Business Intelligence Case Study
analytical Essay
1127 words
The business intelligence (BI) marketplace is teaming with new innovations and struggles for market share. With new technologies and more companies entering the business intelligence landscape pricing for BI processes and tools are decreasing. “The relational database market is around 30 years old. It should be mature by now, but every year there seem to be new innovations in the relational database space. I’m always astounded that there continue to be new entrants” (Beckerle, p. 281, 2008). Beckerle, p. 282, (2008) states "Now, and throughout the history of data warehousing — going back to the mid-1990s, there was an awful lot of outsourced data warehousing. Lots of companies outsourced their data warehousing to big companies like Acxiom …show more content…
In this essay, the author
- Opines that the business intelligence (bi) marketplace is teaming with new innovations and struggles for market share.
- Analyzes how the internet makes data warehousing more attractive to companies — not just the big companies can consider leveraging database and bi technology.
- Argues that ibm is a fortune 500 company and has reinvented itself on serval occasions.
- Analyzes ibm's history during the 1980s and early 1990s that could duplicate itself given the business cycle that surrounds new technology.
- Explains that ibm was thrown into turmoil during the 1980s and early 1990s by back-to-back revolutions. the pc revolution placed computers directly in the hands of millions of people.
- Explains that both revolutions transformed the way customers viewed, used and bought technology and fundamentally rocked ibm. piece-part technologies took precedence over integrated solutions.
- Opines that the furious competition ibm faced in 1990s is the same as it is facing today. the business intelligence marketplace is ripe with new innovations at cheaper cost.
- Analyzes how sallam developed a survey based on customers rating their bi platform designers to compare end user satisfaction.
- Concludes that bi technology is only as valuable as its contribution to efficiency and the bottom line.
Bloomberg, (2015) states IBM a Fortune 500 company has a struggling business model due to other providers such as Amazon offering business intelligence tools at a more cost effective rate. Bloomberg West (2015) also states IBM of the past would offer a complete solution with heavy cost due to a large support staff. Companies can now rent Cloud space and utilize Amazon tools to create workable BI solutions at lower cost. However, IBM is a Fortune 500 company and has reinvented itself on serval occasions. Enderle, (2015) states “This made me realize that I hadn 't clearly communicated that this isn 't about technology at all. It 's about understanding how to work with large government organizations — something IBM has been doing for nearly a century — and why process is more important than product. Enderle, (2015) poses a solid hypothesis because the effectiveness of the Amazon tools will derive their success from the IT professionals using them. Does offer a competitive advantage of understanding processes and solutions from beginning to end. With reduced cost and a solid marketing planning IBM could gain control of the BI market as they did with the network solutions in the …show more content…
Sallam, (2011) developed a survey based on customers rating their BI platform designers. Sallam gathered data on major corporations such as IBM Cognos, Oracle, Microstratgey, and Microsoft to small companies such as Corda and Qliktech to compare end user satisfaction. “With the exception of development tools and BI infrastructure, in general, the satisfaction with capabilities rises along with the prevalence of use. Only reporting is used extensively by most respondents (68%) while six capabilities are extensively used by 25% or less. Use of reporting and ad hoc analysis experienced the most significant decline in extensive use while interactive visualization and dashboard use grew the most” (Sallam, p. 6, 2011). End users utilize BI that is easy to understand and offers them value. Some BI systems may be easy to use but offer no value to the end user or the system could offer value but its complexity reduces efficiency elsewhere muted or canceling out the BI systems
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- Business Intelligenceexplanatory essayBusiness Intelligence for competitive advantage In the beginning, businesses used information technology for automating the processes primarily to reduce labor costs. Subsequently, information technology is used for delivering information with speed and accuracy. Currently, businesses want to use the information effectively for competitive advantage to make better decisions that improve and optimize business processes, predict the market dynamics accurately, optimize forecasts to adequately maintain resources to name a few reasons. Businesses reached a critical juncture in global competition and the business intelligence capabilities and analytic prowess will play critical roles in the most competitive sectors of global economy.
In this essay, the author
- Explains how businesses use information technology for competitive advantage to make better decisions, predict market dynamics accurately, and optimize forecasts to maintain resources.
- Opines that business intelligence capabilities and analytic prowess will play critical roles in the most competitive sectors of global economy.
- Explains that business intelligence analysis requires the capturing of information and storing in a single location for effective data analysis. information is distributed making it difficult and time-consuming to access.
- Explains that a data warehouse comprised of disparate data sources enables the "single version of truth" through shared data repositories and standards and provides access to the data that will expand frequency and depth of data analysis.
- Explains that as a technical architect, they were involved in the design and development of the enterprise data warehouse at target. they realized the relevance of mba.
- Explains that carlson mba program will enable them to understand business processes holistically and communicate with subordinates, peers, and supervisors for effective decision making.
340 wordsRead More - Burlington North and Santa Fe Managementexplanatory essayAronson EJ., King D., Turban E.and Shrda R. (2008). Business Intelligence A managerial approach. (p.33) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that to experiment this hypothesis, documentation will be reserved of the occasion that decision makers spent their time in running reports and gathering useful information for three months throughout the search for information in existing decentralized system.
- Explains that the evaluation of records for the three months and six months proceeding to execution of project will be made with the report.
- Explains that time taken to run the reports recorded in production availability will be evaluated with the six months subsequent to establish a mean fault rate. the z-test evaluates sample and population means.
- Explains that most of the staff will be using a web browser to get reports from one source with improved navigation and analysis.
- Explains that aronson ej, king d., turban e. and shrda r. (2008). business intelligence a managerial approach.
- Explains that bnsf is one of the major transporters of intermodal traffic in the world and leading grain-hauling railroad.
- Explains that bnsf management would like to implement single source of information concerning shipments. it would involve a major change in the way of current reporting system works.
- Explains that the new system processes, and methodologies that allow customers to interface with bnsf easily led to the development of bnse a web based tool.
- Explains that the new system will enable corporate dashboard affords and faster reaction time for decision makers. the z-test evaluates sample and population means to conclude if there is a considerable distinction
869 wordsRead More - Business Intelligenceopinion essayIntroduction The dynamics of our society bring many challenges and opportunities to the business world. Within the last decade, hundreds of jobs have emerged particularly in the technology sector to help keep up with the ever-changing world and to compete on a larger and better scale than the competition. Two key job markets and the basis of this research paper are business intelligence or BI and data mining or DM. These two fields play a very important role in small to large companies and are becoming higher desired sectors within the back offices of the workplace.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that business intelligence and data mining are key job markets and the basis of this research paper. these two fields play a very important role in small to large companies.
- Explains that business intelligence, or bi, is a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s raw data. data mining is the process of sorting through large amounts of data and picking out relevant information.
- Explains that people are beginning to realize the effective use of bi/data mining and how it can transform their business and gain the competitive advantage.
- Explains the business intelligence graduate certificate program at the cox school of business enables business managers and business analysts to understand how information can be accessed from corporate databases and data warehouses.
- Opines that business intelligence and data mining strategies and skills can increase profits and market share. employees who specialize in bi and dm fields will continue to be top-notch assets to companies.
- Explains that business was a collection of activities carried on for whatever purpose. howard dresner popularized bi as an umbrella term to describe concepts and methods to improve business decision-making by using fact-based support systems.
- Explains that the bi architect position requires a broad range of skills and the ability to step into different roles depending on the size and scope of an engagement.
- Compares bi/dm salaries with it industry salaries, which rose 3.7% last year. the average salary rose 4% in 2007 to $98,418, up from $94,615 in 2006.
- Describes the operating systems of microsoft® windows® vista® (business and enterprise) and xp professional with service pack 2.
1331 wordsRead More - IBM Transformation & the Influence of Big Dataexplanatory essayBig Data is changing the arena for big businesses. Big Data is the technology trend that has made it possible for businesses to better understand their markets. Big Data is the new natural resource, the new “oil.”
In this essay, the author
- Explains that big data is changing the arena for big businesses. big data is the technology trend that has made it possible for businesses to better understand their markets.
- Explains that international business machines, or ibm, saw this trend and moved their company away from hardware and into software and services, following the money.
- Explains that ibm began as a tabulating company, producing super computers, then moved into the pc market, selling commercial computers to the masses.
- Explains that ibm operates in 172 countries and employs 400,072 employees. their company is now prospering, bringing in 100 billion dollars in revenue last year and spending sixteen billion to acquire new companies.
- Explains that ibm's watson is a cognitive system able to learn and understand heterogeneous data. this machine competed in jeopardy, defeating two reigning champions.
- Explains that ibm ranks number one in big data analytics, which is the process of examining large amounts of data and uncovering trends and correlations.
- Describes the examples of companies using big data analytics, such as wind turbine organizations that track weather patterns and other environmental data to select the best area to place their turbines.
- Explains the importance of technology and businesses to be able to organize and interpret mass amounts of data.
- Explains that the new wave of technology has proved successful for those who are quick enough to jump on the big data trend. changes in the mobile industry combined numerous devices into one smart phone, cloud computing replaced the need for companies extensive servers and it departments.
- Explains how facebook and ibm prospered in a different market sector because of these changes.
- Explains that companies like ibm, who specialize in big data and business analytics, are becoming increasingly useful to these businesses because they can transform facts and figures into meaningful representations of information.
544 wordsRead More - A White Paper on Building Information Modelingopinion essayThe McGraw Hill Construction Smart Market report conducted a survey which showed that in 2008, 35% of firms using BIM described themselves as heavy users. It projected that percentage to rise to 45% by 2009. The percentage has risen above this prediction. (Allison, 2009)
In this essay, the author
- Explains that a major gap in the application of the bim is the computability of digital design information.
- Explains that the concept of sharing design information is referred to as interoperability. it is difficult and complex to have a representation that works for all applications.
- Opines that building information will not be in just one model; it will be a collection of information models supporting different processes but rule of computable interoperability will apply.
- Opines that the future direction for the architecture and building industry is clearly bim.
- Opines that bim will become useful to other communities such as brokers, facilities managers, real property managers and operations engineers in three years.
- Opines that bim is the future of the architecture, building and construction industry, but there is still a large population of designers who do not fully understand what it means.
- Opines that the shortage of skilled bim professionals stems from the belief that new technology tools can simply be integrated into existing processes.
1573 wordsRead More - Failure of an MISanalytical essayIn the year1994, FoxMeyer was the fourth largest drug wholesaler in the United States with an annual sales of approximately $5.1 billion. The company filled orders from thousands of pharmaceutical companies with shipments of up to 500,000 items per day. However, in the same year, due to rapid growth and consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry, FoxMeyer’s management was concerned about competition from the larger competitors. The threat imposed required drastic measures. The whole industry competed on low profit margins. Therefore, FoxMeyer decided to stay ahead of the competition by implementing a new information system.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that foxmeyer was the fourth largest drug wholesaler in the us with an annual sales of approximately $5.1 billion. however, due to rapid growth and consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry, the threat imposed required drastic measures.
- Explains how foxmeyer decided to automate their inventory and delivery process to provide better service at a lower price than their competition.
- Explains that the bulk of the project was changing the warehouse from manual to automated. they implemented barcode readers and bar coded all their products for faster tracking capabilities.
- Explains how the new information system greatly supported foxmeyer by making the business process of tracking sales and inventory easier and faster.
- Explains that the direct computer order entry system facilitated control over their inventory. the information system picked up eighty percent of all items automatically, giving foxmeyer an advantage of superior service over the competition.
- Explains that foxmeyer's information system planned to conduct business with its customers on a daily basis. however, the implementation was inconsistent with the changing business environment.
- Explains that foxmeyer's management committed $56 million to develop and install the delta information system. however, to build its new 340,000-square-foot warehouse, the company hired anderson consulting, a leading international information systems consulting firm.
- Explains that foxmeyer purchased r/3, an inventory management software system from sap ag, a giant german software company. the vendor for the warehouse system was pinnacle.
- Explains that the software had a reliable reputation and was designed to run on client/server hardware and enabled its users to replace their old mainframes.
- Analyzes how management adopted an out-of-mind attitude towards sap implementation problems. even management personnel involved in the implementation were discouraged from criticizing the system.
- Explains that management failed to understand the complexity and risks involved in the implementation process and fast tracked the project by three months prior to having the system fully tested.
- Explains that the system at the new warehouse repeatedly failed during the busiest working hours, leading to many errors.
- Explains that many orders were shipped with items missing, but with an invoice for a complete order. customers saw service quality deteriorate, as they did not receive invoiced items when the original shipment arrived.
- Analyzes how the company was forced to announce a $34 million charge to cover the non-collectible losses from customer orders.
- Analyzes how foxmeyer's management of the project entailed a top-down approach, whereby management, andersen consulting and few technical people planned and implemented it right from the outset. the communication gap between users and system personnel was predictable.
- Explains that the lack of all departments' involvement in the project left workers threatened by the implementation of the system, particularly at the warehouse level.
- Explains that the delta information system failed because foxmeyer's management neglected to understand the complexity of the project. they also did not recognize the risks, timelines, resources and testing in the implementation process.
- Explains that foxmeyer's stock suffered heavily from the automation problems and filed for bankruptcy protection under chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy law.
- Analyzes how the mckesson corporation purchased foxmeyer drug company for $80 million in cash. the delta information system's technology was capable of functioning as designed.
- Explains that in the competitive world of business, changes must be made to stay on top. in the case of foxmeyer's delta information system, the technology was ready and capable, but the management was defective.
- Cites bulkeley, caldwell, andersen consulting, madden, john, neumann, and sabher.
1573 wordsRead More - Tableau Software Executive Summaryexplanatory essayTraditional business intelligence tools are being replaced by data discovery software. The data discovery software has numerous capabilities that are dominating purchase requirements for larger distribution. A challenge remaining is the ability to meet the dual demands of enterprise IT and business users.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that tableau is an industry leading innovator of data solutions and presentation. the company's goal is to empower companies and people with tools to analyze and disseminate data.
- Explains that as data grows and technology speeds up, the ability to capture and analyze data faster than a competitor becomes critical. privacy advocates worry about the use and spread of consumer data.
- Describes deere & company, deloitte touche, tohmatsu limited, e. i. du pont de nemours, the federal aviation administration, sears holdings corporation, and verizon communications inc.
- Describes traditional and emerging database vendors such as ibm, microsoft corporation, oracle corporation and teradata corporation.
- Explains land and expand's marketing strategy focuses on getting in the door with free trial products, single user products and freeware.
- Predicts that by 2015, buyers of business intelligence (bi) platforms will predominantly purchase platforms that support both strong and broad business-user-accessible data discovery capabilities and it-driven enterprise features for data reuse, governance, security and scalability.
- Explains that tableau software is compatible with competitor’s data analysis programs and interacts with dashboards to users using their own software.
- Explains how to increase brand awareness through strategic placement of advertising in trade journals, television spots, and targeted websites.
- Explains that tableau maintains a high quality product for business and private individuals who are not data analysts by trade.
- Opines that pricing should be conducted in a manner of price-skimming. tableau has unique products and can demand unique pricing for each package option.
- Opines that direct distribution is the favored method of b2b software sales. having a sales team that presents the product at the buyer’s workplace and then using land-and-expand strategy to deepen the relationship is highly effective.
- Opines that tableau needs to invest resources in mainstream prime-time commercialization, focusing on the brand itself, not the products. distributing industry publications, tv commercials, targeted internet advertisements should raise brand awareness.
- Opines that tableau software is making it easier for businesses to analyze data to better their business strategies and intelligence.
- Explains that tableau software is not in the top 5 companies that came to mind for business intelligence. while many companies use data analysis, there are more efficient ways to analyze and present data for use throughout the company.
- Explains the potential strategy of "co-branding" with traditional data providers such as hp, hadoop, oracle and sap.
- Explains that tableau server is highly scalable, serving the largest enterprises and up to tens of thousands of users.
- Explains that the bi and analytics platform market is in the middle of an accelerated transformation from measurement and reporting to those that also support analysis, prediction, forecasting, simulation and optimization.
- Cites evelson, b., & fields, e. (2012). tableau for the enterprise: an overview for it.
1966 wordsRead More - Decision Making: The Power of Analyticsopinion essayCompanies have transformed technology from a supporting tool into a strategic weapon.”(Davenport, 2006) In business research, technology has become an essential means that many organizations use in their daily operations. According to the article, Analytics is a major technological tool used. It is described as “the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions."(Davenport, 2006) Data is compiled to enhance business practices. When samples are taken, they are used to examine research and understand how to solve problems or why situations are as they are. Furthermore, in this article, Thomas Davenport discusses analytics from a business standpoint. He refers to organizations that have been successful in their usage of data and statistical analysis. In addition, he also discusses how data and statistics can be vital in the efforts to improve the operations of businesses.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that analytics is a major technological tool used in business research. data is used to enhance business practices, analyze research, and understand how to solve problems.
- Explains how companies can become analytic competitors through various activities, such as modeling and optimization, and an enterprise approach.
- Opines that the transformation requires a significant investment in technology, the accumulation of massive stores of data, and the formulation of companywide strategies for managing the data.
- Opines that the curriculum at state university is designed to prepare students with the skills and knowledge needed in the contemporary job market.
- Opines that for all advantages, there are disadvantages, such as knowingly falsifying data, tampering with information, and professional competence and integrity.
- Explains davenport, t. decision making: competing on analytics. harvard business review. retrieved august 8, 2011.
- Opines that an organization needs to have the right focus and a culture of authenticity.
- Explains how analytics has been instrumental to companies such as capital one, which has exceeded 20% growth in earnings per share every year since it became a public company.
1607 wordsRead More - Strategic Intelligence Case Studyexplanatory essayDefine the key elements of strategic intelligence which consist of: Collection Techniques, Products, Covert Action, Counterintelligence, and Oversight and how all these elements work together.
In this essay, the author
- Explains the key elements of strategic intelligence: collection techniques, products, covert action, counterintelligence, and oversight. they also describe the function and flow of intelligence information.
- Explains why the course's focus on strategic intelligence includes the basic definitions provided in the heidenrich article, which deals with estimative (predictive analysis) to support strategy (at the national or military level), but then goes beyond to include strategic collections, strategic counterintelligence, and strategic covert action
- Opines that heidenrich's writings are too constrained and that the course moves beyond the original definition of strategic intelligence to show that other aspects of intelligence gathering and whatnot are directly related to the definition.
- States michelle van cleave's article, strategic intelligence: what is it and what should we do about it?, that strategic counterintelligence uses both information gathered and activities conducted to counter foreign threats.
- Explains that covert action can be connected to strategic intelligence the same as strategic counterintelligence.
- Explains that congressional oversight is relatively easy to connect with strategic intelligence due to what oversight actually is, which is the action of overseeing something.
- Opines that the basic definition of strategic intelligence and moving on to other terms was to show that none of these things would be possible without the catalyst of strategic intelligence.
- Opines that heidenrich's writings are too constrained, but for good reason. he writes that the declination of strategic intelligence has many bad effects when it comes to strengthening our country.
- Opines that intelligence should not be viewed as more than analysis, since it is the investigation of how something works.
868 wordsRead More - Business Intelligence and Data Scienceexplanatory essayFor the past couple of decades the majority of businesses have wanted to construct a data-driven organization or company. Furthermore, companies around the world are considering harnessing data as a basis of competitive advantage over other companies. As a result, business intelligence and data science use are popular in many organizations today. The increase in adoption of these data systems is in response to the heavy rise in communications abilities the world over. Which, in turn ,has increased the need for data products. Indeed, the Data Scientist profession is emerging to be one of the better-paying professions due to the urgent need of their labor. This paper is going to discuss what business intelligence is all about and explain data science that is usually confused to be similar to business intelligence. I will tackle a brief overview of data scientists and their role in organizations.
In this essay, the author
- Explains that business intelligence and data science use are popular in many organizations today. the data scientist profession is emerging as one of the better-paying professions due to the urgent need of their labor.
- Defines business intelligence as knowledge acquired about a business via various software and hardware technologies that enable an organization to transform data into information or plans.
- Explains that data science is different from business intelligence in that it aids in the design of data products.
- Explains that data scientists are highly trained professional analytics required to use data created by programmers, computer scientists, and engineers to solve emerging problems in organizations.
- Explains that data scientists perform data services and operations tasks. they are responsible for monitoring and upkeep of the company's databases, data structures, and data stores and warehouse.
- Explains that data scientists perform product marketing and analytics through creation of applications that intermingle directly with users or customers. they also perform the role of preventing abuse, fraud, risk and security breach.
- Explains that the fifth role of data scientist is control of organizational and reporting alignment. the sixth role is in charge of business intelligence and decision sciences.
- Concludes that the role of data scientist is pivotal for any company planning to launch data driven decision-making strategies.
- Describes the publications of the committee on data for science and technology (codata) and kudyba (2001).
- Explains that analyzing the analyzers is an introspective survey of data scientists and their work.
- Cites hand, mannila, and smyth as s of "principles of data mining".
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