...THE BIG DATA CHALLENGES by William Thomas Info System Decision-Making Professor Raied Salman July 21, 2014 Volvo was founded in 1927 and, is one of the more popular brands of vehicles with over 400,000 cars sold in 2013. Their largest markets are the United States, Sweden, China, Germany and the UK. Volvo has taken vehicle diagnostics to another level by using the data transferred from their vehicles to improve the quality and performance of their overall fleet on the street and on the assembly line. In 1999 Volvo began collecting diagnostic read-out (DRO) data as a tool to help them get a better view into the performance and mechanical failure under actual field conditions. There are several factors to the diagnostic read- out that Volvo has to use in order for this information to be considered “useable data.” Diagnostic trouble codes (DTC) are generated when the vehicle presents some sort of fault, it is then stored in the engine control unit (ECU). The next step is where Volvo took the next in order to transfer data in knowledge. At a typical dealership the service technician would connect his code analyzer to the vehicle’s code output connection. He would then use this information in order to provide or suggest what type if any maintenance or repairs are needed. However; at a Volvo dealership, the data is transferred to a centralized database at the Volvo Headquarters commonly referred to as the “Data Warehouse.” This data is accessible to all Volvo dealerships...
Words: 963 - Pages: 4
...TITLE PAGE Business Environment Assignment (2015) – (Y/601/0546) * A Qualitative Business Analysis of Two Different Organisations: - (Waltham Forest College: Public Sector and Costa Coffee: Private Business Sector). * This Process Involved Assessing the Influence of Stakeholders and the Relationship Between Businesses and The Local, National and Global Market Environments. CONTENTS LIST PAGE Introduction 3 Literature Review 4 Overview: Critical Review 6 Methodology 7 Investigations/Findings 8-19 Conclusions 20 Recommendations 21 Bibliography/References 22 Appendices 24 1.1 INTRODUCTION This report is a qualitative analytical assessment (Easterby-Smith et al 1991) by the author on behalf of Charles Hunt Investments concerning two contrasting organisational types. The first entity is Waltham Forest College, which is an expanding UK public sector college. The other company is Costa Coffee – a successful UK based and international coffee chain which provides high quality food and beverages service to UK and overseas clients. The aim of this report is to investigate and qualify how Charles Hunt Investments can raise financial resources from (for) clients such as the above mentioned and examine ways, on a long term basis how to secure the best dividends (tangible and intangible benefits) for its stakeholders (Kotler, 1997). A further aim of this qualitative study...
Words: 4911 - Pages: 20
...manager how to adminster the dynamics of a business analyst position. This manual will also enable the HR professional in the four functions of job analysis, selection process, orientation and training, in order to help the organization meet it’s goals for the business analyst position. Executive Summary As a human resource manager it is important to identify the organization’s goals and requirements. A successful HR manager will use this information to effectively manage the aptitude of the personnel to achieve the company’s target. The key factor in doing so is to properly staff the company for the jobs that must be completed. Staffing can be extremely intense because the company depends on the HR manager to find the best qualified person to match each job within the organization. This guide focuses on the necessary steps to hire someone for a business analyst position. There are four functions that are crucial in the hiring process: Job Analysis, Selection, Orientation & Training. The first method is the job analysis. “Job analysis is sometimes called the cornerstone of HRM because the information it collects serves so many HRM functions. Job analysis is the process of obtaining information about jobs by determining the duties, task, or activities of those jobs,” is stated by Bohlander and Snell the authors of Managing Human Resources. (Bohlander and Snell, 2007 p. 144) The second method is the selection process which is usually split between recruiting and...
Words: 1937 - Pages: 8
...What is Business Analysis? Business analysis is a discipline involving a number of tools and techniques that are used to identify the needs of organization, and develop solutions that meet those needs. As companies have increasingly outsourced much of their operations, they have also looked to the field of business analysis to provide the insight and expertise to assist them through their growth cycles. Business analysis is used in all industries and in all situations. When a high tech company is experiencing unprecedented growth, and needs to ensure that its systems can help it grow, it turns to business analysis. When a struggling US-based manufacturing firm is facing whether or not to outsource its production facilities to India -- it turns to business analysis. When an entrepreneur is considering launching a product idea and is evaluating the feasibility -- it turns to business analysis. Simply put, business analysis, whether implicit or explicit, plays a role in virtually all decision-making in an organization. Topic 1.2: What is the role of the Business Analyst? Business analysts are often more closely defined by function, not by role, as the role of a business analyst might take a variety of forms. For example, business analysts might reside internal or external to an organization. A strategic group within a company might employ several dedicated business analysts who work on ongoing projects and areas of interest. Alternatively, a company might contract with business...
Words: 1899 - Pages: 8
...Source: S. G. Powell and K. R. Baker, 2004. The Art of Modeling with Spreadsheets. New York: Wiley & Sons. Copyright © 2004 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION MODELS AND MODELING Modeling is the process of creating a simplified representation of reality and working with this representation in order to understand or control some aspect of the world. While this book is devoted to mathematical models, modeling itself is a ubiquitous human activity. In fact, it seems to be one of just a few fundamental ways in which humans understand the world. As an example, a map is one of the most common models we encounter. Maps are models because they simplify reality by leaving out most geographic details in order to highlight the important features we need. A state road map, for example, shows major roads but not minor ones, gives rough locations of cities but not individual addresses, and so on. The map we choose must be appropriate for the need we have: a long trip home across several states requires a regional map, while a trip across town to find a new doctor’s office requires a detailed street map. In the same way, a good model must be appropriate for the specific uses intended for it. A complex model of the economy is probably not appropriate for pricing an individual product. Likewise, a back-of-the-envelope calculation may be inappropriate for acquiring a multibillion-dollar company. Models take many different forms: mental, visual, physical, mathematical...
Words: 4929 - Pages: 20
...http://www.batimes.com/articles/change-management-101-for-business-analysts.html Business Analysts Times Change Management 101 for Business Analysts 26 September 2012, Jarett Hailes Change is hard for most people. There are a variety of reasons why change is hard, from our inherent need for a sense of security to having to deal with too much change at once to not following a process to increase the change’s likelihood of success. I know I am personally not looking forward to having to adapt my hyper-productive processes when Windows 8 is released and I may have to re-learn or find new ways to do things efficiently. As Business Analysts, we are often involved in projects or initiatives that cause a great deal of change within an organization. In some cases we are put on the front lines of the change, whether it is gathering requirements from skeptical stakeholders to supporting the review of a solution that was put in place too quickly and is now meeting strong resistance. In order to get our jobs done effectively in such situations, we need to understand how change is perceived by individuals and know how to help guide people through change within the context of our role. All Change is Personal In order to help people work through changes, we need to first understand that change occurs at the individual level. The overall organizational change that occurs is a result of the changes made by each individual. Every person will react to the same change in a different way based...
Words: 4359 - Pages: 18
...Shape your Future 20th April 2011 Erika Binacci Agenda 1. Industry 2. How do I fit in an Industry? 3. Organisational Structures 4. Organisational Charts 5. La Casa delle Bontà 6. Verizon Business 7. British Red Cross 8. How to Start Up your own Business Industry The term Industry refers to the production of an economic good: either material or a service within an Economy There are four key industrial economic sectors: Primary: largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming and logging. They do not process the products at all. They send it off to factories to make a profit Secondary: this group is involved in the processing products from primary industries. This includes all factories—those that refine metals, produce furniture, manufacturing, constructing or pack farm products such as meat. Tertiary: this group is involved in the provision of services. They include teachers, managers and other service providers such as law, medicine and distribution of manufactured goods. Quaternary: relatively new type of knowledge industry focusing on technological research, design and development such as computer programming, and biochemistry. This group is involved in the research of science and technology. They include scientists. Quinary: nonprofit activities. The economy is also broadly separated into Public sector and Private sector, with industry generally categorized as private How do I fit in the Industry There are different ways to work in...
Words: 783 - Pages: 4
...Research on information management IM Professional position that I aspire to have From my point of view, I will choose business technology analyst as my aspiring position. It is a position that requires people to have the technical background and business knowledge. As a student in information management, this position matched us best. A special profile is listed as follows. Maggie H Chen (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiehchen) who was graduate from Syracuse University is a business technology analyst. She have a dual degree in Finance and Information Management and Technology. She is aspire to become an effective international business communicator and is currently have more than one year working experience as business technology analyst. Practices that will cause failures in IM management In this specific position, the practice that you cannot correctly translate the business requirement into technical requirement will most likely be the case failure in IM management. Considering the specific profile listed above, it is possible for her to incorrectly translate the requirement since she didn’t have the strong technology background. Business analyst is now crucial for the success of the information management. Since this position provide the “translation service” for the business department and technology department, and imprecise translations will result in failure of the project. A study [2] has showed that poor definition requirements (50%), communications...
Words: 2192 - Pages: 9
...Tool - Instructions 1. For each criteria, select a value between one and three, where one is the highest and three is the lowest assignable score. For ""Anticipated Project Size"" use your internal metrics as guidance. For example, if you use lines of code, then mentally assign ball park values to Small, Medium and Large as part of determining whether to give this criteria a high or low score. Follow a similar process ""Anticipated Duration"". Since project duration depends on project complexity, mentally categorize earlier projects as short, average or long duration to help put the current project in context. 2. After assigning a score for each criteria, view the Feasibility Study Suitability Indicator to discover the best method to use for determining project viability. 3. Omitted criteria will give an inaccurate result, so ensure all criteria are scored before checking the indicator." Criteria "Score (1=high, 3=low)" Guidelines Business Risk "1 = Significant, high-risk projects 2 = Low-to-modertate risk projects 3 = Small, low risk projects" Technology Risk "1 = Significant, high risk technological risks 2 = Low-to-moderate technological risks 3 = Small, low technological risks" Anticipated Project Size "1 = Large 2 = Medium sized 3 = Small" Anticipated Project Duration "1 = Long 2 = Medium duration 3 = Short" Project...
Words: 451 - Pages: 2
...learning from each other, our customers, our competitors, and our experiences. While the staffing coordinators are busy scheduling associates to go out for an assignments the system is not designed to back up information pertaining to pay rates and shifts. At the end of the week the data entered to keep up with time and pay rates no longer exist in the database. Our IT department must come up with a plan to save the data and store information for the staff to retrieve for compensating the employees. The purpose of this plan is to upgrade to more current versions of Oracle databases and financials applications. The personnel involved in this project is the Development Team, and Business Analysts team as time progresses with this project the Reporting Team will get involved. Business Analysts is coordinating with application services and the finance department. The development team will perform these upgrades efforts in 4...
Words: 559 - Pages: 3
...Microsoft Excel to conduct modeling to simulate their business growth other than Microsoft itself? Microsoft has made billions of dollars selling their Microsoft Office Suites and their home computer operating systems around the world. They have become one of the largest and well known companies in the world. The way that I see it, is that Microsoft’s business model, in a nutshell, is to provide goods and services in the form of software and support to paying customers. One question that may be asked in this day an age is with the advances in cloud computing and Google’s “free” gadgets, will the traditional Microsoft’s business model come to an end? What will Microsoft’s business analysts do in order to change their business model? One can only imagine that it will need to be modeled and simulated first to avoid potentially expensive mistakes. I must start off by saying that before I started my Systems Modeling Theory online class through Strayer, I thought that it may just be one of the hardest classes to understand that I’ve ever taken throughout the course of my college career. I can say now after having completed the last nine weeks of class that I was correct. What’s hard, is not understanding the concepts of why businesses would use Excel models for their business growth but rather the actual use of Excel itself. With all of the bells and whistles an who’s-its and what’s-its that Excel provides for the Business Analyst professional, it’s extremely hard to get a clear...
Words: 1781 - Pages: 8
...Week 7 BUSINESS ANALYSIS PLANNING AND MONITORING Click Link Below To Buy: http://hwaid.com/shop/busn-350-week-7-business-analysis-planning-and-monitoring/ Write an essay that is 5-8 pages in length, on one of the BABOK Knowledge Areas listed below: Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring (Chapter 2) is the knowledge area that covers how business analysts determine which activities are necessary in order to complete a business analysis effort. It covers identification of stakeholders, selection of business analysis techniques, the process that will be used to manage requirements, and how to assess the progress of the work. The tasks in this knowledge area govern the performance of all other business analysis tasks. Elicitation (Chapter 3) describes how business analysts work with stakeholders to identify and understand their needs and concerns, and understand the environment in which they work. The purpose of elicitation is to ensure that a stakeholder’s actual underlying needs are understood, rather than their stated or superficial desires. Requirements Management and Communication (Chapter 4) describes how business analysts manage conflicts, issues and changes in order to ensure that stakeholders and the project team remain in agreement on the solution scope, how requirements are communicated to stakeholders, and how knowledge gained by the business analyst is maintained for future use. Enterprise Analysis (Chapter 5) describes how business analysts identify...
Words: 919 - Pages: 4
...Abstract In this paper we try to make a small comparison between model in the past and the present, and how models become more restraints than before. Also we will talk about the advantage of using models and how they can make our life much easy. Models have evolved since the beginning of the century. There are many kinds of models for almost any system or item that exist. Each model uses short, long, simple or complex mathematics formula it depends of which case the models solve. However the models that are used in these recent years are very complex and have many numerous computations which make the only one that can handle it is the computer. These kinds of models are usually use in a wide variety of tasks, such as prevision of the decision made, and an effective answer to everyday problems. During time, models start to be more restraints than before. These kinds of restraints should have value or weight to make a model compatible with the case that model solve. There are several constraints or restraints in each models, one of the most important one is budget of the project. In other words the more wherewithal, the more model accuracy. Mark P. McDonald ( December 8, 2010). To use complex mathematical formula in the models it requires an educated staffs with a good knowledge of model branch, which make the model more expensive and take more time to solve it, comparing with...
Words: 824 - Pages: 4
...Chapter 1 | Foundations of Information Systems in Business The Fundamental Roles of IS in Business Support of Business Processes and Operations . As a consumer, you regularly encounter information systems that support the business processes and operations at the many retail stores where you shop. For example, most retail stores now use computer-based information systems to help their employees record customer purchases, keep track of inventory, pay employees, buy new merchandise, and evaluate sales trends. Store operations would grind to a halt without the support of such information systems. Support of Business Decision Making . Information systems also help store managers and other business professionals make better decisions. For example, decisions about what lines of merchandise need to be added or discontinued and what kind of investments they require are typically made after an analysis provided by computer-based information systems. This function not only supports the decision making of store managers, buyers, and others, but also helps them look for ways to gain an advantage over other retailers in the competition for customers. Support of Strategies for Competitive Advantage . Gaining a strategic advantage over competitors requires the innovative application of information technologies. For example, store management might make a decision to install touch-screen kiosks in all stores, with links to the e-commerce Web site for online shopping. This offering might attract...
Words: 19641 - Pages: 79
...Financial Analyst I | | 登记日期 | 2012/7/23 | | 地点 | Providence, RI | | 国家/0 | USA | | 工作详情 | POSITION TITLE: Financial Analyst I DEPARTMENT: Analysis REPORTS TO: Manager of Financial Analysis HOURS: 37.5 FLSA: Exempt SALARY GRADE: 12Overview:The Financial Analyst I will gather business requirements, analyze data, and provide advanced reports to internal and external customers, represent the Financial Analysis team during cross functional projects and perform the job in accordance with Neighborhood's Mission, Vision and Values.Qualifications:Required: - B.S. in Business or business related field - 3-5 years of relevant professional experience - Advanced spreadsheet skills (Excel) - Strong knowledge of relational databases - Budget experience - Financial modeling skills - Business analysis experience - Strong analytical skills - Ability to recognize and recommend process improvements - Desire to take ownership of work - Customer service skills - Demonstrated team mentalityPreferred: - MBA - Managed care experience - Knowledge of business intelligence software - Incurred But Not Reported (IBNR) preparation experience - Managed care contracting experience - Knowledge of statistics for calculating medical expense trends - Knowledge of time value of money concepts - SQL experience Duties and Responsibilities: Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following: - Monthly financial close responsibilities - Financial...
Words: 260 - Pages: 2
