Brief Notes on Business Intelligence & Data Mining BI

Dr.  S.  Maurer,  
MBA Professor

There must be a closëd-loop interface between the operational systems that retailers rely upon to conduct day-to-day business and the bi systems that help them conduct that business more efficiently and profitably.

Generally,  bi-collectors glean their primary information from internal business sources.  Such sources help decision-makers understand how well they have performed.

Persons involved in business intelligence processes may use application software and other technologies to gather,  store,  analyze,  and provide access to data,  and present that data in a easy,  useful manner.

Factors Influencing business intelligence: Customers are the most critical aspect to a enterprise's success.  Without them a enterprise cannot exist.  So it is very important that you have information on their preferences.  You must quickly adapt to their changing demands.

The competitive game is changing for retail.  As the manufacturer continues to consolidate,  retailers have begun to realize that using technology to better understand customer buying behavior,  to drive sales and profitability,  and to reduce operational costs is a necessity for long-term survival.

Improved Extract,  transform,  load [ETL] and even recently enterprise Application Integration tools have increased the speedy collecting of data.  OLAP reporting technologies have allowed faster generation of new reports which analyze the data.

When a enterprise can make decisions based on timely and accurate information,  the enterprise can improve its performance.

intelligence of business is a new field of the investigation of the application of human cognitive faculties and artificial intelligence technologies to the managerial intelligent decision support systems for different business problems,  see for example bi as a cognitive capacity.

Optimize   -   At this stage,  the enterprise's knowledge workers are very focused on incremental process improvements and refining the value-creation process.  Everyone understands and uses analysis,  trending,  pattern analysis,  and predictive results to increase efficiency and effectiveness.  The extended value chain becomes increasingly critical to the organization,  including the customers,  suppliers,  and partners who constitute intercompany communities.

In modern applications of business intelligence software,  managers are able to quickly compile reports from data for forecasting,  analysis,  and business decision making.

Goal Alignment queries: The first step determines the short and medium-term purposes of a bi programme.  What strategic goal[s] of the organization will the programme address? What organizational mission/vision does it relate to?

bi systems must combine data management [consolidating,  organizing,  and cleansing huge amounts of disparate data from varying systems and platforms] with predictive analytics [data mining,  forecasting,  optimization].  When they do,  retailers can make sense of customer,  product,  supplier,  and operational data and draw insights that will help them run their businesses better and more profitably.

Leading retailers around the globe   -   like Wal-Mart,  Foot Locker,  Staples,  Williams-Sonoma,  and Amazon.com and many others   -   have begun using bi and analytics to make an array of strategic decisions.  These include where to place retail outlets,  how many of each size or color of an item to put in each store,  and when and how much to discount.  The effects of these decisions can save or generate millions of dollars for retailers.

business intelligence software incorporates the ability to data mine,  analyze,  and reporting.  Some modern bi software allow users to cross-analyze and perform deep data research rapidly for better analysis of sales or performance on an individual,  department,  or enterprise level.

Merchandising   -   This is clearly the most important area of a retailer's business and an area where retailers are beginning to exploit the full value of bi.