Business Intelligence (BI) entails a set of data, applications, processes and technologies useful in making business decisions (McBride, 2015). BI is not only used in financial managements but finds a wide range of applicability in a business setting. It can be applied in aspects such as: evaluating staff performance, assessing sales and determining the effectiveness of manufacturing processes. In this paper, Business Intelligence will be discussed with close reference to Woolworth’s limited company. The BI tools used by the stated company will be discussed and an assessment of their contribution to the success of the company done. Additionally, an opinion based on the relevance of the BI tools will also be given. Lastly, the main factors that influence the success of BI in the company will be outlined. This paper will provide a clear reflection of the expected outcomes for reference to any company considering to integrate BI in its running.
Woolworths Limited is a top Australian company established in 1924 in Sydney (Woolworth Group, 2015). The Woolworths are dealers in supermarkets, petrol, liquor, hotels, gaming and financial services amongst other provisions. Financially it is the second largest company and the overall in liquor retailing and hotel services. This company is not in any way related to other companies bearing a similar name located in the United States and South Africa.
The Woolworths Limited has engaged various tools to provide critical business information. Such tools include HP Neoview, Teradata, Informatica, SAS and SAP (Gedda, 2009). Each of the stated tools is limited to a specific field in order to drive the business to its full potential. The HP Neoview technique was meant to provide the predictions about store operations which are necessary for quality customer service. The Teradata contract was signed in to integrate the gradually heightening customer data. Informatica was engaged in integrating the company’s data while SAS and SAP were for business analytics and business objects for reporting respectively.
The Woolworths Limited has been ranked number two out of the two thousand top companies in Australia. This premium status involved a great effort both by the management and the employees. This company has expanded in time providing unlimited services to its customers. The Woolworths are not limited to a single business specialization as it is the case for many companies. The involvement in a wide range of businesses is a key reason for the continuous successes. The locals have experienced the gradual success of the company from 1924 when it first set up the first single Stupendous Bargain Basement.
The Woolworths incur lesser labor costs as compared to other companies (Johnson, 2011). BI saves the costs and time which would have been invested in manually analyzing the institutional data. Minimal time and resources are required to reach the quality and reliable business decisions. BI systems reduce labor costs by automating data collection methods, report generation and saving the finances that would have been used to hire the required personnel for acquiring and maintaining important business reports.
The BI has provided the Woolworths with the opportunity to harness crucial information at their convenience. The information needed can easily be traced from the systems. The executives do not require to engage the IT personnel to extract financial reports. The systems as well allow enabling authorized users to make new reports to satisfy their requirements.
The application of Business Intelligence has not only created more opportunity for the expansion of the company but also quality services to its customers. The analysis of the past and the current trends to provide future insights gives the management the ability to make the correct decisions for prosperity. The company can identify any evading dangers and address them before their consequences occur.
BI has created a competitive advantage in the market space (Huang, 2011). BI integrated with the internet provides an analysis of the customer and market trends making the Woolworths adjust quickly to suit into the contemporary trends. Profiling customers achieved through the integration of their data helps the Woolworths to identify the most valuable customers and to determine how to cross-sell and up-sell. Through Business Performance Management (BPI), the company can classify products according to their demand to either do away with them or conduct support promotions to curb competition.
Woolworths no longer depends on guesswork to make critical business decisions. The huge amounts of data collected support decision making. Previously, the management was entrusted with the mandate to make the best guess or whatever seemed to be good for the business. The availability of data analysis software has helped to move from a gambling business game to certainty while making decisions (Fazlollahtabar, 2012). With this accurate data is engaged to reach reliable and informed decisions.
BI is a key tool in cost-benefit analysis. Techniques in BI help the Woolworths to easily compare the costs and the benefits associated with the adoption of a proposed project. It provides an insight of the capital input and an estimate of the anticipated output (Farrow, 2015). With this, the company has been able to minimize the production costs maximizing the profits.
BI has helped the Woolworths to identify and understand the customer needs. An analysis of the sales through BI has shown the preferred goods in order of their preference. This helps the company to appropriately stock their goods. Being familiar with customer preferences prompts the meeting of customers’ needs. The long-term effect of this is retention of customers. Satisfied customers often translate to increased revenue.
Customer satisfaction is a backbone to any prospering business. The adoption of BI by the Woolworths has improved the customer experience and enhanced the company’s reputation. Customers feel contended and elevated when their voices are heard.
It is a common phenomenon to see large queues of customers lined up in Woolworths retails to acquire goods or services. Ideally, Business Intelligence tools create awareness to the management on the customer preferences and their fulfillments (Virtanen, 2015). The aim the Woolworths to enhance customer satisfaction calls for customer-centered business practices. The company has therefore established favorable marketing strategies which make the customers keep coming for more.
Several factors have to be considered to ensure a perfect environment for the success of BI. Such factors include well-established partnerships between the business and the IT, the readiness to accept change, adoption of the most current methodologies, executive involvement, clear cut business problems and a reliable architecture. The observation of these factors often translates to a transformation in the business.
In order to make BI a success in the Woolworths Company, an intimate relationship should be put in place (Yeoh, 2011). The company should ensure that the IT personnel are well versed with the data records in order to ensure more accurate decisions. The company as well should carefully choose its technology options. This does not necessarily mean that they should engage the technologies which have their existing software packages. An evaluation should be done to identify the technology that will best suit the company.
The Woolworths ought to be quick to adjust to the changes and new processes. The business and the IT are obliged to move to the new environment proposed by the BI analysis (Yeoh, 2015). The Woolworths have always been easy to change to fit with the current trends. This ensures more profitable deals at minimum costs. Delays made in the implementation of the proposed decisions will cause harm to the business and the customers. This defines the key role of performance in the soonest timeframe possible.
To attain the best out of BI, the Woolworths have ensured engagement of competent executives. This determines how well the implementation of decisions will be done.
The executives have knowledge on BI and help to get the reporting requirements right. They are part of the business and always propel it towards success.
The Woolworths have always been keen to identify the problems affecting the business. This is vital to guide the IT personnel in the areas of specialization. This forms a basis for the application of the BI software which makes it easy to reach the recommended decisions in time. The development of reliable software has also helped the Woolworths to flourish in BI.
Conclusion
Small business should as well be encouraged to engage in BI practices. The fear of the high monetary and time costs often puts them off. The fear of whether the practice will draw benefits in their businesses is also a key hindrance. However, research has proved beyond limits that there are more benefits associated with BI than risks. Advantages of BI cut across almost all business sectors. Such include decision-making, profit adjustments, competitive adjustments and the quality of customer services. These encompass all the factors for business success. With BI, any business can easily be driven to a higher revenue ranking.
The goal of every for-profit organization is to realize the highest profit possible. The achievement of the profitability goal will depend on both internal and external operations of the company. Similarly, the operations of the company will depend on the business model adopted by the company. There are various tools that the organization can use to manage their operations effectively. Business Intelligent makes the category of one of the best tools that have been applied by the companies to claim a competitive advantage in the market (Al-ma’aitah 2013, p. 988). Make It Work Inc. gives a perfect example of how the intelligent business tool can help the organization claim a large market share with the satisfaction of the customers’ needs within a very short span of time. This report will use an example of Make It Work Inc. to explain the reasons for the development of the business intelligence projects. The report will also explore the outcomes which come as the result of the implementation of the business intelligence project.
From the case analysis of Make It Work Inc., business intelligence projects are associated with the numerous benefits. Despite that projects can be time-consuming the benefits attributable to them outweighs the costs of implementing them. The applicability of the business intelligence does not depend on with the size of the business. Just like how to Make It Work Inc. adopted the model when it was an only two-employee company any other small business can emulate the case study company. By putting into consideration the benefits enjoyed by the Make It Work Inc. from the usage of business intelligence in its projects, this report holds that one of the major reasons to adopt business intelligence it because of the advantages associated with it.
According to Kursan & Mihi (2010, p. 72), business intelligence helps the organizations when making strategic decisions. It is through business intelligence projects whereby the company can obtain crucial information from the huge amount of unclassified data and convert them into information that it can act upon. Horakova & Skalska (2013, p. 53) supported that business intelligence teams help the organization to obtain advanced real-time reports that facilitate the company to use information to make informed business decisions.
Outcomes: The same way the applicability of business intelligence has improved the efficiency of Make It Work Inc. it helps the organizations in strategic decision-making proficiency an act which results in increased business productivity and improvement of the overall operation efficiency.
From the case study of Make It, Work Inc.it is clear that business intelligence helps in boosting the company’s sales. Shehzad & Khan (2013, p. 86) noted that customers are the reason why organizations continue with their operations. Without customers, businesses will not have a source of revenue, and hence they will be forced to terminate their operations. Business intelligence systems help in understand the customers better. Through the applicability of the business intelligence system, the company can obtain the data about all the customers with ease. The company will use this information to determine which customers will be attracted by particular types of brands and offers. Then, the company targets the selected customers to maximize their sales.
Outcomes: Prospective and more existing customers are attracted to the new company brands which they had not bought before. This was the case for the Make It Work Inc. which expanded its market share to almost the whole of California within the very span of short time.
Business Intelligence enables good returns on the company’s invested resources. Make It Work Inc. enjoyed excessive profits and expanded its operations to the whole of South California. Muhammad, et al. (2014, p. 28) noted that business that applies business intelligence have high chances of reducing the costs of operation because of the optimized business processes and improved operational efficiency.
Outcomes: Business intelligence projects results to the improvement of processes efficiency and the overall business performance. Other results associated with the increased profits include improvement of the employees’ productivity due to satisfaction, customers’ satisfaction, and informed strategic decision making.
From the case study of Make It Work Inc. inventory control and management is an important aspect of the company. Good inventory management avoids the shortages and delays in the markets when the customers are need of the products. Besides, well-planned inventory management helps the company to run the business efficiently leading to the increased profits and cash flows. All these benefits can be achieved by the application of the business intelligence in the company projects. Business intelligence helps in reducing the excessive inventory and in turn the cost of maintaining it. Business intelligence provides a good dashboard of the available stock for the customers to make a decision which product to buy and when. This helps from keeping products in the warehouse that might not be needed by the customers.
Outcomes: Reduced costs of maintaining the additional products in the warehouse will transform the increased company profits.
Make It Work Inc. IT enabled real-time responses helped in improving the customers’ satisfaction. According to Olszak & Zurada (2015, p. 145) having a great may not enough time to meet the needs of the customers satisfactorily if is not tied to improved customer service. The use of business intelligence system enables the company to collect surveys about customer satisfaction. The company then analyzes the survey results with efforts to address any variance that might have resulted to the customer dissatisfaction. The system also notifies the dissatisfaction of the customer to the company service team that will follow up and resolve the issues being raised by the customer.
Outcomes: Increased customer satisfaction and maintaining of the existing customers.
Conclusion
Business intelligence is the key component of achieving performance management. It should be noted that performance management depends on the business decision making. Business intelligence is an effective tool for strategic decision making. These decisions must be timely and targeted to the key operations of the business. Therefore, with business intelligence system the overall growth of the business will be realized.
References
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Huang, K.-F., 2011. Technology competencies in a competitive environment. Journal of Business Research, pp. 172-179.
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Shehzad, R. & Khan, M. A., 2013. Integrating Knowledge Management with Business Intelligence Processes for Enhanced Organizational Learning. International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications, 7(2), pp. 83-90.
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