Some people will be using Business Intelligence without even knowing it – Kurt Schlegel
Big Data is not only the raging buzzword in contemporary times; it has emerged as the kingmaker. While making good use of Big Data can provide you with an extra competitive edge; not being able to utilize it can severely hamper your business interests. Business Intelligence involves the application of intelligence in analyzing data for the purpose of business improvement. Given so, it is logical to expect Business Intelligence Books crowding the racks of bookstores on a global scale. So, with so many Microsoft Business Intelligence Books out there, how do you decide which ones are helpful for you? Let us help you out with this.
In this blog, we shall look at a carefully curated list of 10 Best Business Intelligence Books. These books on Business Intelligence comprise of those at the basic, intermediate as well as the advanced level.
Data Analytics for Beginners: Your Ultimate Guide to Learn and Master Data Analysis. Get your Business Intelligence Right ? Accelerate Growth and Close More Sales
- Author: Victor Finch
- As the name itself suggests, this is one of the Best Business Intelligence Books for beginners.
- The book adopts a broad approach in emphasizing upon the adoption of digital data for ensuring the success of business.
- At a more technical level, the text offers useful suggestions on ways for maximising ROI through self-service Business Intelligence.
Data Strategy: How to Profit from a World of Big Data, Analytics and the Internet of Things
- Author: Bernard Marr
- The existing world is the world of Big Data and the Internet of Things and this book as one of the classic Business Intelligence Books, teaches you to pay close attention to the need of exploiting this staggering mass of data.
- The book is an eye-opener in terms of making its readers understand the sheer amount and the staggering quantum of data that is being generated through digital activities and the presence of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
- The text acts as a reality check in terms of stressing upon the failure of most business organizations to utilize even 1% of the data collected.
- It introduces you to concepts like data lakes and data pollution.
- As one of the best books on Business Intelligence, the book puts forth a strong case in favor of adopting and implementing Business Intelligence strategies in order to make best use of data available.
Performance Dashboards- Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing your Business
- Author: Wayne Eckerson
- When it comes to learning about business dashboards, this is one of the best Business Intelligence Books.
- The book teaches you everything right from the point of installation to the management of real-world business dashboards.
- It is one of those books on Business Intelligence which emphasizes on the technical side of incorporating BI software in the routine functioning of business. As such, it serves as a guidebook for business managers and technical operatives.
- Communication style happens to be an extremely important skill for data driven people and as such this text helps its readers to refine their communication strategy.
- The author does an excellent job in going beyond the regular explanation and even elaborates on ways that can be adopted in dealing with office politics which centres on self service BI tools.
- It is considered to be one of the best Business Analytics books too as it helps its readers in developing a decent understanding of the ways which could be adopted for sustaining an operational dashboard culture.
Data Science for Business: What you need to know about Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking
- Authors: Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett
- This one is an extremely useful Microsoft Business Intelligence Books which introduces its readers to the basics of Data Science as well as teaches them the strategies for the extraction of business value and knowledge from collected data.
- The book provides real world examples of prominent companies which adopted data science for dealing with diverse business problems.
- This book is truly one of the premium Business Intelligence Books which deals with a wide array of topics covering predictive modeling, data segmentation, informative attributes identification and so on.
- The text offers comprehensive information on ways to sharpen your skills which will enable you to effectively participate in the data science projects of your company.
- Moreover, the book is one of the classic books on Business Intelligence as it introduces you to the myriad uses and applications of BI in the business process.
Big Data Demystified: How to use Big Data, Data Science and AI to make Better Business Decisions and Gain Competitive Advantage
- Author: David Stephenson PhD
- This is one of the finest Business Intelligence Books which teach you the multiple ways in which you can leverage Big Data for enhancing the efficiency of your day to day business operations.
- The book provides numerous case studies which will help its readers in visualizing the application of their BI strategies from a real world perspective.
- Unlike most books on Business Intelligence, Big Data Demystified goes beyond the existing and elaborates on emerging technologies like Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to understand its implications for the field of Data Analytics.
The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics: The Do?s and Don?ts of Presenting Data, Facts, and Figures
- Author: Dona M. Wong
- Data Visualization is one of the critical aspects of the BI process. In this respect, the given book can be seen as one of the best books on Business Intelligence as it teaches you the fundamentals of this visualization process.
What is Data Visualization? Read our blog on ?Data Visualization Examples: Good, Bad and Misleading?
- As a reader you will be able to learn how to create professional graphics in order to showcase the insights gathered from the analyzed data; as well as the pitfalls you must avoid while conveying this information.
- The author has been the head of the graphics department at the Wall Street Journal and had also served in the capacity of a business graphics editor at the New York Times. This helped her in combining her professional knowledge of graphic designing as well as that of data analysis in penning down this excellent text on how to correctly present information.
- The book can be seen as a guidebook for anyone involved in the task of creating data visualization. It will tell you the things which you should keep in mind in order to ensure that your visualizations are precise, simple, meaningful, effective and clear. Wong believes that visualizations should be such that they should educate as well as entertain.
- Even though some of the rules set down in the book are in fact too basic; nonetheless, they are definitely helpful for anyone who happens to be responsible for handling large datasets. Thus, it is definitely one of the top Business Intelligence Books of choice for online marketers, IT admins and so on.
- The author gets into something as fundamental as the choice of colors and font in the depiction of your data.
- She is of the opinion that multiple interactive online dashboards only help you in effectively visualizing up-to-date metrics.
Business Intelligence for Dummies
- Author: Swain Scheps
- This is one of the best Business Intelligence Books for a novice, i.e., any person who might not have any prior knowledge or experience in the field of Business Intelligence.
- The text can be seen as a foundation stone which helps you build your knowledge and understanding of the topic. It introduces you to the vocabulary and basic concepts of the discipline in order to get you familiar with the subject matter.
- The book adopts a historical approach in tracing the evolution of the discipline.
- After dealing with the introductory part, the book helps you develop understanding of how to identify your business needs as well as of how to develop strategy for efficient incorporation of BI in the day to day functioning of the organization.
- The book also involves sections on Data Visualization, BI lifecycle, BI products and vendors, Online Analytical Processing, BI strategy and so on.
- This is definitely one of the best books on Business Intelligence which will surely help you in choosing the right tools and technology for accomplishing your BI aims and goals.
Want to know more about BI tools? Read our blog on ?Top 10 Business Intelligence Tools?
- It does cover the technical part of BI implementation, but it does also provide its readers a peek into ways by which they could analyze trends and practise self-service Business Intelligence.
Successful Business Intelligence, Second Edition: Unlock the Value of BI and Big Data
- Author: Cindi Howson
- This is one of the most popular Business Intelligence Books which is not only acclaimed by professionals within the field, but is one which provides you with a detailed understanding of how to integrate BI in business.
- It is an interesting piece of reading as it covers many of the current innovative trends within the field such as cloud, mobile and visual data as well as in–memory computing and big data.
- As someone who is seeking to push their organization in the path of BI, this book can be of huge help as it covers everything on how to get started on this issue, on ways to wisely contor your BI strategy as per your business goals as well as on ways of choosing the right tools and applications.
- The book includes case studies as well as real world examples derived from the author?s own experience of working as a BI analyst.
- Instead of dealing with BI as an abstract and distant phenomenon; the text as one the classic books on Business Intelligence looks at it in a very grounded fashion, trying to capture every aspect of the discipline in the most realistic way.
Business Intelligence Roadmap: The Complete Project Lifecycle for Decision-Support Applications
- Authors: Larissa T. Moss and Shaku Atr
- This is not one of those introductory Business Intelligence Books which tell you what is Big Data. As the name of the book suggests, it is a roadmap. The authors trace a route which could be followed in developing one?s organizational processes in line with data analytics. Thus, it provides useful recommendations on ways for getting the BI application in place.
- The book is essentially divided into two parts. Each of the chapter in the first part of the book deals with a specific stage of Business Intelligence. It covers practical details like project roles, project flow charts as well as the risks involved.
- The second part of the book deals with tools and references for the development process.
- Unlike most of the other books on Business Intelligence, which have an academic undertone to it; this book is more of a carefully structured project manual which will push you in utilizing its insights in the real world, right away.
Business Intelligence Guidebook: From Data Integration To Analytics
- Author: Rick Sherman
- This is one of those Business Intelligence Books which is extremely comprehensive and seeks to cover the entire system of BI.
- It seeks to explain the BI concepts and processes in utmost detail, along with laying emphasis on the importance of Big Data within the business world.
- Some of the significant issues covered in the book include: product architectures, data warehousing, data integration, BI design, project management and so on.
- The author traces the project development lifecycle for BI which could be applied in the context of any business size.
Conclusion
No matter which field or domain you seek to initiate your academic career in; books happen to be the best resource which aid in sharpening your knowledge and understanding of the discipline. However, while there is no scarcity of content, it is important to be able to sift the best ones from the rest. Keeping this in mind, this blog has been the result of extensive research in order to provide you with the names of the best Business Intelligence Books. These Business Intelligence Books do cater to different technical levels; however, all of them can unquestionably be regarded as the top, must-read, best books on Business Intelligence.
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