BIT355 Business Intelligence Assignment

Answer:

Problems/decisions business had to make

DNA productions and director Steve Oedekerk producing the film "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" ran into a problem of organizing files that in total made up the film. the film was to consist of 1800 shots to make up an 82-minute film (Dodson, 2018).

How BI tools addressed the problem

BI tools helped track the progress of each shot in the entire production process. this was done by storing the shots 4 FileMaker pro databases each tracking different shots in the pipeline. 1 was designated to track storyboards, another managed shot that each artist was working on, another managed every individual frame in the production process and the last one managed to change to completed shots, that is, retakes.

Type of tools used to add value

They used database technology that they continued using long into the production of the Jimmy Neutron TV series. They utilized four FileMaker Pro databases. 

Case study - Multimedia Database Management Systems

Problems/decisions business had to make

Advertising agencies, real estate, and healthcare industries might have the need to store and retrieve multimedia (text, video, and images) over networks.

How BI tools addressed the problem

Many vendors have come out to address the issue with solutions that store, index and retrieve this type of multimedia data. In a client-server solution, BI tools made multimedia data storage and retrieval over networks.

 Type of tools used to add value

IBM developed DB2 Digital Library Multimedia server, Media Way Inc has its own multimedia DBMS. Oracle Corporation and Sybase have also sought to address this issue in their relational databases by including multimedia data features.  

Case study - G. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital Objects

Problems/decisions business had to make

The problem the Hospital faced was maintaining smooth operations and access to data quickly since it was a state mental facility. The hospital had 15 different systems with data dating back 15years yet its DBMS vendor at the time (Inter Systems Corp) was moving its systems to a new architecture.

How BI tools addressed the problem

By use of BI tools, Intersystem Corp cut down the conversion plan of 5 years to 8 months. The hospital focused on the usability of data thus helped speed up the data conversion process. by re-engineering the databases and doing upgrades they worked better and faster in the new object-oriented architecture.

 Type of tools used to add value

The tools used were databases working in an object-oriented environment.  

Case study - Avail Lands $3 Billion Deal

Problems/decisions business had to make

After landing a 10-year contract to distribute spare parts for Rolls-Royce aircraft engines, its main problem was to offer services down the level of each item. For example, sales forecasting for a specific item

How BI tools addressed the problem

by use of BI tools, it provides linkages between its ERP, SRM and electronic applications, thus allowing access to its aviation inventory and distribution. BI tools helped provide timely access to information required. 

Case study - Homeland Security Data Integration

Problems/decisions business had to make

Federal agencies operated autonomously from each other meaning they ran different systems. This meant that in each agency rules that dictated how data was collected and accessed were different. Furthermore, it meant that a lot of data was not structured nor located in any databases. The challenge was linking all this data and systems together coupled with the security of this data.

How BI tools addressed the problem

 By uses of BI tools federal and state agencies architectures had to be decided. Identification of applications and databases and determining which one was to be used and discarded. BI tools incorporated data integration technologies that merged different systems from the different agencies located in different localities, making their information accessible from a single organization. In effect, BI tools helped different legacy databases merge and act as a single centralized database 

Case study - RFID Tags Help Automate Data Collection and Use

Problems/decisions business had to make

 The problem that arose in these cases (in Walmart, Marks and Spencer plc and Delta airlines among others) was tracking goods. In Wal-Mart’s case, it was tracking goods through its supply chain.

How BI tools addressed the problem

RFID tools helped lower costs of lost goods in transit and have a huge influence on the accuracy of shipped goods.  

Case study - Experian Automotive

Problems/decisions business had to make

Experian sought to have information about any motor vehicle ownership history including its purchases and sale records in the United States. As such the problem was tracking automobile sales data throughout the United States

How BI tools addressed the problem

By developing the worlds tenth largest database (at the time) that drew automobile sales data from public records helped solve this issue. BI tools were then employed to identify recalls and automobile parts companies can use this data to target their sales.  

Enterprise - Wal-Mart

How was BI used innovatively?

At the time that Wal-Mart announced that its key suppliers must use RFID, it was an innovative move. This was because in mid-2003 the RFID tags cost ranged from 20 to 50 cents, for Wal-Mart’s initiative to be successful the tags needed to cost 5 cents. This goes to show that the technology was present but was not in mainstream use.

The move helped Wal-Mart track items in crates in addition to identifying the specific items in the crates or pallets (Alex, 2016). This has a huge positive implication on its inventory management thus positive results from its supply chain. RFID was a success to Wal-Mart and its key suppliers because it not only cut their costs of tracking goods in transit but it also increased the accuracy of goods being shipped 

Changing trends and impact on business operations

Changing trends in technology have forced the retail giant to also change with the times. Walmart is a brick-and-mortar traditional store famous for competitive and selections price. The success of the organization can be traced from a kind of convenience that is different from other stores. In the United States of America, there are a lot of stores with operations such as Walmart but, 90% of the American population have their places of the residence located in only a fifteen minutes’ drive to Wal-Mart. However, this only has proven not be adequate to maintain a competitive role against the giant competitors in the industry such as Amazon, therefore, Wal-Mart opted and decided in creating its impact on the market by taking advantage and using of technology. Wal-Mart has proven that it is possible for a traditional retailer to break the mould and get innovative by turning to technological advancements to remain relevant and maintain competitiveness in the market. In effect, Wal-Mart has been prospering while most of its competitors have been struggling. Its collaboration with lyft and Uber, which was aimed at improving its online retail presence means customers can shop online and have their orders delivered for a small. According to some recent reports by the company, an approximation of about 24 million individuals are using the app by Walmart actively and in a regular basis, with the company's app being ranked in number in the ranking of retail apps. According to the CEO McMillion, Wal-Mart is aiming to connect all of its parts into one shopping experience. This can be seen in the development of apps and websites that are simple to use facilitating easy pickups and fast delivery. Wal-Mart has is also developing a drone to help improve quality assurance in its distribution centres. Changing trends have resulted in online mobile transfer gaining ground rapidly and replacing tradition means. In the line of this Wal-Mart, pay has been rolled out in every one of its stores in the United States.

The company’s website (walmart.com) has been moved to a responsive design as well, that is capable of adapting to any devices used or preferred by the costumer (Jennifer, 2016). According to some studies and data collected by the company, it has been discovered that most transactions with an approximate of fifteen per cent which takes place in their company website are done by using different types of devices, these include mobile smartphones, tablets, laptops, CPUs, PDAs, among other devices of different kinds. 

Value added by these changes

By embracing e-commerce through simple to use apps and websites it has provided a competitive advantage over other online retail stores. Coupled with different shipping options e.g. delivering to customers houses through lyft and Uber or free deliveries within the store the scales have tipped to their favour. Wal-Mart pay has improved the customer experience at the stores as a means of carrying out transactions quickly and effectively.

A new technological platform by Wal-Mart was known as Pangaea has resulted in the organization gaining a capability of radically scaling its assortment. According to Wal-Mart’s own Neil Ashe, they have come up with a smart price algorithm which is applied to almost every item in their available stores lately. This platform (Pangaea) has helped different merchants gain an effective management to many items which initially they were being managed by the use of means of traditional pricing management (Hyken, 2016). By the adoption of this ecommerce technology, the company has invested in pricing and are currently meeting their competitors who are online or are beating them on a scale of maybe 4 out of 5 times. 

Enterprise - Homeland Security

How was BI used innovatively?

In its data integration endeavours, BI tools were effectively used to merge the different data sources and make them meaningful. This was done by studying the data held by the different agencies and creating an architecture for it. This was not an easy task since most agencies had their own set of rules for treating their data. Data important to one agency and stored in databases might not be in another agency as such may be unstructured. All of this data needed to be studied at the same time ensuring that its security was of utmost importance. The data was also stored in different systems that were old as the information they contained.

To do these, innovative solutions had to be employed. All of these information sources needed to be merged to act as one for easier data mining and manipulation. Informartica among other sources have solutions that can merge data from different sources to form a large data warehouse. BI tools were to be employed as well so as to determine the commonality in the data and establish which data to keep and which not to.   

Changing trends and their impact on business operations.

Social networks and mobile phones have had a huge impact on DHS operations. With the two technologies becoming ever increasingly relevant in today’s society, they have had a big influence in the way DHS carries out its operations. Information relating to terror plots can be communicated through social networks. Mobile phones have had an increasing role in setting off homemade explosives causing a lot of harm and misery. This has led to the DHS coming up with ways to monitor these two technologies. DHs Published a rule stating that persons “social media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information, and search results” were to be added to the said person's immigration history as an official record. 

The cloud has also gained massive traction in the recent past and as a result, DHS has followed suit (Bradshaw, 2016). The DHS has components with different needs thus sought to develop a cloud strategy with different multiple service provider. As such DHS formed a steering group whose function was to make the transition of some of its operations to the cloud as smooth as possible. As of May 2018, 29 DHS application was already hosted in the cloud and 70 more had been marked to be moved to the cloud.

With the increase and ease of data flow, it is now more than ever before very easy to know the individuals you are in search of.  With the availability and expansion of analytics service DHS is capable of segmenting its prospects into even more small sets so as to enable a specific targeting manner and, effectively, get more for their services.  It is even now easier to locate individuals as even by using simple accounts of Google, DHS will be able to know where an individual is from, which browser type the individual is currently using, the way they found someone else, what the individual does, in what duration of time (how long) the individual stays indoors or outdoors, and at what time the individual decides to leave their places of residence.  There are also more methods and technologies which can let someone whittle down that data more for incrementally refining the individual offerings, processes, and approach to different scenarios.

Through the use of innovative BI, DHS has managed to come up with the finest practices of essential management which are a requirement for allowing encrypted interoperability and operability (Greengard, 2018). Such fine practices are key to the development of systems security in which encrypted interoperability can be realized. In addition, planning and coordination which is significant is a must to be undertaken for achieving encrypted interoperability on a scale of a national level. 

The uniqueness of Business Intelligence tools allows one to innovatively deploy the affordable technology. This was crucial for the ambition and for the fast growth of the companies. The business intelligence add-ons helped connect all business stake-holders including customers as well as offer real-time integration across various functionalities and departments. The innovativeness of the BI gave the ability to avail data for important BI insights and for faster delivery of service to stakeholders.

Value added by these changes

Moving some of the DHS operations to the cloud not only improves efficiency but also improves the speed at which things are carried out. DHS is a massive organization with different departments handling sensitive data and operations as such its operations get too beauracratic. Moving some operation to the cloud will cut through the red tape and increase the speed of carrying out some operations. 

Monitoring a person’s social media activities may have far-reaching consequences. Since the practice is mostly carried out to immigrants this might limit their freedom of speech in social networks and also limit their use of the social networks and their mobile phones. On the other hand, the DHS stands to gain more information about an individual, cheaply and faster than they would be using tradition means. 

INDEX

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.1

Database Tools Open up New Revenue Opportunities for Experian Automotive

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.2

RFID Tags Help Automate Data Collection and Use

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.3

Homeland Security Data Integration

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.4

Aviall Lands $3 Billion Deal

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.5

1. Pierce Wood Memorial Hospital Objects

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.6

Multimedia Database Management Systems: A Sampler

APPLICATION CASE W3.1.7

Jimmy Neutron: The “I Can Fix That” Database 

References

Aguzzi, S., Bradshaw. (2016). Definition of a research and innovation policy leveraging Cloud Computing and IoT combination. Luxembourg: Publications Office.

Alex, M. (2016). Technology Resources. [online] SAFECOM. Available at: https://www.dhs.gov/technology [Accessed 31 Aug. 2018].

Hyken, S. (2016). Business: The future is Digital. [online] Walmart moves from Traditional Retailer to High-Tech Innovator. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2017/10/15/walmart-moves-from-traditional-retailer-to-high-tech-innovator/#5fbc273a27bf [Accessed 31 Aug. 2018].

Jennifer, D. (2016). LPWA: Interactive: How Technology is Changing the Customer – and Associate – Experience. [online] Internet of Things. Available at: https://blog.walmart.com/innovation/20170629/interactive-how-technology-is-changing-the-customer-and-associate-experience [Accessed 31 Aug. 2018].

Dodson, N. (2018). The “I Can Fix That” Database. [online] Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268397/ [Accessed 31 Aug. 2018].

Greengard, S. (2007). The internet of things. 5th Ed.