelligence
BA521 Balanced Scorecards and Performance Dashboards
BA531 Business Performance Management
BA542 Strategic Management and Technology & Innovation
IS576 Data Warehousing
BA647 Project Management Integration Framework and Risk

Full curriculum

CourseTitleCredits
BA501Overview Business Intelligence3
BA515Management of Information Syst3
BA521BalancedScorecards&Performance3
BA525Info Systs Strategic Planning3
BA531Business Performance Mgmt3
BA541Customer Relationship Mgmt3
BA542Strategic Mgmt Tech&Innovation3
BA590Organizational Behavior3
BA597Capstone-Business Intelligence3
BA647Proj Mgmt Integration Framewrk3
IS566DecisionSuprt/IntelligenceSyst3
IS576Data Warehousing3
Program and core:36
Electives (0):0
Total:36

Additional online degree details

Degree level:Masters
Delivery method:Online
Availability:Available
Starts:Weekly

Career Information

Business Intelligence is broad field with five specialty areas: Leadership and Management, Business Analytics, Data Analysis and Design, Data Integration, and Administration and Technology. The job outlook for professionals in this industry is great as the demand is higher than the available number of applicants. One of the fastest growing careers in the field of Business Intelligence is the management analyst. The main focus of a management analyst is to gather and analyze information and propose ways to improve an organization's structure, efficiency, or profits. The work of management analysts varies with each client and/or employer, from project to project, and by area of expertise.

10-year Job Growth

In the next 10 years, overall employment is projected to grow by 22% for management analysts, which is much faster than the average for all occupations.

  • 876,000
  • 718,800
  • 2010
  • 2020
Total number of new jobs and replacement jobs
Year total jobs is an estimate

Average Salaries

If you choose to work as a management analyst, you can expect to earn:The breakdown of salary ranges you could expect to earn with this degree are below.

  • The top 10% earn$138,790
  • The median earn$78,160
  • The lower 10% earn$43,900
* Total compensation includes bonus. Salaries listed are dependent on prior experiences as well as the number of years of seniority.

How Business Intelligence Functions

Business intelligence is a process that involves gathering and analyzing information about a business or industry matter. A wide range of applications and technologies are used for gathering, analyzing, storing, and accessing this data to help make decisions regarding a business. While this technology and the principals of business intelligence can be applied to a wide variety of problems, there is generally a similar data flow involved in the process of systematically gathering and analyzing information for business intelligence.

The standard process begins with sources, such as cash register tapes and sales figures, to intentionally oversimplify things. The information from these primary sources is coupled with data sources, data warehouse information, and data from other relevant sources, such as data marts which might hold independent information, like other companies sales of a similar set of products. Finally, all of this information is processed for reporting and analysis.

Source systems gather information that shall be analyzed, and this information is stored in a configuration for speed processing. This kind of storage is great for processing transactions, like cash register sales, but it is terrible for analyzing the data. Information from these sources then goes through the extract, transform and load (ETL) process, which formats data to meet the business\' intelligence needs.

Once the data is extracted and then loaded into the data warehouse, the various forms of data regarding the issue being studied are then consolidated together. Information stored in data warehouses is now available to the people who will analyze it for answers to specific business questions. This kind of stored data is referred to as a data mart. Data marts can be organized so that end users can ask specific questions relating to business, such as cross referencing sales by product, times, dates, regions, or specific salespeople. Finally, reports can be generated through the use of analytic tools, often referred to as OLAP, or online analytical processing. Other forms of processing include MOLAP (multi-dimensional online data processing) and ROLAP (relational online data processing).

Additional considerations for business intelligence strategies may include whether or not real time reporting is required to accurately answer the questions being asked. Many business decisions must be made very quickly and relate to multiple issues that are constantly changing, like the economy and supply and demand in general, so keeping up-to-date on key market issues may become one of the biggest demands on any business intelligence team.

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