Wednesday, 2 December 2015

CASE STUDY 1: Does Big Data Bring Big rewards

QUESTION 1 : Describe the kinds of big data collected by the organizations described in this case.


There are mainly three kinds of big data collected by the organizations described in this case.

1. Sears Holding

·         It has customer databases up to 60 million which is the most by any company in United States afer Boeing Corporation

·         It has the data of all its customers and in a survey sears is known for the company holding big data more effectively

·      In 2011 Sears launched a new program called rewards loyalty program which enables them to collect 100% data of the customers.

·         it started to invest in new technologies and invested a lot in cloud and other technologies.

·         It turned on to a new technology known as Apache Hadoop technology which can run on any plat form.

·         Using this all the processing of any item can be done in a week

2.      New York City Police Department (NYPD)


•     City Crime and Criminal Data warehouse contains millions of data points on city crime and                  criminal

•     U.S State and federal law enforcement agencies are analyzing big data to discover hidden                   patterns in criminal activity. The Real Time Crime Center data warehouse contains millions of            data points on city crime and criminals.

•     The Real Time Crime Center contains data on over 120 million criminal complaints, 31 million            criminal crime records and 33 billion public records.

3.      Vestas

•      Location data, prospective turbine locations.

•      Vesta’s wind library currently stores data on perspective turbine location and global weather               system.

•      Vestas implemented a solution consisting of IBM InfoSphere BigInsights software running on a           high-performance IBM System x iDataPlex server.


4.      Hertz


•         Data of consumer sentiment

•        A car rental Hetrz using big data solution to analyze consumer sentiment from Web surveys,             emails, text message, Web site traffic patterns and data generated at all of Hertz’s 8300 locations          in 146 countries.

•      Hertz was able to reducing time spent processing data and improving company response time to           customer feedback and changes in sentiment.


5. Autozone

  • It uses big data to adjust their inventory across their stores.
  • Any person couldn’t find his/her desired product can be found in all the other stores of the company.
  • It has the database of the cars which are driven by the people surrounding their store



QUESTION 2 : List and describe the business intelligence technologies described in this case.


1.      IBM BigSheets


•   IBM BigSheets is a cloud application used to perform ad hoc analytical at web scale on unstructured and structured content.
•     IBM Bigsheets is an insight engine that helps extract, annotate, and visually analyze vast amounts of unstructured Web data, delivering the results via a Web browser. For example, users can see search results in a pie chart.
•      State and federal law enforcement agencies are analyzing big data to discover hidden patterns in criminal activity such as correlations between time, opportunity, and organizations, or non-obvious relationships between individuals and criminal organizations that would be difficult to uncover in smaller data sets.
•       IBM BigSheets built atop the Hadoop framework, so it can process large amounts of data quickly and efficiency.

2.      Real Time Crime Center (RTTC)


•       The Real Time Crime Center (RTCC) is a centralized technology center for the New York (NYPD) and Houston Police Departments.
•       RTCC data warehouse contains millions of data points on city crime and criminals and billion of public records.
•     The systems search capabilities allow the NYPD to quickly obtain data from any of these data sources.
•     Information on criminals. Such as suspect’s photo with details of past offences or addresses with maps, can be visualized in seconds on a video wall or install relayed to officers at a crime scene.


3.      IBM InfoSphere BigInsights


•       IBM InfoSphere BigInsights brings the power of Hadoop to the enterprise. Apache Hadoop is the open source   software framework, used to reliably managing large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
•     Vestas increased the size of its wind library and is able manage and analyze location and weather data with models that are much more powerful and precise.
•     It implemented a solution consisting of IBM InfoSphere BigInsights software running on a high-performance IBM System x iDataPlex server.


QUESTION 3 : Why did the companies described in this case need to maintain and analyze? What business benefits did they obtain? 


1.      The British Library

The British Library needed to maintain and analyze big data because :

i) Traditional data management methods proved inadequate to archive billions of Web pages and legacy analytics tools couldn’t extract useful knowledge from such quantities of data.

2.      New York Police Department (NYPD)

NYPD need to maintain and analyze big data because :

i) Allow the NYPD quickly respond on the criminals occurred.
ii) Help NYPD to obtain sources of the suspects, such as suspect’s photo, past offences or addresses        with maps, can be visualized in seconds on a video wall.

3.      Vestas

Vestas need to maintain and analyze big data because :

Vestas is the world’s largest wind energy company.
i) Location data are important to Vestas so that can accurately place its turbines.
ii) Areas without enough wind will not generate the necessary power.
iii)Area with too much wind may damage the turbines.

Therefore, Vesta relies on location-based data to determine the best spots to install their turbines.
 Vesta’s Wind Library currently stores 2.8 petabytes od data.

4.      Hertz

Car rental giant Hertz need to maintain and analyze big data because :

i)  Reducing time spent processing data.
ii) Improving company response time to customer feed back.
iii)Hertz was able to determine that delays were occurring for returns in Philadelphia during specific time of the day.
iv) Enhanced Hertz’s performance and increased customer satisfaction.

What business benefits did they obtain?

The business benefits for maintaining and analyzing big data are as follows :
1.      Competitive advantages
2.      Performance Enhancement
3.      Increase customer satisfaction
4.      Attract more customer and generate more revenue
5.      Improved decision making (faster & accurate)
6.      Excellence operational
7.      Reduced cost and time spent


QUESTION 4 : Identify three decisions that were improved by using big data.


1.      Optimal uses of resources and operational time


By using the big data, the companies can optimal uses of their resources to enhance performance. Vestas can forecast optimal turbine placement in 15 minutes instead of three weeks, saving a months of development time for turbine site.

2.      Quick and effective decision making


Decision making improves and can be quickly and effective by using big data. Visitor of The British Library and NYPD can quickly and effective searches data from the British Library Web sites. NYPD can make a faster decision to gather the suspect’s detail by using The Real Time Crime Center.

3.      Reduce operational cost and other related cost


Company quickly make the right decision and hence will eliminate wrong decision. Example, Hertz was able quickly adjust staffing levels at its Philadelphia office during those peak times, ensuring a manager was present to resolve any issues.


QUESTION 5 : What kinds of organizations are most likely to need big data management and analytical tools? Why?


1.  Organizations which responsible to store the huge information such as national library, registration department, income tax and so on 
because these organizations typically be a sources for government and the public.

2.    Authorities Organization such a police department, custom, immigration 
because they need to store a big data about criminals and also public to use for safety of the society.

3.   Organization to go green need the big data about the weather and location 
because the weather and location data are very useful for the companies to accurately make a decision.

In this case, Vestas needed the data about location and wind to locate their turbines

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

CASE STUDY 2: “New Systems and Business Processes Put MoneyGram On the Money”

Main point: After it was determined that MoneyGram needed to change some of its business processes and update it’s outdated information systems, MoneyGram changed to an enterprise wide information system and a cross-functional workgroup policy which has saved th company millions of dollars.


MoneyGram selected Oracle E-Business Suite  which consists of enterprise wide  resource planning (ERP) software, customer relationship management (CRM) system, and supply chain management (SCM) software.


QUESTIONS

  1.  1. What are the advantages and challenges of using an enterprise-wide software suite such as Oracle E-Business Suite in a global company such as MoneyGram?
MoneyGram uses and automated financial management system to handles 100s of 1000s of money transfer transactions each day and ensures that all of the retail stores, banks and other MoneyGram agents, receive proper financial settlement and commissions for each money transfer.

     MoneyGram’s managers made changes in staff responsibilities to make employees more aware of the company’s business processes and ways to improve them. Employees were instructed to understand each step in the business processes that they were part of, instead of their own individual job function. The company used numerous Webinars and other tools to show employees how business processes were being altered.Consists of enterprise resource planning (ERP),customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management applications using Oracle’s relational database management system. Oracle Incentive Compensation module automates the process of designing, administering and analyzing variable compensation programs. Oracle software was capable of handling the customization work required to integrate with the processes used. Oracle system included capabilities for creating, viewing and managing customer information online. Making it easier to process more customer transaction and settlements with agents and billers to update company’s General LedgR

2. How much did the new system change the way MoneyGram ran its business?

New Oracle system allows MoneyGram to configure the processes easily simply by adjusting current existing parameters instead of coding or developing new software.
Centralized data are up-to-date an d easily available and save time. It is cost savings. Implementation of Oracle E-Business Suite, company can now handle more transactions without having to hire additional staff.

Saturday, 21 November 2015


NEW SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS PROCESSES PUT MONEYGRAM “ON THE MONEY”


SUMMARY
MoneyGram is the second largest money transfer business in the world, with 293,000 agent locations and 2,350 employees in 197 countries and territories. Most of MoneyGram’s money transfer services are provided through its worldwide network of third-party agents. In 2012, MoneyGram generated over $1.3 billion in revenue. In many locations, customers can collect funds in local currency, U.S dollars and euros. In some markets, customers also have the option to send and receive money through alternative channels such as online services, mobile phones, ATMs, kiosks, call centers, and home delivery.
For the technology, MoneyGram selected Oracle’s E-Business Suite with the Oracle Incentives Compensation module. Oracle’s E-Business Suite consists of enterprise resources
planning(ERP), customer relationship management(CRM), and supply-chain management(SCM) applications using Oracle’s relational database management system.

MoneyGram still uses global process owners or GPOs in its operations, along with subprocess owners (SPOs), who are responsible for handling day-to-day activities and problems. The company can now handle more transactions without having to hire additional staff.