MBAC/D 698. Spring 2012
Objective:
HW Assignment 1: Identifying BI Scope and Processes in Organizations
This individual assignment is worth 6% of the course grade
Due Date – 2//11/11 (Saturday) by 11:59 p.m. via MyLMUConnect
To identify the various pieces needed to plan a BI system within a particular
area/application within an organization.
To identify the steps needed to plan a BI system and to create an outline of a plan for a
BI system as well as intended users for such BI system.
To develop the skills of understanding an organizational BI system from external
indicators.
Assignment: The associated (in the folder called Cases under Content button in MyLMUConnect)
articles and cases describe various BI applications including use of CRM for supporting
relationship marketing strategy, customer service, and targeting new business
opportunities. Based on these articles, and the communications that you receive through
your mails (both snail mail and e-mails) pick a company where you think either BI is
working really well, or BI module should be implemented for any of the above activities (or
similar) or for an area of your choice within the company. If you are doing a customer
facing BI, then I expect you to also use the zip code data and PRIZM for market
segmentation and classification. You can also use other data that you deem relevant and
have access to, to show how they can be used for creating the BI for the above areas or
the area of your choice.
Guidelines:
Read the assigned cases to get an understanding of the various BI applications.
Start with a communication item or message you have received from a company (bank
and credit card offers are excellent resources, but you can also choose airlines, hotels,
vacation packages, etc.) that is marketing in nature. List the things that you like and
dislike in the offer.
Once you have selected the company, read up a little bit on it to identify the overall
strategy of the company (low cost, differentiation, etc.).
Try to determine why you received that communication/message – what was their goal in
sending you that message?
Imagine yourself as the BI head of the organization. What would have been the various
outputs (think KPIs) that you would like this business to keep track of (both internal and
external facing) for better performance (you can limit yourself to one area, for example,
CRM for this part)?
Link the outputs that you have to the strategy of the organization explaining why these
are needed for effective pursuit of the strategy.
Identify the possible sources of data inputs that can generate these outputs as well as the
collection methods and the form of the data.
Who will be the intended users for these outputs (both internally and externally)? For the
internal users, at what level of the companies do they operate? Do you think there are
other peripheral users who can benefit from these? How would you give them access to
the proposed BI system?
What are some of the organizational issues (again both internal as well as external
facing) that must be taken into consideration for successful implementation of the system
that you envision? Justify why these factors are important.
List the set of tools, technologies and capabilities that will be needed for this system (you
can use the framework that describes different parts of BI) and possible vendors/software
for those tools. You have to do some research on your own to identify the vendors.
Based on all of the analysis above create a short business/case report for the CIO of the
organization convincing why your proposed BI plan should be implemented.
Deliverables: A formal report (approximately 6-10 pages) describing your analysis by 11:59 p.m. of
2/11/11 (Saturday). You can include sanitized copies of the communications used to get
the analysis started. What are the environmental data that could have been or should be
used for this particular BI application?
All files associated with the deliverables must be submitted electronically via
MyLMUConnect in .doc, xls, ppt and/or .pdf formats using the Homework 1 link
under the Assignments.
More Notes: This assignment is also intended to help you think about the elements that should go into
the planning process of a BI system as well as to reverse engineer a system based on
what is observable about the system from the outside. This is a necessary skill that helps
you understand what your competitors are doing in this area.
Please proofread your work to ensure that they are free of typographical errors and
grammatical errors. There is NO allowance for late submission – penalty is 100%.