Fundamentals of business analytics Essay Example

a better understanding of demand patterns throughout the year Maximize the workforce by identifying areas of the park that are in need of more staff Questions 1 . What are the problems with the existing system of the Cincinnati Zoo? 2. What are the data that are available to the zoo management and staff? 3. How can these data be used to help the following perform their work better to achieve the business objectives of the Cincinnati Zoo? . Zoo administrators b. Zoo staff 4. What solutions can be provided for the following stakeholders so that the business objectives of Cincinnati Zoo are achieved? Explain in detail the proposed solution for each stakeholder. In each solution, identify which type of analytics will be applied (I. E. , descriptive, predictive or prescriptive). B. Zoo management c. Zoo staff members Currently, Cincinnati Zoo makes use of four separate legacy point-of-sale systems with a single platform to roved data on all admission, membership, retail and food service sales.

To monitor the number of visitors in certain areas, the zoo staff members make their rounds to observe. You have been hired by Cincinnati Zoo to provide them a solution that will enable them achieve their business objectives. IBM Philippines IBM Plaza, Alibis, Guenon City May 2013 Case Analysis 2: Kraft Australia Kraft Foods Australia is a subsidiary of Kraft Foods, the second largest branded food and beverage company in the world. Established in 1926, Kraft Australia is headquartered in Melbourne and has sales revenue of over A$650 million.

The company's flagship brand?vegemite?has long been considered an Australian national icon. For all the diversity in the worldwide consumer products market,

the most successful companies tend to have an important thing in common. They focus on continually improving the business functions that are critical to the consumer products business model, from maintaining vibrant and market-driven product development to having efficient manufacturing and a lean and flexible supply chain. Even more fundamental to consumer-products success, however, is the strength of the relationships companies form tit their customers.

That's why a company's brands, as the embodiment of this bond, represent the most important strategic asset for a consumer products business built on customer loyalty, brands also serve to convey the promise of a consistent and high-quality experience that customers can count on. Maintaining the integrity of this promise?and thus the strength of the brand?is a first level priority for consumer products companies and a key to maintaining and growing market share. The billions of dollars companies spend every year on brand research and advertising attests to the mutinous nature of this challenge.

With demographics constantly changing and new market opportunities opening up, consumer products companies need to not only strengthen their brands, 4 but also ensure that they are in sync with marketplace trends. It was through such an exercise that Kraft Australia (womanhood's. Com. AU) made an important discovery. Its hero brand, Vegemite, has been a beloved fixture in Australian households since it was introduced half a century ago. While its brand remained strong, Kraft found that a large portion of "new' Australians?such as those who immigrated onto Australia?had no relationship with the Vegemite brand.

Seeking to tap into this market potential, Kraft was determined to gain a comprehensive understanding of this group, and more specifically its

beliefs and attitudes toward Vegemite. At the same time, Kraft was also looking to bring its longtime brand message?which featured children as "Happy Little Vegemite"?up to date with changing lifestyles, demographics and usage patterns. Kraft also understood that there were many lapsed users who had grown up on the spread who needed to be reminded of their affinity for the brand. Kraft didn't take such hang lightly.

It was determined to get the deepest possible insights into what consumers were thinking and saying about the Vegemite brand and to tailor a message that would resonate most strongly with those themes. The web offers a wealth of the insights from consumers through web content. There are half a million mentions of Vegemite out of 1. 5 billion posts can provide Kraft the answer that they may need. One of Karat's goals going into the research was to test certain hypotheses about the kind of issues it would address in its upcoming advertising campaign.

An example was whether or not customers were looking or variations to the "classic" Vegemite product, and if so what they should be (e. G. , new flavors, different Jar sizes). Change the branding campaign based on how the consumers view and used Vegemite Identify market opportunities at a very early stage Detect and respond to threats to Karat's brands and corporate reputation Ability to increase sales and customer loyalty through more targeted advertising campaigns 1 . What are the problems that Kraft Australia would like to address? 2. What are the data available that can be used for an analytics solution? . How can these data be used to identify how he

customers view and use Vegemite? 4. What are the possible solutions that can be provided for Kraft Australia to help them solve their problems? 5 Case Analysis 3: Papa Gin's, Based in Deemed, Massachusetts, Papa Gin's, Inc. Is the parent company of the Papa Gin's Pizzeria and Tangelo Grilled Sandwiches restaurant chains. The company operates more than 275 company-owned and franchised Papa Gin's, Tangelo and dual-location restaurants and employs more than 5,000 people across New England.

Both Tangelo and Papa Gin's are committed to providing high-quality products, attentive service, clean, convenient, attractive saturates and a premium value experience for every guest. To maintain competitive advantage and support business growth, the Papa Gin's senior management team decided to rethink its information technology strategy and invest in innovation. The company's IT team was tasked with assessing the existing technology landscape and identifying the areas where new systems and processes could deliver the greatest business value. At that time, we effectively had three main business systems: our JDK Edwards ERP system, our restaurant point-of-sale system and Microsoft Excel, which we used very extensively," explains Martha Libber, Director of Business Systems at Papa Gin's. "Basically, almost everything that wasn't covered by the other two systems was managed in spreadsheets, which meant we had numerous sources of truth' across the organization.

For company-wide processes like budgeting, this was a major problem, because it could take up to four months to consolidate and validate data from all the different spreadsheets and complete the process. Paul Valve, CIO, adds: "We knew that if we could create a single central solution for business analytics, we could standardize and significantly accelerate our planning and

reporting processes. We also realized that it would allow us to analyze operational performance in areas that we had never previously been able to measure accurately - such as pizza When we presented our ideas to the board, they immediately agreed that this should be the top priority in our IT transformation. " "We do a lot of email, SMS and postal marketing where we send coupons to our customers with special deals and offers," explains Paul Valve. With Cons, we can track which coupons are actually being used, so we can see which kinds of deal are most attractive to customers and create the most sales. We recently rated a loyalty program for regular customers which provides rewards that can be used on future orders and, thanks to Cons, we have been able to track its effect on sales. What we've found is that customers who are members of the loyalty program order from us about 33 percent more frequently than those who haven't Joined yet.

So this insight has led to a real drive to encourage customers to sign up. " Consolidate all the data Optimize labor costs while ensuring that restaurants have the right number of staff. Track the time it takes to deliver orders to customers' homes compared to the estimated mime Identify the effectiveness of the loyalty program Identify the order method that works best for the company so that this order method can even be promoted further 1. What were the problems of Papa Gin's, Inc.? 3. What are the possible solutions that can be provided for Papa Gin's, Inc. O help them Case Analysis 4: Boers Stuttgart 3.

What kind of system can be built given the consolidated data? 4. How can business analytics culture be built in the company? Founded in 1860, Boers Stuttgart now employs 300 people and is Rupee's leading stock exchange organization for private investors. With an average share of about 31 percent of the German market (March 2011), the company is Germany's second largest trading centre. In 2009, its overall turnover reached ?105 billion, exceeding last year's result by about 23 percent.

With more than 684,000 listed securities, the exchange has achieved an average daily trading volume of about ?503 million since the beginning of 2011 (March 2011). As a publicly supervised stock exchange, Boers Stuttgart GAG is subject to numerous legal requirements. Compliance with regulations requires complete traceable documentation of all business recesses. As a result of strong organic growth and several recent acquisitions, the company was using a variety of solutions whose data could not be easily analyses without a high level of manual effort.

In particular, it was very difficult to perform ad-housecleans based on current business data to support the market control department in making strategic and operational decisions. Persistent business growth also meant that the data volumes that needed to be processed daily were perpetually increasing. Moreover, new internal and external requirements for reporting and analysis were acquirement cost-effectively with the available methods and tools. Comply to varying reporting requirements 1 . What were the problems of Boers Stuttgart? Case Analysis 5: First Tennessee Analysis Bank The company utilizes the First Tennessee Bank name in the state of Tennessee, its primary market and where it has dominant market share. Outside Tennessee (with the

exception of suburban Memphis within Mississippi and Arkansas, and suburban Chattanooga in Georgia), it utilizes the First Horizon Bank nameplate, the company's official name. First Tennessee is the only major bank headquartered in the Tate. Until recently, it had expanded into Northern batting (2003), Maryland (2003).

The bank is a full-service provider of financial products and services for businesses and consumers. On the path to becoming the Chief Marketing Officer of First Tennessee Bank, Dan Marks has shown all the earmarks of being a "numbers guy. " There's the the numbers?that comes along with being the analytical sort. Do bank marketers have a unique way of thinking, of looking at the world? Marks affirms his belief that they do, but with a caveat. "Within banks, marketing people tend to be great at seeing opportunity and conceptualizing new ideas," explains Marks. But in today's banking market, it's increasingly important to view them with a critical eye, to discern where it makes most sense to focus the banks resources. That's the balance?between creativity and discipline, between art and science? that we need to strike. " What Marks had in mind went beyond budgets to the very heart of First Tennessee marketing processes, with granular metrics and analytics providing the basis for optimization. "Our aim was to shift from the 'marketing-as-an expense' mindset to the idea that racketing is a true profit driver. 8 The market that Marks is talking about is defined not only by increasing competitive intensity, but also by the strategic challenges it presents to banks, not least of which is how to optimally focus marketing resources. Banks offer a more diverse portfolio of services

than before, and they do so over a wider range of channels. While this trend has given banks more latitude to compete, it has made formulating and modulating marketing strategies, tactics and programs considerably more complex. That's because as the range of options has grown?a good thing by any assure?marketing resources are as scarce as ever.

To optimize how they invest them, banks need a way to continually measure their effectiveness, learn what works and adapt over time. For banks today, having more ways to communicate with customers is a good thing. But it has also made it harder for banks to figure out where and how to most profitably commit their marketing resources. Leveraging predictive analytics,