Group AA Chapter 8 Case Study 1 PDF

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case study chapter 8...

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ISYS 363 Group AA

Chapter 8 Case Study 1: Mining the Data Warehouse 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 business intelligence to track the ingredients and life of each pint. Their business intelligence can also keep track if a consumer calls in with a complaint or what kind of supplier’s milk, eggs and cherries was used in the ice cream. The BI helps Ben & Jerry “access, analyze, and act on customer information collected by the sales, finance, purchasing and qualityassurance department”. The BI software can also help the company improve their ice cream and determine which flavor is rated the highest and the best by their customers. Ben and Jerry's promotes their ice cream by giving away their products year round for customers to try their new flavors. By doing this, they can both promote their brand and have people try it out. If they like it, it's a win-win for the company.

2. Identify why information cleansing is critical to California Pizza Kitchen's business intelligence tool's success. Information cleansing is critical to California Pizza Kitchen’s business because using outdated software can be detrimental to any company’s future forecasting. Using outdated technology where the spreadsheets have the inability to link directly can increase costs and increase the risk of losing necessary information. With over 130 restaurants, California Pizza Kitchen needs to make reporting their financial information as simple and risk-free as possible. With that many restaurants, mistakes are bound to happen, using information cleansing is a good way for their records to be clean and error-free.

3. Illustrate why 100 percent accurate and complete information is impossible for Noodles & Company to obtain. They are not going to be able to obtain 100 percent accurate information because they compiled all reporting from numerous departments together—making accurate unobtainable. When broadly looking at reports, a user should be able to specifically identify what department are generating losses and gains. Departments such as sales and human resources should be illustrated as completely different entities of a business, not as one—their performance and functions serve entirely different purposes.

4. Describe how each of the companies above is using BI to gain a competitive advantage. All companies listed above are using BI to put their company in a favorable position in order to gain a competitive advantage in the market. For example, Ben & Jerry’s is excelling in quality customer service with their ability to trace specific qualities about their ice cream, such as the type of milk or ingredients used. Ben & Jerry’s use of BI helps them forecast their successful items, helping cut costs while increasingly improving customer service. Similarly, California Pizza Kitchen uses BI to link financial reporting, which helps makes forecasting easier. As the top leading pizza restaurant in the U.S, with over 130 restaurant locations, using BI helps financing their new locations easier, helping the overall growth of the company. Noodles and Company uses BI to help benefit their management department, helping create a 360 view of the business and consistent reporting throughout the enterprise....