Data Analysis & Business Intelligence

5-Day Professional Training Course | DABI5001

KSA · GCC · Africa

Course Overview

This intensive 5-day training programme equips analysts, business professionals, operations managers, and organisational decision-makers with the analytical frameworks, data visualisation tools, business intelligence platforms, and evidence-based decision methodologies needed to transform raw organisational data into the strategic insight that drives competitive performance. Data without analysis is inventory. Analysis without business intelligence is academia. Business intelligence without decision-making integration is decoration. The organisations winning across Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 economy, the GCC's increasingly competitive financial, energy, and retail sectors, and Africa's rapidly digitalising business landscape are those that have closed the gap between data availability and decision quality — where every significant operational, commercial, and strategic choice is informed by rigorous analysis presented through intelligence systems that make insight accessible to decision-makers at every organisational level. Across Saudi Arabia where the National Data Management Office has established data as a sovereign strategic asset, GCC organisations investing heavily in BI platforms to compete on analytical intelligence, and African economies where mobile data proliferation and digital government initiatives are generating datasets of extraordinary richness — the professionals who convert data into decisions are the most valuable people in any room. Aligned with DAMA Data Management framework, Microsoft Power BI certification standards, Tableau Desktop Specialist curriculum, and business intelligence best practices across regional industries.

Keywords: Data Analysis Training Saudi Arabia | Business Intelligence Course GCC | Power BI Tableau Africa | Data Analytics Riyadh · Dubai · Nairobi · Cairo

Course Information

Target Audience

• Business analysts and reporting specialists seeking structured analytical upskilling

• Operations and performance management professionals using data for decision support

• Finance, commercial, and supply chain professionals making data-informed decisions

• IT and digital transformation leaders governing data platforms and BI programmes

• Government data officers in KSA and GCC national data management initiatives

• Marketing and strategy professionals developing data-driven commercial intelligence

• Managers and department heads requiring BI literacy for evidence-based leadership

• Entrepreneurs and startup founders across African markets building data-driven operations

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, participants will be able to:

• Apply structured analytical thinking and statistical methods to extract meaningful insight from complex organisational datasets

• Build, publish, and manage professional Power BI and Tableau dashboards serving diverse stakeholder decision needs

• Design KPI frameworks, scorecards, and performance measurement systems aligned to organisational strategy

• Conduct exploratory data analysis, root cause investigation, and trend analysis using Excel, SQL, and BI platform tools

• Apply data governance, quality management, and privacy compliance frameworks relevant to KSA, GCC, and African data environments

• Present analytical findings as compelling data stories that drive decisions rather than merely report situations

Learning Methods

5-Day Programme Outline

Day 1 — Analytical Thinking, Data Foundations & Business Intelligence Architecture

1. Analytical thinking for business professionals: structured problem decomposition, hypothesis formation, evidence evaluation, and the analytical mindset that separates insight from observation

2. The business intelligence ecosystem: data sources, data warehouses, ETL processes, semantic models, and reporting layers — understanding the architecture that connects raw organisational data to decision-maker dashboards

3. Data types, quality, and governance: structured and unstructured data, data quality dimensions, the DAMA framework, and data management obligations under Saudi Arabia's PDPL and African data protection legislation

4. KPI design principles: selecting metrics that drive behaviour, leading vs. lagging indicators, and the KPI framework development that aligns measurement to organisational strategy

5. BI platform landscape: Power BI, Tableau, Qlik, and regional BI platform options — selection criteria, total cost of ownership, and the platform decisions that GCC and African organisations are making in 2026

6. Workshop: Participants define a business question, identify the data required to answer it, and map the BI architecture connecting available data sources to the decision insight needed

Day 2 — Excel Analytics, SQL Fundamentals & Data Preparation

1. Advanced Excel for business analysis: pivot tables, pivot charts, slicers, Power Query data transformation, and the Excel analytical capabilities that remain essential across GCC and African organisations where Excel is the universal analytical tool

2. Statistical functions in Excel: descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, trend forecasting with FORECAST functions, and the statistical Excel capabilities that elevate spreadsheet analysis beyond basic arithmetic

3. SQL for business analysts: SELECT, WHERE, GROUP BY, JOIN, and the query patterns answering the majority of real business data questions without requiring programming expertise

4. Data cleaning and preparation: identifying and handling missing values, removing duplicates, standardising formats, and the data preparation discipline that determines whether analysis conclusions are reliable or misleading

5. Data modelling fundamentals: relationships, star schema, fact and dimension tables, and the data modelling concepts that underpin every professional BI platform implementation

6. Lab session: Participants write SQL queries against a relational business database and build a Power Query data transformation pipeline — producing a clean, analysis-ready dataset for dashboard development

Day 3 — Power BI: From Data to Interactive Dashboard

1. Power BI architecture: Desktop, Service, and Gateway components — understanding the Power BI ecosystem and the deployment model appropriate for organisational BI programmes

2. Data connection and transformation: connecting Power BI to databases, Excel, SharePoint, and web sources — Power Query M language for data shaping and transformation

3. Data modelling in Power BI: relationship management, cardinality, filter direction, and the model design decisions that determine whether DAX measures calculate correctly or produce misleading results

4. DAX fundamentals: calculated columns vs. measures, CALCULATE, FILTER, time intelligence functions, and the DAX competency that separates Power BI professionals from Power BI beginners

5. Dashboard design and visualisation: visual selection principles, interactive filtering, drill-through, bookmarks, and the design discipline that produces dashboards decision-makers use rather than dashboards that impress in demonstrations

6. Lab session: Participants build a complete Power BI report from raw data — connecting sources, transforming data, building a star schema model, writing DAX measures, and publishing an interactive dashboard with row-level security

Day 4 — Tableau, Advanced Visualisation & Data Storytelling

1. Tableau fundamentals: connecting to data, the Tableau data model, dimensions and measures, and the drag-and-drop interaction model that makes Tableau the most intuitive professional BI platform for exploratory analysis

2. Chart selection and visualisation design: when to use bar, line, scatter, map, heat map, and waterfall charts — the visualisation design principles that communicate insight clearly rather than creating visual complexity

3. Calculated fields and table calculations: Tableau calculations, LOD expressions, and the analytical calculation capabilities that extend Tableau beyond simple aggregation into sophisticated business analysis

4. Geographic analysis and mapping: spatial visualisation for regional performance analysis, territory mapping, and the geographic BI applications most valuable across GCC multi-site operations and African market analysis

5. Data storytelling with Tableau Story Points: narrative structure, annotating insights, and designing analytical presentations that lead audiences from question through evidence to decision with clarity and persuasive force

6. Lab session: Participants build a Tableau analytical workbook — developing multiple coordinated views, implementing dashboard actions, and designing a Tableau Story that presents a complete analytical finding for an executive audience

Day 5 — Predictive Analytics, BI Governance & Capstone

1. Predictive analytics for business professionals: moving from descriptive to forward-looking insight — trend analysis, moving averages, regression-based forecasting, and scenario modelling without requiring data science expertise

2. AI-powered BI: Power BI Copilot, Tableau AI features, and natural language querying — the generative AI capabilities embedded in BI platforms that are redefining how non-technical users access analytical insight in 2026

3. BI programme governance: data ownership, dashboard certification, access control, change management, and the BI governance framework that maintains analytical quality as datasets, models, and user communities grow

4. Building a data-driven culture: data literacy strategy, self-service BI enablement, centre of excellence design, and the organisational investments converting BI capability into sustained competitive advantage

5. BI performance measurement: dashboard adoption metrics, data quality KPIs, analytical impact measurement, and the programme performance indicators demonstrating BI investment value to organisational leadership

6. Capstone: Participants present their complete BI solution — covering analytical question, data architecture, Power BI or Tableau dashboard, predictive element, insight narrative, and business recommendation — for peer and facilitator review

Regional Relevance

Content is contextualised for KSA, GCC, and African data environments — integrating Saudi Arabia's NDMO framework and PDPL compliance, UAE data economy strategy and smart government analytics initiatives, and the BI applications transforming African agriculture, health, fintech, and infrastructure sectors. Case datasets and industry examples are drawn from energy, financial services, government, and development sectors across these markets.

Assessment & Certification

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