Business Intelligence Consultant Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a business intelligence consultant. You can use our job description template in this article to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a business intelligence consultant.
Who is a Business Intelligence Consultant?
Business Intelligence consultants extract data and also meaningful insights about business activities. They discover, validate, sort, and synthesize information to produce visual presentations that will impact and assist in making decisions. They also give counsel to companies on how they can enhance their business intelligence abilities. Through this data and taking into account that the business intelligence consultant must comprehend the context in which the business works, a business intelligence specialist will be able to give ideas for enhancing a business process. With the data they have gathered, they can anticipate future events and also what developments the business in the future. Business intelligence consultants are very much important personalities when it comes to planning, strategy, and analytical decisions within a company. They utilize business intelligence tools to make new analyses, new lines of business planned, cost optimization, and also company growth improvement.
What is Business Intelligence?
Business intelligence is technology-driven that collates data, process data, and interpret it in an understandable visual manner. The process involves measuring and producing outcomes outside the company. It is very much easier to collate data and there are a series of tools utilized to achieve visualization. The ongoing trend of big data has pushed many businesses to do more BI analysis and this implies that business intelligence consultants are in high demand everywhere.
Some tools that are used by business intelligence consultants are:
- Tableau
- SAP Business Intelligence
- Oracle BI
- QlikView
- QlikSense
- Microsoft Power BI
- IBM Cognos Analytics
- Pentaho
Business Intelligence Consultant Job Description
Below are the business intelligence consultant job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The following are the duties and responsibilities of Business intelligence Consultants:
- Discovering, reviewing, and validating data on the company and market
- Specifying trends and areas for Business intelligence analysis
- Nurturing stakeholders on the role of business intelligence
- Aiding with data analysts to prepare reports for decision-makers
- Generating insightful presentations to assist business managers and executives
- Supervising Business intelligence projects under your control from start to finish
- Convening with internal and external stakeholders to generate insights into decision-making
- Employing data analysis tools and visualization platforms
- Giving feedback and assistance to other employees based on your research
- Guaranteeing the security and confidentiality of all data, information, and documents used in Business Intelligence operations.
- Laboring with technical teams to build/improve data analytics and business intelligence techniques
- Correlating progress and ensuring meeting objectives
- Educating team members on data literacy as and when required
- Keeping up-to-date documents of key findings and Business results
- Remaining updated with the latest happenings in the data science space
- Aiding teams with predictions, trends, and actions based on the data.
Qualifications
- A degree in data analytics, computer science, economics, or fiancé
- 3-5 years of experience in a data-related or business intelligence position
- Mastery in data mining, business intelligence tools (e.g QlikSense), data processing frameworks, and report writing
- A working awareness or mastery of automation, machine learning, and database management.
- Eligible to leverage different technologies such as SQL, RPA, NLP, APIs, and data visualization platforms
- A business-savvy approach to data and its practices for companies
- Powerful analytical skills, critical thinking abilities, and a passion for big data
- Problem-solving mindset and bigger-picture view of data
- Terrific interpersonal and leadership skills
- Impeccable demonstration abilities and business acumen
- Design, execute, and present complicated analysis solution
- Understanding of data warehousing SQL, database programming, ETL, OLAP, SSRS, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), SSAS, and data modeling
- Proficiency to present key findings and spotting trends that help in decision making
- Specialist in reporting, dashboard UI/UX, and analysis
Essential Skills
- Understanding data and Statistics
Business intelligence consultants utilize tools to make analysis easy. They must first of all need to understand where the data is coming from and what the data represent. Statistics is a difficult course but you need to have a background in mathematics so that you can comprehend it better. The ability to understand data will help you to perform your responsibility better.
- Knowledge of how to Utilize Analysis Tools: There are different tools you can use as business intelligence. Some tools are easy to use while others are complicated. There are several tools you can use but there are two that stand out and they are:
R is a very famous tool that is used by statisticians, scientists, and consultants. There are a lot of tutorials and scripts you can follow on how to utilize the tools. R comes with awesome community members that are willing to help new members. It has different functions and it can be very difficult to utilize it at the beginning.
SPSS is also a tool that is very much similar to R which allows you to analyze data easily. It has a lot of benefits in the business world and it is more user-friendly. Although the SPSS tool is very much expensive it is also worth it, because it will enable you to secure a license easily.
- Knowledge of how to use Visualization tools: you can visualize with both R and SPSS tools but there are better tools that can perform such responsibility. There are two main tools you can use for visualization which are:
Tableau has much more many things in common with data analysis and visualization. It is a very outstanding tool because it is used worldwide because of its simplicity and power. If you have data that is already checked, thoroughly cleaned, and read to analyze when you place it on Tableau, it will provide you with tremendous results.
QlikView is very much similar to Tableau and gives you diverse ways to visualize data, but there are some key differences. It possesses integrated business intelligence and it comes with bundled demos, tutorials, and training manuals you can utilize to comprehend it easily. The manual will help you comprehend some of the advanced complexes easily.
- Data Warehousing: Business intelligence Consultants should be able to develop data warehousing and also a data mart. They must possess knowledge of how various database functions, models, and also different processes. They must work with database administrators and provide analysts with visibility to a team. They should be able to manage the current data warehouse and also boost its functions.
How to Become a Business Intelligence Consultant
- Earn the Required Education
There is no basic requirement to become a business intelligence consultant but most firms prefer a candidate who has a bachelor’s degree. Most professionals in this field need to possess a bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, business administration, or a related field. This degree will help you to harness the basic computer skills that will enable you to become a business intelligence.
You can consider enrolling for a Master of Science in Business Analytics which can enable you to have high-level skills. This will also make you stand out in the job market and help you build your career prospects. This can also enable you to qualify for a managerial role or leadership position. Getting a job in business intelligence is a top-notch role in which main aerial skills are highly demanded and acquiring a Master’s degree can place you in such a position.
- Get Experience
You can gain the requisite experience by working in a voluntary firm or volunteering to take up little opportunities that comes your way. Most organizations will not just employ you to start working as a business intelligence consultant, you will have to take up entry-level positions such as data analyst or any position that is for a fresh graduate. While working in an organization, you will be placed side by side with a business intelligence consultant professional, maximize this opportunity so that you can harness the skills you need.
Acquiring experience in IT or a corporate fiancé may be very much important to business intelligence consultant professionals. You can also kick start your career by working on entry-level jobs in a business office. The fact remains that starting your career in business or IT is very beneficial because you need both to become a successful business intelligence professional.
- Get Certified and licensed
You need to get certified in IT courses apart from your degree, you can get certified in coding or programming. This will prove to your employer that you are the most competent candidate for the job. Certifications can be acquired both online and offline. These certification courses will also boost your job prospects’ opportunities. Acquiring a license vary state to state but you need to discover your state license and acquire it so that you can practice your career legally.
- Join a Network of Professional
You need to connect with other people in the industry or the world of IT so that you can keep learning new things. The trend of IT is diversifying day by day and connecting to this network of professionals will help you to build your career in business intelligence. You can be part of it by attending conferences and participating in training seminars in the tech world.
- Build Your Skills
To achieve success as a Business intelligence consultant, you need to build your skills, especially technical skills. You should also be willing to be updated about the latest data analysis and warehousing software. You need to possess strong communication skills so that you can train employees on data collection and also how they can present their findings to decision-makers in the company. You need to also utilize your problem-solving skills because consultants must be able to bring about innovative solutions to problems and also make data very much accessible to clients. Critical thinking skills are also a crucial skill business intelligence consultants need to have so that they can discern which data sources are important and which one is not important. They deal with huge volumes of data and that is why they need to build on all these skills. Skills are very much relevant because you will need a qualification to work but you need skills to be able to achieve the responsibilities of your job position.
Where to Work as a Business Intelligence Consultant
Business intelligence consultants can work in an IT firm or company as independent contractors or a member of the consulting firm. A business consultant service may be demanded by a small, mid-size or large-, size company. They can also work with different divisions of the departments in the company.
Business intelligence consultants often collaborate with the Information Technology (IT) team which can help to establish or maintain the data collection systems that can serve the company over a long period. Their work schedule is 40 hours per week but they can work for extended hours if the need arises.
Business Intelligence Consultant Salary Scale
The salary of Business Intelligence Consultants varies across countries but here are some countries below:
- In the United States, The average business intelligence consultant salary in the USA is $98,265 per year or $50.39 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at $76,800 per year while most competent workers make up to $128,310 per year. The average business intelligence consultant salary in New Jersey is $115,790 per year or $59.38 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at $88,101 per year while most competent workers make up to $139,628 per year. The average business intelligence consultant salary in California is $104,500 per year or $53.59 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at $82,875 per year while most competent workers make up to $138,450 per year.
- In the United Kingdom, The average bi-consultant salary in the United Kingdom is £55,000 per year or £28.21 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at £45,000 per year while most competent workers make up to £75,000 per year.
- In Canada, The average bi-consultant salary in Canada is $95,000 per year or $48.72 per hour. Entry-level positions start their careers at $84,375 per year, while most competent workers make up to $117,406 per year.
- In Australia, The average bi-consultant salary in Australia is $110,000 per year or $56.41 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at $87,500 per year, while most competent workers make up to $154,750 per year.
- Singapore, The average business intelligence salary in Singapore is S$72,000 per year or S$36.92 per hour. Entry-level positions start their career at S$54,000 per year, while most competent workers make up to S$96,000 per year.