Business Intelligence Certificate Online

Certificate Overview

Online business intelligence certificate for professionals in any industry

Many organizations are now able to gather large amounts of information that can develop new opportunities for a company. However, it requires a professional who can make sense of the numbers using business intelligence (BI). Business intelligence uses technologies, processes, and application to analyze internal, structured data and business processes. BI supports better decision making and can be called a decision support system (DSS).

Learn to enable an organization to take advantage of all its data potential in this online business intelligence certificate. Harness these capabilities, convert them to knowledge, and get the right information to the right people, at the right time via the right channel.

Common functions of business intelligence are:

Reporting, data, text, and process mining,
Complex event processing,
Business performance management,
Benchmarking, and
Predictive and prescriptive analytics.

Become an asset in your workplace

CSU's business intelligence certificate program allows students to bring value to companies across many sectors that have vast quantities of both structured and unstructured data. Identification, analysis, and transformation into useful data are necessary for business optimization, forecasting, and to meet business objectives. This certificate provides students with a unique skill set, a valuable credential, and immediate recognition in the IS/IT field. This particular area of information systems is highly sought by businesses in their new hires and existing IS personnel.

What you learn

The online business intelligence certificate is taught by CSU's College of Business faculty, who bring their expertise into the online classroom. You will learn about:

The importance of data mining and its application in business.
Standardized data mining processes and specific methodologies like CRISP-DM and SEMMA.
Data mining methods and techniques for classification, segmentation, association, prediction, forecasting, and sequencing.
The process of building, running, and validating data mining tools and how to interpret the results.
The tools and processes for conducting text analytics.
How web content, structure, and logs can be mined for extracting useful information.
The emerging field of business intelligence including its capabilities, role in decision making, and vendors, while gaining hands-on experience with some popular BI technologies and tools.
How to design, implement, manipulate, and manage databases through a rigorous foundation in relational database management systems.

Option to pursue a master's degree

This certificate can be a companion to the online computer information systems master's degree. The credits completed as part of this certificate may be applied toward the degree after formal admission per University transfer policies with a grade of B or better in each course. However, successful completion of the courses or certificate does not guarantee admission to the degree program.

Tuition Benefits

The Colorado State University College of Business offers special tuition benefits for the following:

Colorado residents are eligible for a 5% tuition benefit. Please note that a Colorado address does not automatically equate to residency. Connect with your enrollment counselor or academic advisor to confirm eligibility.
Active military, honorably discharged veterans, military spouses, and military dependents are eligible for a 15% tuition benefit.
Corporate partners may qualify for 10% off the cost of tuition. Reach out to CSU’s admissions team to learn if your company offers a corporate partner tuition benefit.
Alumni of CSU Fort Collins are eligible for a 15% tuition benefit.

Curriculum

Select 9 credits from the following:

CIS 570– Business Intelligence (3 cr.)
CIS 575– Applied Data Mining and Analytics in Business (3 cr.)
CIS 576– Business Data Visualization (3 cr.)
CIS 655– Business Database Systems (3 cr.)

Program total credits: 9

Note: It is highly recommended that you complete a statistics tutorial before taking CIS 575 to ensure you have a rudimentary understanding of statistics. Students with no programming background should take CIS 570 prior to taking CIS 576. CIS 655 requires prior experience in programming and programming logic.

You must be admitted to this program for the certificate to appear on your official University transcript. Admission to a business graduate program and/or additional coursework may be required to meet prerequisites. Contact the department for more details.

How to Apply

Application Deadlines

Fall semester	July 31
Spring semester	January 1

Start your application online and upload materials directly into the online system. You can save your progress and return any time.

Apply Now

1 Review Admission Requirements

Graduate certificate applicants generally must meet or exceed the following criteria:¹

An undergraduate degree from an accredited four-year institution in any field
A cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher from your most recent degree completed²
International applicants: minimum TOEFL or IELTS scores³

While we encourage our students to meet the minimum criteria, failure to meet one may be offset by strengths in other areas, as determined by the Graduate Program Committee.
Please submit an academic performance explanation if your GPA was lower than 3.0.
A minimum Internet-based TOEFL score of 86 or a minimum IELTS score of 6.5 or a minimum of PTE score of 58 is required for all certificates except Accounting Ethics and Auditing, which requires a minimum Internet-based TOEFL score of 95 or minimum IELTS score of 7.0.

2 Complete Online Application

Complete the online graduate application and pay the nonrefundable application processing fee (payable online). As soon as you have completed the required information, please submit your application. Your application will not be reviewed until it is complete and all required materials have been received.

Choose "Business Intelligence (Certificate) – Distance" when choosing the Program of Study. (Note: You must first select "Certificate" at the top.)

3Request Transcripts

Request one official transcript from the institution where you earned your bachelor’s degree. Transcripts from Colorado State University are not required. Transcripts must be received directly from the originating institution to be considered official.

Electronic (preferred):
Digital Transcripts must be submitted by the originating institution using a secure service such as parchment, eScrip-Safe, the National Student Clearinghouse, or e-Quals. Transcripts received via emails are considered unofficial.

Use institution code 4075 for Colorado State University or gradadmissions@colostate.edu if the secure service requires an email address.

Mail (if necessary):
Graduate Admissions
Colorado State University – Office of Admissions
1062 Campus Delivery
Fort Collins, CO 80523-1062

Check Your Application Status

View your application status at any time to ensure your application checklist is complete or to check on updates.

Once your complete application, including supporting materials, is received, the department admission committee will review your application and notify you of their decision.

For International Applicants

Proof of English language proficiency is required for applicants from countries or United States territories where there are official languages other than (or in addition to) English. This includes the U.S. territories of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.

Learn more about English language proficiency requirements.