If, as we noted, knowledge management represents accessing and using information existing within the firm, then it must be complemented with so-called "business intelligence" representing other information existing in the firm's environment. And neither of them is worth much unless supplemented with the kind of deep understanding embodied in what are called "business analytics". The nature of these tools, and their ties to the underlying information to which they are applied, are the subject of much current business interest. In this case, we take a look at some of the attitudes and ideas about analytics and business intelligence in light of the general problems of knowledge management. A good place to start would be this general review of the issues of analytics and their application:

Staples, S. (2009). Analytics: Unlocking value in business intelligence (BI) initiatives. CIO. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://www.cio.com/article/489257/Analytics_Unlocking_Value_in_Business_Intelligence_BI_Initiatives

A few years ago, Tom Davenport, one of the chief gurus of knowledge management, wrote a piece entitled "Competing with Analytics", arguing that businesses could develop serious competitive advantage by understanding their information better. This has not really developed according to plan, as the second source here notes. Please review these two points of view of the basis for what follows:

Davenport, T.H., & Harris, J. G. (2006) Competing with analytics, Harvard Business Review . Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/peopleready/Competing%20on%20Analytics.pdf

Samild, S. (2011) Tom Davenport: Why aren?t most organisations competing on analytics? Analyst First. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://analystfirst.com/2011/09/02/1001/tom-davenport-why-aren%E2%80%99t-most-organisations-competing-on-analytics/

One reason, of course, is that the world keeps changing, both in terms of business realities and technological possibilities. The Gartner Group is one of the consulting firms most known for trying to keep up with trends; here is their latest take on what's going on in the knowledge management area (just listen to the recording; you don't need to pay money to download their actual report):

Gartner Group (2011) Gartner Predicts 2012. Talking Technology Series. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/predicts/

When you've had a chance to read and listen to this material and perhaps review information from the background readings and research other sources on your own, please prepare a 3-5 page paper on the topic:

?Current business and technology conditions that complicate effective application of business analytics to business intelligence and knowledge management data, and the prospects for improvement?



CASE EXPECTATIONS:
Your paper should be between three and five pages. Take a definite stand on the issues, and develop your supporting argument carefully. Using material from the background information and any other sources you can find to support specific points in your argument is highly recommended; try to avoid making assertions for which you can find no support other than your own opinion.

knowledge management represents accessing and using information existing within the firm, then it must be complemented with so-called "business intelligence" representing other information existing in the firm's environment. And neither of them is worth much unless supplemented with the kind of deep understanding embodied in what are called "business analytics". The nature of these tools, and their ties to the underlying information to which they are applied, are the subject of much current business interest. In this case, we take a look at some of the attitudes and ideas about analytics and business intelligence in light of the general problems of knowledge management. A good place to start would be this general review of the issues of analytics and their application:

Staples, S. (2009). Analytics: Unlocking value in business intelligence (BI) initiatives. CIO. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://www.cio.com/article/489257/Analytics_Unlocking_Value_in_Business_Intelligence_BI_Initiatives

A few years ago, Tom Davenport, one of the chief gurus of knowledge management, wrote a piece entitled "Competing with Analytics", arguing that businesses could develop serious competitive advantage by understanding their information better. This has not really developed according to plan, as the second source here notes. Please review these two points of view of the basis for what follows:

Davenport, T.H., & Harris, J. G. (2006) Competing with analytics, Harvard Business Review . Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://download.microsoft.com/documents/uk/peopleready/Competing%20on%20Analytics.pdf

Samild, S. (2011) Tom Davenport: Why aren?t most organisations competing on analytics? Analyst First. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://analystfirst.com/2011/09/02/1001/tom-davenport-why-aren%E2%80%99t-most-organisations-competing-on-analytics/

One reason, of course, is that the world keeps changing, both in terms of business realities and technological possibilities. The Gartner Group is one of the consulting firms most known for trying to keep up with trends; here is their latest take on what's going on in the knowledge management area (just listen to the recording; you don't need to pay money to download their actual report):

Gartner Group (2011) Gartner Predicts 2012. Talking Technology Series. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/predicts/

When you've had a chance to read and listen to this material and perhaps review information from the background readings and research other sources on your own, please prepare a 3 page paper on the topic:

?Current business and technology conditions that complicate effective application of business analytics to business intelligence and knowledge management data, and the prospects for improvement?

Answer the 10 questions listed below. The answer to each question should be one page DOUBLE SPACED (including the question at the top of the page). If you use any external sources for any part of the answer, please indicate the source reference.

1. You are a business consultant at trade show trying to persuade a variety of different businesses to introduce Business Intelligence tools into its business. Identify and describe three arguments you would use to persuade businesses of the general value that Business Intelligence offers to most companies.

2. You are the CIO who has just returned from a trade show on Business Intelligence technologies and are pretty excited about what you saw there. How would you go about assessing how to incorporate Business Intelligence solutions into your specific business environment to achieve a successful result? How would you measure the success of your implementation?

3. Many Business Intelligence solutions are based on the use of a data warehouse. Please describe the components of a data warehouse both logically and physically (you can use a diagram that you create). Include a description of the process involved in moving data from source systems to the data warehouse (e.g. ETL). Describe how the data is presented to the user for querying and reporting.

4. What is the difference between a relational database design (ERD) and a dimensional database design. Provide a detailed example of a dimensional model.

5. Business analytics covers three general categories of data analysis: information and technology support, decision support and intelligent systems, and visualization. Identify and discuss two examples from each category.

6. What are the steps involved in effective decision making and how can business intelligence assist in helping executive and managers make better strategic and operational decisions?

7. The book No Place to Hide discusses several privacy issues related to the collection of data on individuals. Do you think that the environment described in the book reflects a good balance of the government need to know and individual privacy? Why or why not?

8. What is the difference between Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management? Describe the BPM process that links strategy to execution and provide an example of how the process would work in a real world business.

9. Poor data quality can be introduced into a business intelligence system in a number of ways. Identify and describe the paths that bad quality can travel into your system and steps you could take to prevent or correct the bad data.

10. Choose either real-time data analytics or artificial neural networks and explain how they change the focus of traditional business intelligence. Give examples to support your explanation.

Essay-1

1 Where do you see opportunities for your current company/organization to utilize business analytics to increase its competitive advantage? Describe an example.

Please write 1 page for each essay question.

Essay questions:

1: The Fargus Benevolent Fund is a regional specialty insurance company providing weekly-premium health insurance primarily to lower-income customers. They currently operate on a large mini-computer system that they have had for 18 years (with upgrades). All computing is handled at the home office where the mini resides. Agents in multiple cities keep many records themselves in paper ledgers and periodically mail or fax reports to the home office. The system tracks customers, payments and benefits and also performs organizational administrative computing such as payroll, commission tracking, GL and AP. The mini will continue to be supported by its manufacturer for some time, and the software works adequately for what it does. However some executives in the organization want to totally revamp the current computing infrastructure. Others oppose this move. Make compelling arguments for BOTH positions. Your discussion should be couched in terms of (at a minimum) business process reengineering, change management, and short and long term strategic and tactical advantage.

2: Your Vice President is concerned that other firms in your industry may be using IT in such a way that your organization may find itself at a competitive disadvantage. He has asked you to prepare a paper identifying the issues associated with using IT for competitive advantage. He is quite concerned that any advantage that IT may confer would be purely temporary. Advise him based on dealing with IT and competitive advantage.

3: The president of X company, foremost manufacturer of Ydgets in Nevada found a copy of The World is Flat on an empty seat beside him on a long flight from Brussels. Now he is literally panting to participate in the flat world. Based on the engineering and manufacture of Ydgets, how would you advise him? What are the potential benefits and pitfalls of outsourcing the various functions of his organization? What technology will the organization need to participate; what skills?

4: Discuss the 2 cases sent separately that can benefit from knowledge management and/or business analytics. What are the pros and cons and potential problems and success factors of the required technology in the specific context of the cases? The context will probably involve some form of distributed organization which will require you to speak intelligently about distributed architectures for data collection.

5: Discuss the problems and possible solutions in terms of human vs. machine centered design, socio-technical factors, impacts of computerization on the workplace, deskilling, retraining, change management, employee involvement, commitment, resistance. . . for a high-impact system implementation in a small enterprise conducted in a manner that is technically correct but inappropriate for the company culture. Many bad effects follow the implementation including very high personnel turnover.

6: Design an Enterprise Architecture and Infrastructure for Org X
[Information on Org X: what they do, how they do it, where they do it, their current IT architecture and infrastructure and their long and short term business strategy.]

Design an IT architecture and an infrastructure for Org X that will support their current operations and that will cost effectively scale to encompass their mid-term vision for the organization (as expressed above).

Structure your answer under five separate headings (bullet points are better than long, rambling narrative):

1. Strategic goals
2. Business requirements (from strategic goals)
[Use the Hardware/Software/Network/Data analysis framework from the textbook for 3 and 4.]
3. Architecture (high level specifications to satisfy business requirements)
4. Infrastructure (high-level suggestions for implementation of the architecture ??" that is types of hardware and software required. Note that you do not have enough information to give detailed specifics. The answer to this question will be in the form of suggestions OR questions that need to be answered to make the implementation determination.)
5. Discussion of how the final infrastructure satisfies both the current and mid-term IT requirements of the organization. List and justify all key assumptions.

These are the case studies for Essay #4
Case Study
E STUDY 12-1
GSD&MS VIRTUAL CROWD USES ANALYTICS
Advertising giant GSD&M has always been on the leading edge at its home, Idea City, in
Austin, Texas. This time they are using virtual simulation and collaboration to help their
clients develop advertising strategies. They have created a virtual marketplace to help test messages,media, and audiences. One of their managers, Maury Giles, head of accountability and analytics, describes it this way In the same way you can create SimCity, you can create a virtual marketplace. Instead of spending $30 million on a campaign, youre not sure is going to work, you can try it and run it. . .Its like a simulation of what would happen if we spend this money on this message with this group of people. The technology lets GSD&M managers set up a simulated population of as many customers as they want. They set up rules, such as what percent likes what products in themarket, what city they live in, what their network of friends looks like, what the economy looks like, and what competitors are doing. The system uses its database to simulate customer behavior. For example, a simulation would help a customer decide if they should use the Web, TV, radio, or some combination to create the results they seek. Its a tool to help make marketing decisions, but managers must still make those decisions. Although it may take four to six months to set up a simulation, the results are compelling. One manager said that the predictions from their system are within 95% of what actually happens.

Case Study
CASE STUDY 12-2
THE BRAIN BEHIND THE BIG, BAD BURGER
At a time when most fast-food restaurants were touting nutrition, Hardees proudly
introduced the Monster Thickburger. This burger boasts a phenomenal 1420 calories and
107 grams of fat. It consists of two, one-third-pound charbroiled 100% Angus beef patties, three slices of American cheese, a dollop of mayonnaise, and four crispy strips of bacon on a toasted buttery sesame seed bun. What on earth was CKE Restaurants, the owners of the Hardees chain, thinking? Because of its Business Intelligence System (BIS), CKE was confident about introducing the Monster Thickburger across the United States on November 15, 2004. A BIS uses data mining, analytical processing, querying, and reporting to process a businesss data and derive insights from it. CKEs BIS, known ironically inside the company as CPR (CKE Performance Reporting) monitored the performance of its Monster Thickburger in test markets to ensure that the burger contributed to increases in sales and profits at restaurants without cannibalizing sales of other more modest burgers. To do so, CKEs BIS studied a variety of factors??"such as menu mixes, Monster Thickburger production costs, average unit volumes for the Monster Thickburger compared with other burgers, gross profits and total sales for each of the test stores, and the contribution that each menu item (including theMonster Thickburger) made to total sales. Because the sales of Monster Thickburger exceeded expectations in the test markets, CKE developed a $7 million dollar advertising campaign to launch its nationwide introduction. Monster Thickburger sales exceeded expectations, and Hardees sales revenues increased immediately. The Monster Thickburger was directly responsible for a good deal of that increase, says Brad Haley, Hardees executive vice president of marketing. CKE, partially because of its reliance on CPR, was rescued from the brink of bankruptcy in 2000. It increased sales at restaurants open more than a year, narrowed its overall losses, and finally turned a profit in 2003. CPR, their proprietary system, consists of a Microsoft SQL server database and uses Microsoft development tools to parse nd display analytical information. It uses econometric models to provide context and to explain performance. The company reviews and refines these models each month. The econometric models take into consideration 44 factors, including the weather, holidays, coupon activity, discounting, free giveaways, and new products. With the click of a button, for example, a sales downturn can be explained on a screen that shows that 5% of the 8% decrease was due to torrential rain in the Northeast and 2% was due to free giveaways. In the competitive restaurant chain industry, companies have to be agile and responsive to the dynamic environment that they face. They must align their BIS initiatives with their business strategies. They use the insights derived from their BISs to improve operations and their bottom lines. BISs assist them in making strategic decisions about menu items and closures of underperforming stores, as well as tactical matters such as renegotiating contracts with food suppliers, monitoring food costs, and identifying opportunities to improve inefficient processes. To derive value from their BISs, many restaurant chains have successfully reduced the three biggest barriers to BIS success: voluminous amounts of irrelevant data, poor data quality, and user resistance. CKEs CIO and executive vice president of strategic planning, Jeff Chasney, states: If youre just presenting information thats neat and nice but doesnt evoke a decision or impart important knowledge, then its noise. You have to focus on what are the really important things going on in your business. Chasney stresses a BIS should be different from the plain-vanilla standard corporate reporting tools that have been around for decades. Rather a BIS should provide managers with insights, not just mountains of data. Theres nothing worse, in my opinion, than a business intelligence system that reports changes on a weekly basis, he says, because those systems dont provide any context as to what factors are influencing those changes. Without that ontext, you dont know whether the data is good or bad; its just useless. Chasney further noted: If your business intelligence system is not going to improve your decision making and find problem areas to correct and new directions to take, nobodys going to
bother to look at it. When developing aBIS,Chasney advises companies to first analyze their decision-making processes. They must determine the information that executives need to confidently make decisions in rapidly changing environments, as well as their preferred presentation format for that information (for example, as a report, a chart, online, hard copy). Only then can that information be collected, analyzed, and published in their BISs. In 2000 when he started building CPR, Chasney asked the CEOs and the chief operating officers (COOs) of CKEs three restaurant chains??"Hardees, Carls Jr., and La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill??"what information is most important to them in their efforts to run their company. The CEO wanted to know what caused changes in sales. The COOs wanted help in exposing business opportunities, as well as clear indicators of underperforming restaurants. The discussions taught Chasney that a BIS needed to add value by focusing on a companys most important performance indicators: sales and cost of sales; exceptions, such as those areas of the business that are outperforming or underperforming other segments; and historical and forward-looking business trends

There are faxes for this order.

I need writer First 4 pages are section 1 Fifth page is for section 2

Project Deliverable 4: Analytics, Interfaces, and Cloud Technology
Due Week 7 and worth 110 points

This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a design document and a revised Gantt chart or project plan. You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment. Label each file name according to the section of the assignment it is written for. Additionally, you may create and / or assume all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

Large companies have been using the power of business analytics for quite a while now. Your company desires to get in on the action; company executives believe that using advanced data analysis will enable the company to make smarter decisions and improve business performance. Business analytics gives companies the ability to look at past realizations and performance as well as set up new expectations and performance goals. Analytics-as-a-Service is a new delivery model that uses cloud technology to provide business insights without enormous infrastructure enhancements. The executive team has heard great things about analytics and cloud technology but is apprehensive because they are unfamiliar with the look and feel of the technology. The executive team is interested in your recommendations and eagerly awaiting your forward-thinking viewpoint.

Section 1: Design Document
Write a four to six (4-6) page design document in which you:
Support the need for the use of analytics and cloud technology within this company.
Create a workflow diagram to illustrate how analytics and cloud technology could align with the company?s business processes. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length but must be included in the design document appendix.
Create three to five (3-5) screen layouts that illustrate the interface that organizational users will utilize. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length but must be included in the design document appendix.
Give one (1) recommendation for solution providers that could help your company secure a firm advantage by using analytics and cloud technology.
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student?s name, the professor?s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
Include charts or diagrams created in MS Visio or Dia as an appendix of the design document. All references to these diagrams must be included in the body of the design document.
Section 2: Revised Project Plan

Use Microsoft Project to:
Update the project plan fromProject Deliverable 3: Database and Data Warehousing Design, with three to five (3-5) new project tasks each consisting of five to ten (5-10) sub-tasks.

As we all know, social media have revolutionized the relationship between supplier and customer, in the process breaking down most of the privacy walls that we had come to take for granted. All those giant databases of stuff gathered from customers (e.g., all the information about your supermarket purchases automatically entered each time you swipe your Von's or Safeway card through the checkout to get al those cool discounts), websurfing, suppliers, internal monitoring, etc. have resulted in a proliferation of consumer information. Here?s a good review of where we stand now:

Boorman, C. (2011) Why Data Mining Is the Next Frontier for Social Media Marketing. Mashable Business. Retrieved December 2, 2011, from http://mashable.com/2011/02/25/data-mining-social-marketing/

All of this has recently come to be collectively termed "Big Data". First enabled through the enormous increases in the availability of low-cost data storage (down to $30 per terabyte at Fry's Electronics, as of today's paper), it took the development of good data analytic tools to really spark the trend. Since both acquisition (data mining) and storage (data warehousing) have become much simpler, most of the interest in business analytics today revolves around what to do with Big Data.

Here are two interesting summaries of issues involved in using Big Data at the moment:

LaValle, S., Lesser, E., Shockley, R., Hopkins, M. and Kruschwitz, N. (2010) Big Data, Analytics and the Path From Insights to Value. MIT Sloan Management Review. December. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2011-winter/52205/big-data-analytics-and-the-path-from-insights-to-value/ [The optional Readings contains a link to the full report, if you're interested.]

Webster, J. (2011) Understanding Big Data Analytics. SeaRchStorage.com. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/feature/Understanding-Big-Data-analytics

Big Data's not going away -- in fact, "Huge Data" may be just around the corner ? but it?s by no means the only relevant knowledge available to the organization, despite its presence as the 800 pound gorilla in the corner of the room. The question is fairly simple: how can we best harness this new horse to the enterprise so that it doesn't run away with everything?

When you have completed your review of these materials, plus any other material from the Background Information or other related materials you find yourself (be sure to reference properly whatever specific sources you draw on), please prepare a short (3-5 page) paper addressing the following questions:

"How can managers keep their decision making from being overwhelmed by too much Big Data?"



CASE EXPECTATIONS:
Your paper should be between three and five pages. Take a definite stand on the issues, and develop your supporting argument carefully. Using material from the background information and any other sources you can find to support specific points in your argument is highly recommended; try to avoid making assertions for which you can find no support other than your own opinion.

You will be particularly assessed on:
Precision: Your draw on a range of sources, and to establish your understanding of the historical context of the question. You carried out the exercise as assigned, or carefully explained the limitations that might have prevented your completing some parts (running out of time isn?t generally considered an adequate limitation).

Support for assertions: You use examples, citations (especially to the required readings), and elaboration to support assertions. You provide evidence that you have read the required background materials.

Clarity: Your answers are clear and show your good understanding of the topic. You see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly.

Breadth and Depth: The scope covered in your paper is directly related to the questions of the assignment and the learning objectives of the module.

Critical thinking: The paper incorporates YOUR reactions, examples, and applications of the material to business that illustrate your reflective judgment and good understanding of the concepts. It is important to read the "required readings" posted in the background material plus others you find relevant. Your informed commentary and analysis is vital -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.

Overall quality: Your paper is well written and the references, where needed, are properly cited and listed (refer to the university guidelines (http://www.trident.edu/Media/Default/pdf/Well-Written-Paper.pdf) if you are uncertain about formats or other issues.

An example of continuous data would be test scores from a Business Analytics test.
Twenty students had the following scores:

98,97,92,96,88,86,85,86,84,83,82,81,81,81,80,79,79,79,76,77

Why are these continuous data? Are they interval or ratio scales?
What can you tell about central tendency, variability, skewness and kurtosis? Create the appropriate summary statistics.

Show charts and graphs which should be downloaded into Word

We've been using SPSS to calculate statistics in this graduate program. The books we use are Introductory Statistics, seventh edition by Prem S. Mann and SPSS Survival Manual, 4th Edition by Julie Pallant

Business Intelligence Research Paper
The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding of the capabilities of business intelligence software as it being used in the business world today. The project is to select a software package such as SAS or Oracle on which to conduct an analysis. The analysis should be conducted as you are making a buying recommendation to your organization for the best BI software package to purchase. Cost is not a factor. Cite the reasons why you selected your preferred package and justify that decision with sound reasoning.
The research paper should be 5-7 pages in length 1.5 times spacing and 1" borders. Content should be in business report format.
Business format includes:
Cover Page,
Executive Summary
Introduction
Presentation and discussion of information
Results and Conclusions
Recommendations

Business Systems Development - 2000 word essay

Please do provide an interesting title to your essay. Your ARGUMENT needs to be within the area
of business systems development. Your essay must have an abstract of around 150
words, be properly referenced and include a full bibliography. You must cite references in the
(author, date) style. Remember that part of the assessment will be based on the presentation of the report (layout, abstract, headings, references, bibliographic style etc.). It is very important that you choose an essay argument that can done justice in 2000. The word count applies to all your text except the abstract and full references at the back.

POSSIBLE ESSAY TOPICS;
-Systems development life cycle
-Soft systems methodology (socio-technical)
-Alternative techniques in systems development (eg) Agile methods,
-Risk management and facing challenges
-Information systems outsourcing
-Different forms of sourcing like offshore, onshore
-Cloud computing
-Open source software development
-Openness debates
-Issues of boundary-less organizations
-Virtual organizations
-Combination of ideas ??" across an issue, aspect or theory


Whilst examples may be used in your essay to explain your point it should be clear that this is NOT a
case study assignment. Thus, your essay should not focus on one company or organization. Your
main argument needs to be about an issue or debate that you feel is both interesting to you and
worth exploring in a few thousand words in a meaningful manner (and not superficial list of any
kind).

IMPORTANT: See following attachments for help and guidance;
-Essay Instructions
-Individual essay assignment
-Module info


There are faxes for this order.

Customer is requesting that (infoceo) completes this order.

Business Communications (Summative Assessment)

Write a Crisis Communication Plan (1500 Words)

You are the marketing manager of a leading global technology company ?Globecell?. Globecell have recently launched the most successful selling smart phone in the market rivalling Apple and Blackberry. Although product testing was undertaken the process was not detailed enough in thorough product testing and now Globecell are going to have to recall over 150,000 handsets/units because the handset is not able to function correctly due to handset overheating.


These issues has been identified and communicated back to Globecell from customers complaining to Globecell and its distributors directly within the last week. From this a large amount of negative feedback from online/social media platforms has erupted. Customers are very unhappy at the fact that they cannot use vital 3G services, email and make/receive calls due this defect with the Smartphone.
You will need to write a plan in order for Globecell to react and respond to customers effectively. Consider what your corporate reaction should be and how you can manage current and future communications with the social media, press, customers and key stakeholders. You will need to demonstrate that you can create an effective strategy for crisis communications and have a robust corporate plan in order to recall the technology successfully and deal with this crisis.

Your plan must consider all areas of business communication and should provide recommendations going forward on how to improve the current situation and what measures can be put in place in order to manage a crisis.

Please note the crisis plan must be a formal document and should be treated as a corporate response suitable to show the executive senior management and the Globecell board of directors.
Limit 1500 words.

Predicting the impact of Big Data on Business Strategy

Briefly discuss the development, purpose, and formalization of Business Strategy. see Porter What is strategy (attached) do not limit discussion to porter only.

Discuss how Business Strategy has evolved over the last 50 years.
Be sure to discuss managerial capitalism and shareholder capitalism and the transition from one to the other in the 70's see Alpaslan A Stakeholder Theory of Crisis Management (attached) as a starting point on managerial and shareholder capitalism.

Discuss the role of technology in the evolution of Business Strategy using the following frame work:

Mainframe
Personal computing
Networking
Internet
web 2.0
Data mining
Cloud computing
Big data the next big thing.

Discuss how Big Data might change the ways that Business Strategy is developed and implemented. What can businesses do with big data that will allow them to shape their strategy? Can big date be used to predict consumer behavior like the Santa Cruz police experiment? (see video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVQdehQzIOU&feature=g-all-u Or will it be more like information overload as in this video? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAOqD_a5OQw&feature=context-gfa


There are faxes for this order.

The core of the case for this module involves your careful assessment of the sources of strategic enterprise information. But before you?re ready to tackle it, you need to get somewhat up to speed on the underlying issues and dynamics. The following two articles are highly suggested as briefing material:

Nobel, C. (2010) How IT Shapes Top-Down and Bottom-Up Decision Making. Working Knowledge: Harvard Business School. November 1. Retrieved November 25, 2010, from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6504.html?wknews=110110

Hayles, R.A., (2007) Planning and Executing IT Strategy. IT Professional Magazine. Sep/Oct. 9(5):12-20.


Now, one of the hottest trends in current enterprise information systems is what's often referred to as "big data" -- that is, giant databases of stuff gathered from customers (e.g., all the information about your supermarket purchases automatically entered each time you swipe your Von's or Safeway card through the checkout to get al those cool discounts), websurfing, suppliers, internal monitoring, etc. Big Data was first enabled through the enormous increases in the availability of low-cost data storage (down to $30 per terabyte at Fry's Electronics, as of today's paper), but it took the development of good data analytic tools to really spark the trend. Here are two interesting summaries of issues involved in Big Data at the moment:

LaValle, S., Lesser, E., Shockley, R., Hopkins, M. and Kruschwitz, N. (2010) Big Data, Analytics and the Path From Insights to Value. MIT Sloan Management Review. December. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/the-magazine/2011-winter/52205/big-data-analytics-and-the-path-from-insights-to-value/ [The ptional Readings contains a link to the full report, if you're interested.]

Webster, J. (2011) Understanding Big Data Analytics. SeaRchStorage.com. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/feature/Understanding-Big-Data-analytics

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for whether or not this all makes any sense; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

So the question for discussion basically is to what degree ought organizational decision making be driven by "evidence" derived from analysis of trends in Big Data? Are such data reliable? How much power might the analyst have over the results? What other kinds of information, if any, might be used for decision making? Big Data's not going away -- in fact, "Huge Data" may be just around the corner -- so how can we best harness this new horse to the enterprise so that it doesn't run away with everything?

Your task is pretty simple: write an effective short paper on the topic:

"To what degree should organizations depend on the analysis of large databases and other IT resources to formulate basic strategy?"

? You are a manager at JC Dollars Inc. (JCD), a historically successful global leader in fashion retail. The company needs to increase profitability. Leaders at JCD believe that customer loyalty is a major part of the solution. The JCD CEO has asked you, the Onsite Business Analytic Expert, to work with JCD?s offshore analytics partner (EKO Infomatics) to test the following hypotheses:
?Whether or not the loyalty data at JC Dollar can be effectively leveraged to increase customer loyalty, and lead to improved business results.
? In addition to reporting on the analytics work, you should also propose recommendations in terms of the broader analytic strategy for JC Dollar and how it may be able to effectively compete through analytics in the future.
? Every week, for the next five weeks, you will submit a weekly progress report to the CEO (your
instructor).
For week 1, submit a progress report in which you:
1. Summarize the purpose of the project.
a. What is the key business problem you are trying to solve?
2. Summarize the planned process of the project.
3. Hypothesize potential outcomes (What will the results of the data analysis reveal?)
4. Set your criteria for successful project completion
a. What is the high-level business scorecard metric you are trying to improve (e.g. increase company profitability by 5%)?
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
? No page requirement. However, clear and professional communication should be evident.
? Be typed, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
? Include a title, the student?s name, the professor?s name, the course title, and the date.
The course-level learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
? Manage the process of business data collection and analysis.

Cooper, D. & Schindler, P. (2011). Business research methods. 11th Ed. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.

Other supplement references:
Antonacopoulou, E. P. (2010). Making the business school more critical: Reflexive critique based on phronesis as a foundation for impact. British Journal of Management, 21(Suppl 1), s6-s25. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2009.00679.x

Blackman, D., & Sadler-Smith, E. (2009). The Silent and the Silenced in Organizational Knowing and Learning. Management Learning, 40(5), 569-585. doi:10.1177/1350507609340809

Camuffo, A., Gerli, F., Borgo, S., & Somi, T. (2009). The effects of management education on careers and compensation. Journal of Management Development, 28(9), 839-858. doi:10.1108/0262170910987683

Doh, J. P. (2009). Introduction: The Real World Via Simulation. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 8(4), 558.

McCrea, E. A. (2010). Integrating Service-Learning into an Introduction to Entrepreneurship Course. Journal of Management Education, 34(1), 39-61.

Soudain, L., Deshayes, P., & Tikkanen, H. (2009). Positioning of the stakeholders in the interaction project management??"project marketing: A case of a coconstructed industrial project. Project Management Journal, 40(3), 34-46. doi:10.1002/pmj.20120

Syed, J., Mingers, J., & Murray, P. A. (2010). Beyond rigour and relevance: A critical realist approach to business education. Management Learning, 41(1), 71-85. doi:10.1177/1350507609350839
Teo, T. H., & Koh, T. (2010). Lessons from multi-agency information management projects: Case of the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) Project, Singapore. International Journal of Information Management, 30(1), 85-93. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.07.004

Vince, R. (2010). Anxiety, Politics and Critical Management Education. British Journal of Management, 21s26-s39. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2009.00678.x

The Assignment
Case Study Analysis
The ability to analyze existing research by comparing and contrasting existing knowledge in the field,
to analyze the format, vernacular, and construction of existing research studies and synthesizes the ideas into a new body of research.

Introduction
Analyze 3-5 existing research studies in marketing that represent current topics that are invaluable to your field of management.
The topic select for this assignment is: Teo, T. H., & Koh, T. (2010). Lessons from multi-agency information management projects: Case of the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) Project, Singapore. International Journal of Information Management, 30(1), 85-93. doi:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2009.07.004
Additionally, evaluate the selections using the steps that are suggested on how to conduct business research, located on p.13
Conclusion


There are faxes for this order.

In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they're short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:

Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:

BI Best Practices. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php

BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php

BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php

BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php

Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php

But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.

Now let's look at two specific cases of BI implementation. Remember, these cases were written by the companies supplying the "solutions", so read carefully and if possible between the lines:

Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY - Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx

Microsoft Inc. (2011) Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence

Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.



Case assignment expectations:
Your paper should be short (5-7 pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point. It is to be structured in the following manner. You are expected to:

Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely -- what are the "lessons learned"?

Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you draw these conclusions. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.

Then establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your conclusions.

Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.



The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. In this case, there isn?t a single right or wrong, yes-or-no answer ? several perspectives can be justified. Your task is to construct a logical, well-reasoned, and persuasive argument for your conclusions. Be sure that you take a defined position on the question, and construct your paper to support that position with suitable arguments and evidence.

Your focus on the question as presented, and your ability to use the language of the module convincingly. Here, this means your ability to understand what business intelligence and data analytics are, your understanding of the complexities of organizational change being described, your ability to "read between the lines" to identify issues not necessarily described explicitly, and your sensitivity to the internal organizatiuonal politics involved.

Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don?t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space. Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it?s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings.

Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.

Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format. For assistance with proper paper formats, reference lists, and citation procedures, please consult the TUI Course Guidelines and/or the Purdue University manual listed in the Background Material.

Identify the minimum 5 major trends specified in the topic and heading given for each inclusive of introduction and conclusion in the business-to-business marketing environment and critically analyse them, with special reference the UK market in Europe.
1. Trend analysis charts; illustrations and examples where relevant.

In this module's case, you're going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics -- there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it's not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we're going to fool are ourselves.

Let's begin with a story -- a hypothetical although quite plausible sounding scenario developed by Kevin Hillstrom to show how "business intelligence" information gets put through a variety of organizational wringers in the push and pull of a high-stakes decision environment. Read through this case description even though you may not be fully following all the number crunching and self-justification going on; just try to follow the ways in which information is being used as weapons as much as analytical decision support:

Hillstrom, K. (2010) Gliebers Dresses: Stupid Marketers and Kewpon. MineThatData.com. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://blog.minethatdata.com/2010/09/gliebers-dresses-stupid-marketers-and.html

Now you should take a look at what one of the leading management information firms in the world, the German hardware/software colossus SAP, suggests ought to be happening, in this "Best Practices" advice column:

SAP (N.D.) Business intelligence best practices: Phase one - do you have a strategy? SAP Community Network. Retrieved November 15, 2010 from http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/webcontent/uuid/d0d7ba8f-bfc1-2c10-9bb7-d7a07a9cc035&prtmode=print

Now it's time for you to do a little research on your own. Try googling a couple of search phrases, something like ?Failures in Business Intelligence? and ?Successes in Business Intelligence? or some variant on those that appeals to you, in search of one or two real-life examples of both success and failure in the business intelligence enterprise. You may even know of a case or two from your own experience.

There's a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what's working and what's not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence experiences, you'll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

What SAP didn't tell you about creating and using business intelligence, and why.



Case assignment expectations:

Use information from as many sources as you can, as long as it?s of good quality. At the least, you are expected to show evidence of having read and understood the required readings. Please cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of your paper.

LENGTH: 5-7 pages, double-spaced.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly. . In this case, what are SAP?s problems, and where did they come from?
Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials. Select your illustrative cases to prove your point; don?t just dump a bunch of illustrations onto the page just to fill space.
Your informed commentary and analysis -- simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper
Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format

The subject of this research paper is: Mgt. Info. Syst. and Bus. Strategy.

This research paper must follow the APA Format, i.e. 12p New Times Roman, double space not 2.5 spacing.

The research papre must address the: Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence.

I have attached the instruction to complete the paper. Please email me if you have any questions.

1. When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you'll be in position to write an effective short paper on the topic:
2. Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence.
3. Remember, Business Intelligence is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.
4. Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely---What are the "lessons learned"?
5. Citing apppropriate sources, present the reasons why you draw these conclusions. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.
6. Then establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your conclusions.
7. Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

Project in Change Management?Business Requirements Analysis

For the purpose of this paper it has been determined that Long Beach Mortgage (LOM) (www.longbeachmortgage.com) e-Business functions are not ?cutting edge? and, thus, Long Beach Mortgage is losing its competitive edge. The organization?s business development department has done some preliminary market and competitive intelligence research and identified the following business projects that should be investigated:
--Enhance the existing website to include online Broker Front Office Tool (BFOT). The BFOT will provide FlashQoutes (model & pricing) and convert this quote into a loan submission that can be uploaded electronically to the LBM loan origination system (LOS).
FlashQuotes will always have real time rates and always in synch with the Loan Origination System (LOS)
Loan Origination System (LOS) will have the ability to upload loan submission electronically.

This research will focus on a Business Requirements Analysis that clearly defines the two requirements mentioned above that Long Beach Mortgages (www.longbeachmortgage.com) is looking to implement. Include all the ?USE CASES? that an IT department would need to know about in order to analyze and design technology solutions for the requirements.
The use case is a technique for capturing system requirements. Use cases are scenarios written in regular (non-technical) terminology to describe how a system interacts with a user or another system. For example, a use case for an ordering process might include the following steps: (1) customer places order, (2) order requests item, (3) item bills invoice, (4) customer receives invoice, (5) customer sends payment, (6) payment closes invoice. (For more information on use cases I will be faxing this plus Long Beach Broker?s Front Office Tool.


There are faxes for this order.

**I will send 2 references pursuant to the directions below:** Please note the links provided as well:



The assignment this week involves several topics from this weeks syllabus, focuses on the text, and consists of several shorter answers for a change. The topics involved concern several aspects of the alignment of IT development and business. You are encouraged to read the text chapter and online module in whole or in part to help you to answer the questions better. Such resources often prompt you to consider factors that you may otherwise overlook.
Edit your response carefully to make the best use of the limited space available for your responses. Its a useful skill to write compactly because readers (e.g., your management) are often unable to carefully read long pieces. A style that is sometimes useful consists of objectively listing pros and cons, followed by your opinion. When reasonable dollar estimates can be made, arguments are usually strengthened.
Assignment

Respond to each of the following in a total of at most 6 pages of 12-point text. They concern Chapter 12 of the textbook (Developing Business/IT Solutions) and Case Study 3 on page 509 Intuit Inc.
(i) Use this case study to explain how and why a given application, if left unchanged, invariably declines in usefulness.
(ii) This is Case Study Question 2 Which do you prefer on page 510 of the textbook, concerning Case Study 3 Intuit Inc.
(iii) Look at Figure 12.22 on page 497 of the textbook (Hardware Evaluation Factors). Suppose that you work for an insurance company and your IT team has to select a brand of smartphone for the companys business insurance sales force. These salespeople usually travel to customer sites. How would you rank or weight the factors in Figure 12.22 for this hardware selection? Explain your assumptions and conclusions. Weighting is done by assigning a factor to each item prior to the evaluation of smartphone models. The factors add up to 1 (or 100 if expressed as a percentage).
(iv) This End Up is principally a moderate-priced furniture manufacturer. In the 1990s they operated stores in malls across the US. After going through bankruptcy, the company transitioned to largely a Web-order-only organization. Based on their website http://www.thisendup.com/ and ancillary reading (e.g., http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/113594/ ), use the topics in Chapter 12 as much as applicable to describe a comeback strategy that you either see already implemented or that you would implement yourself. When referring to websites, be careful not to take pronouncements at face value. When applicable, it can be effective to say according to XXX, and, as corroborated by independent sources, .

Reading
Read Chapter 12 of the textbook, as needed.
? End with a list of references following the standard reference format, as described in References and Citations document.

There are faxes for this order.

Select an organization. Explain and provide examples related to the following concepts and terminology:
1) Organizational Behavior
2) Organizational Culture
3) Diversity
4) Communication
5) Business Ethics
6) Change Management

(NOTE: Wikipedia, dictionaries and encyclopedias must not be used.)

In this assignment, we are focusing on this company called "Sift Analytics Group Pte Ltd" (http://www.sift-ag.com).

Requirements for the assignment: (Focus on B2B of Sift)

1. Introduction of the company (Sift)
2. Supply Chains and Marketing Channels
2.1 Distribution Channel Task
2.2 Supply Chain Management Goals
2.3 Sales Cycle
3. Networks
3.1 Channel Structure
3.2 Distribution Network
4. Market Strategy and Value Proposition
4.1 Market Strategy
4.2 Value Proposition
5. B2B Marketing Communication Tools
6. Recommendations and Conclusion
7. Reference

I have done an interview with the Pre sales lead from Sift, do refer to the interview questions attachment to grab some information from there. And also, please work closely with the company's website "Sift" provided here - http://www.sift-ag.com

In general, after writing the essay, they should cover all these points stated below:

For B2B supplier organisations, what business marketing mix components do they use to market to their customers.
A good interview will show:
The products (chpt 8) or services (chpt 9) offered by the organisation (NB most B2B organisations have a range of products and services)
The channels or supply chains they use to deliver the products or services to customers (chpt 4)
The strategy and value proposition (chapt 6 & 7)
The pricing strategy (chpt 10). You do not need to ask about specific prices.
How they communicate with business customers (chpt 11)
What type of sales force do they use (chpt 12)? Do they use sales people or a telemarketing centre or online or a mix?

Refer to the attachment that states: "B2B Individual Assignment Cheryl" to have a rough idea of how it is supposed to be. Note: This is just a sample, it is not the same company.

Essay

3. How do you envision Business Analytic impacting business and society over the next 10-20 years? (i.e. personalized healthcare, digital media customer optimization, investment portfolio predictions, resource efficiency, etc.)