...Brief Overview of Business Intelligence and How Walmart Uses It Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world and handles more than one million customer transactions every hour and generates more than 2.5 petabytes of data storage (Venkatraman & Brooks, 2012). To put this into perspective, this data is equivalent to 167 times the number of books in America’s Library of Congress (Venkatraman & Brooks, 2012). So how can Wal-Mart use this massive amount of data and what useful information can this data provide? This paper will provide a brief overview of the importance of Business Intelligence (BI) and how the largest retailer in world, Walmart, is using it. BI platforms help management to truly understand its customer base and deliver individualized products and services (Brannon, 2010). When BI tools and analytics are used effectively, managers and decision makers can yield an all-encompassing view of the company, its position in the market, and its potential and perspectives (Albescu, and Pugna 2014). BI is best explained as a systematic process not found in a magazine, online or in a knowledge database. An organization that doesn’t have a viable BI capacity is making decisions without key information in this competitive market (Thomas, 2001). Walmart has more customer connections than any retailer in the world, from online activity to in-store purchases, and even social mentions (300,000 social mentions per week) (SAS Institute Inc.). Due to the abundance...
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...Chapter 12 Enhancing Decision Making Case 2: IBM and Cognos: Business Intelligence and Analytics for Improved Decision Making Tags: business decision making; business intelligence software; decision support systems; management reporting systems; executive dashboards; mobile delivery platforms. Summary In this video from the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), Dan Fulwiler and Steve Segalewitz from IBM, discuss how understanding your online data more clearly can improve decision-making. Video demonstration of IBM/Cognos BI software applications. In the accelerating media industry, discovering relevant business insights within the chaos of available information can lead to substantial competitive advantage. IBM Business Intelligence and Analytics is designed to integrate all data providers and in-house sources to reveal timely and actionable business insights. The software collects, connects and leverages information from consumers to suppliers. L= 5:06 URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI59ZgyQqBc Case IBM has been known for most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company. With over 388,000 employees worldwide, IBM is the largest and most profitable information technology employer in the world. It is still selling computers today, and is still one of the biggest computer companies in the world, and it has also been known to produce very efficient computers as well. IBM holds more patents than any other U.S. based technology company...
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...Introduction Sprint has nearly 54 million customers and offers a host of products for consumers, businesses and government. The company recently began using analytics tools to try to make sense of the mountains of data created by Sprint network users on a daily basis. With approximately 70,000 employees worldwide and nearly $27 billion in annual revenues, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state-of-the-art network technologies, including the United States' first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network and an award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint provides local voice and data services in 18 states and operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide wireless network in the United States. The decision to focus our project on Sprint was based on a couple of factors. Sprint is currently the 3rd largest telecom operator in USA and with the recent take over by SoftBank the prospects to grow look promising. This provides a clear opportunity to help the business grow using analytics. Secondly because of our connections in the company we were able to get more information on Sprint’s analytics strategy and future plans. Recommendations Sprint Telecom is part of an industry, which is one of the largest providers of data in the world. Sprint’s initial big data steps have been in the right direction. They have successfully used their current data sets for quick profits and short-term results. It is now time to take the jump...
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...100 academic, government and corporate entities, it was evident that success as an independent operation was possible. Goodnight, Sall and two other facility members decided to leave NCSU and develop SAS Institute Inc. - – a private company "devoted to the maintenance and further development of statistical analysis systems." The Company’s mission is to deliver solutions that drive innovation and improve performance ("SAS Company Stats," n.d.). II. Organizational Strengths and Weaknesses A. First organizational Strength SAS Institute offers analytical software in over 24 industries from Automotive to Utilities. They have over 350 enterprise solutions, products, insights and trends. SAS software is installed at more than 75,000 business, government and university sites ("SAS Company Stats," n.d.). The company also has customers in over 141 countries and nearly 14,000 employees worldwide....
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...Hanns-G LLC, Have continued their investigation and Data Analyzing of the current business processes that have concurrently been in progress at Star plus Manufacturing Inc. Through our Time Spend at Star plus manufacturing Inc., we have conducted the following Business Analytics including but not limited too; Analyzing Qualitative Data, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Test and Learn, Business Processes, Statistics and Customer Dynamics. While Analyzing Qualitative Data; we have conducted Open-ended Questions, accepted written comments on questionnaires in order to generate Single word opinions, Brief Outlooks on company environment. We have also found some finding though daily business observations. During our Analytics practices, we have been able to develop optimal or realistic decision recommendations based on insights derived through the application of statistical models and analysis against existing and/or simulated future data. Business intelligence used a well-established process in guiding organizational change through using Computer-Based Techniques to identify, extract and analyze business data, such as Sales revenue by individual departments and products by each ones associated Costs and Income. Test and Learn methods in order to define the impact that, current strategies are impacting customers and clientele. Business Process in order to construct a representation of your current business processes. Statistic information used to find the Mean or median to calculate data...
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...Building Data Science Teams The Skills, Tools, and Perspectives Behind Great Data Science Groups DJ Patil THE SIMPLEST WAY TO BRING MapReduce and SQL www.asterdata.com Optimized in One Database Appliance Everyone knows data is the new black. The Aster MapReduce Analytics Portfolio enables customers to quickly make use of their data for actionable insights, analysis and product innovation. - Jonathan Goldman, Director of Analytics, Teradata Aster (and former Principal Data Scientist at LinkedIn) Learn More www.Asterdata.com/MapReduce Change the world with data. We’ll show you how. strataconf.com Sep 25 – 27, 2013 Boston, MA Oct 28 – 30, 2013 New York, NY Nov 11 – 13, 2013 London, England ©2013 O’Reilly Media, Inc. O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. 13110 Building Data Science Teams DJ Patil Beijing • Cambridge • Farnham • Köln • Sebastopol • Tokyo Building Data Science Teams by DJ Patil Copyright © 2011 O’Reilly Media. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://my.safaribookson line.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Editor: Mike Loukides Printing History: Many...
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...Information networks and business intelligence: decision locus and political hotbed By: Julie Stephens Case, Module 2 ITM 501: Mgt. Info. Syst. And Bus. Strategy Trident University Dr. James Marion, Core Professor October 25, 2011 To have a successful organization in today’s economy; employees must be given the tools needed to keep up with the changing market. Many top executives have made tough decisions and have made good decisions and poor decisions along the way regarding Business Intelligence. Business Intelligence (BI) is a term that refers to a variety of software applications used to analyze an organization’s data. It is a discipline made up of several activities, including data mining, analytical processing, query and report writing. This paper will discuss two Business Intelligence case studies and lessons learned from the studies regarding creating, implementing, and using business intelligence. LESSONS LEARNED Reviewing Marshfield Clinic’s early investment in an electronic patient records system is a concern. Although many clinics are turning to electronic patient records now, an early investment may mean that the system they elected to implement is not capable with newer technologies that management may want to incorporate in the future. Not anticipating changes and making preparations for it could cause issues later. Because this system has been utilized by the clinic for a period of time, did they take into consideration...
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...technology contribute to the business success of eCourier one example is that the CEO and Bregman gave GPS-enabled handhelds (system) so the couriers can be tracked and orders can de communicated electronically which improved the process and performance so they did not have to use phone dispatchers and was a much faster and easier way to keep tracker of everything. (b) Cablecom used Dimensions survey research software to create an online customer survey, and from that he was able to determine that customer’s dissatisfaction that usually began at the ninth month of service. Cesconi then created another survey (input) that offered the customers in the seventh month of service type specific complaints and problems. By the company creating the survey that technology allowed them to see why the customers are dissatisfied and how they can improve so they can retain their customers. (c) Bryan Cave/CIO John Alber decided it was better to build an easy-to-understand interface using business intelligence tools. Once the BI tool was implement in 2004 both profitability and hours leveraged have increased substantially. It allowed the lawyers to track budgets in real time so they can quickly make adjustments. The BI tools even provided a diversity dashboard, which tracks the hourly mix of women and minorities working on the firm’s cases, a feature the company will license to Redwood Analytics for sale to other law firms. By the company upgrading to the BI tool it’s improved its performance...
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...its old fashioned business ways. Firstly, the café faces high buyer power, high rivalry and high threat of new entrants and substitute services because of the many coffee shops available and limited market entry hurdles. Furthermore, the supply power is low as they are many suppliers servicing the industry. The eight topics covered will positively manage Porter’s Five Forces and give Broadway café back its competitive edge. Firstly, Customer Relations Management (CRM) involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organisation to increase customer loyalty and retention and overall profitability. The café can use cheap software such as Sugar-CRM designed for small business to do this. Secondly, Excel is a Business Intelligence tool. It can be used to analyse and transform operational data into high quality and strategic business information. It is readily available. Thirdly, deploying a Wi-Fi connection improves existing customer loyalty, attracts new customers and generates additional revenue. However, the start-up and maintenance capital are high. Broadway café should embrace the use of technology in order to increase competitiveness. Its business structures should be supported by IT initiatives for it to compete in the 21st century. This is imperative. Fifthly, Broadway café should adopt project management techniques to oversee a successful and inevitable technological transformation. Broadway café should consider E-Business in transforming into...
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... Independence University 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. First of all, business intelligence analysis requires the capturing of information and storing in a single location for effective data analysis. (Greenwalt, D., & Riney, S. (2007) A hotel franchise uses BI analytical applications to compile statistics on average occupancy and average room rate to determine revenue generated per room. It also gathers statistics on market share and data from customer surveys from each hotel to determine its competitive position in various markets. Such trends can be analyzed year by year, month by month and day by day, giving the corporation a picture of how each individual hotel is faring. (Christine McGeever, Computerworld , Jul 24, 2000) A telecommunications company maintains a multiterabyte decision-support data warehouse and uses business intelligence tools and utilities to let users access the data they need without giving them carte blanche to access hundreds of thousands of mission-critical records. The tools set boundaries around the data that users can access, creating data "cubes" that contain only the information that's relevant to a particular user or group of users. (Christine McGeever, Computerworld...
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...Business Objects Developer Internal Req #: 5216 Client Req #: ST7080 Client: State of WI – DOT Location: Madison, WI The desired candidate will possess an advanced knowledge and skill with Business Objects Reporting Tools including Universe Designer, WEBI & DESKI Report Development and Dashboard Designer. They will possess strong analysis and design skills and be familiar with Business Intelligence and Data warehousing concepts. A solid understanding of relational data structures and proficiency in SQL development is a requirement. Prior experience with Business Objects XI Version 3 is preferred. This position will work directly with the DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles) Business Area to develop standard reports and universes for various projects. Mentor the business area on universe design and reporting. Excellent oral and written communication skills to be able to interact with staff at all levels of the DOT organization are a requirement. Additional skills should include: * Experience with dimensional models, Informatica ETL, Oracle, DB2, and MS Access * Collaborates with the team to define and follow DOT reporting standards and industry best practices * Strong problem solving and testing skills, and successful project leadership experience is a necessity * The selected contractor will show proof of experience in designing and implementing Business Objects Universes, reports and dashboards and have knowledge and experience in working on...
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...University of Phoenix CIS/207 Business Intelligence Systems or (BIS) for short is a wonderful support information system that is and should be used in all business organizations. Business Intelligence Systems assists organization managers and professionals in determining the analysis of current and past activities, and aids them to predict future events in the organization or business. This leaves room and time for strategic planning processes in the organization. Business Intelligence Systems mostly carries the weight of strategic and well analyzed decision making. This is a system that any business organization should take into consideration, due to the fact that it promotes the opportunity for organizations to acquire, extract, and analyze data for beneficial information. Business Intelligence Systems gives organization managers and professionals the ability to acquire and determine solutions to a vast amount of future organization scenarios and complications. This aids in the rendering of the best possible result or outcome so that upper management in an organization can take action. Utilizing Business Intelligence Systems is the best way for higher management in organizations to make or determine accurate decisions for their organizations; the ability for upper management to use this system leads any organization to success. Most organizations tend to capitalize due to the benefits brought by utilizing the Business Intelligence System. Any organization can benefit...
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...Case Study One- Real-Time Business Intelligence at Continental Airlines Real- time data warehousing works with Continental's strategies and plans through providing the best service possible to its customers. Continental had the goal of getting people to their destinations on time and with everything that they were traveling with. Real-time data warehousing helps to track the flight information, connection information, and passenger information in order for the company to be effective and for the passenger to have an enjoyable flight. With the fast paced environment of society and businesses today, the real-time data warehouse is the most efficient method of information travel for the company to use. At the click of a few keys, anyone with access is able to find information about connecting flights, passenger information and also problems that the passenger might run into with their flights. The real-time data warehousing was able to address the problems with airline reservations and connection people to other airlines for flight transfers, this makes things easier so the airline is able to see where each customer is going and the service that they need to provide to that customer to get them to their location on time with the least amount of glitches as possible. This feature also tracks passenger information such as all of their demographics and also tracks any disturbances that they might have had on a flight before so that the airline can work to avoid anything...
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...1. Explain how Ben & Jerry’s is using business intelligence tools to remain successful and competitive in a saturated market. -Ben & Jerry’s is using BI software to track the ingredients and the life of each pint they sell. Their BI software can track anything from what supplier’s milk was used in making a certain pint to where the cherries used in the Cherry Garcia pint came from. The BI software helps Ben & Jerry’s “access, analyze, and act on customer information collected by the sales, finance, purchasing, and quality-assurance departments” (Business Driven Technology 105). This software helps Ben & Jerry’s to remain up to date on what customers love or hate about their frozen treats and helps to constantly improve their products. 2. Identify why information cleansing and scrubbing is critical to California Pizza Kitchen’s business intelligence tool’s success. -Information cleansing and scrubbing is incredibly important because it irons out all the wrinkles in California Pizza Kitchen’s spreadsheets and makes everything flow smoother. Information cleansing and scrubbing helps California Pizza Kitchen provide information in real time to their stores across America because there is less time spent on collecting data and more time reviewing. 3. Illustrate why 100 percent accurate and complete information is impossible for Noodles & Company to obtain. -Noodles & Company currently has 70+ restaurants across the United States. It is nearly impossible for them to...
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...Mining the Data Warehouse Summary In “Mining the Data Warehouse”, It speaks of a survey done by Merrill Lynch back in 2006. It tells us that “business intelligence software and data-mining tools were at the top of CIOs’ technology spending list” (Baltzan, Hag, Phillips 87). It gives a few examples of how companies are using the software and tools to gain very valuable information. When Ben & Jerry’s is mentioned, people know the brand and immediately think of ice cream. “Ben & Jerry’s cuts through the din by using integrated query, reporting, and online analytical processing technology from BI software vendor Business Objectives” (Baltzan, Hag, Phillips 87). They use the technology to track each pint’s ingredients throughout its life. If there is a complaint made by a customer, they will track it back through ingredients, suppliers, or whatever caused the issue. They are extremely focused on quality of their products. “The BI tools let Ben & Jerry’s officials access, analyze, and act on customer information collected by the sales, finance, purchasing, and quality-assurance departments” (Baltzan, Hag, Phillis 87). They have gotten it down to a science. They can tell you what milk a customer prefers for the ice cream. In 2005, they tracked over 12,500 customer’s information and comments. The California Pizza Kitchen has 130 casual dining full-service restaurants throughout the many states and other countries. They are known for their premium pizza. People...
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