ITM306 Module 4 SLP: Foundations of Management Information Systems, Data Resource Management Internet and Ecommerce
Module 4 - SLP
DATA RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, INTERNET, AND E-COMMERCE
The SLP continues with a few more videos and a short video case to illustrate the use of data mining and analytics as the foundation for business strategies and practices using databases. The SLP also has two parts to the assignment.
SLP Assignment Part I
REI
To provide some background to the video case, REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) is an American consumers’ cooperative, selling outdoor recreation gear and sporting goods. REI sells to its members through an E-commerce site, hardcopy catalogs, and through 90 brick and mortar stores located in 27 states. REI is the largest consumer co-op in the U.S and faces competition from many other sporting goods retailers.
To better understand and serve its 3 million active co-op members and customers, REI launched an initiative to build a data warehouse containing many different types of information about its customers. REI needs to know precisely what customers do in the outdoors. With the help of IBM, REI’s data warehouse allows the organization to identify and organize all of the ways that each customer interacts with the company, including what they bought online or at retail outlets, whether they attended special training sessions for equipment and outdoor activities, or what items they returned.
REI uses IBM data warehousing technology to achieve its vision of understanding what its customers want, and how they want to interact with the company. REI also deployed IBM’s DB2 9 Viper technology to run REI’s marketing campaigns. REI’s site recognizes its members when they log in, allowing them to serve up content customized to individual users.
Required Reading
REI. (2009). REI builds a smart sporting warehouse with DB2. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=4KEkA3O784s&feature=related
SASsoftware. (2011). Manage the data deluge with data mining and predictive analytics. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=cIcmd5zfu3c
SASsoftware. (2011). Manage all unstructured data with SAS text analytics. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=NHAq8jG4FX4&feature=relmfu
After watching the videos and REI in particular, please answer the following questions in 3-4 pages.
What is a data warehouse and why is REI building one?
Describe some of the marketing strategies that REI’s data warehouse will allow them to use. Would these have been possible before the data warehouse was built?
What are some of the risks or concerns surrounding the creation of a data warehouse?
Why do you think REI chose to work with IBM’s data warehouse technology?
SLP Assignment Part II
Following a brief discussion of Internet technologies in Case 4, the SLP looks into the impact mobile technologies are having on e-commerce as well as the collaboration tools that can be delivered through TelePresence systems.
The concept of mobile e-commerce arose in the 1990’s as the technology moved from informational Internet to a medium to communicate between buyers and sellers. Through the use of smart phones, mobile commerce has expanded to mobile banking, ticketing, broker auctions, purchasing, and marketing and advertising. The following article discusses the growth and Internet usage through mobile devices.
Laudon, K., & Laudon, J. (2012). Essentials of MIS. (10th Ed.). Learning Track 4: The emerging mobile digital platform: E-commerce and business impact. Retrieved from http://wps(dot)prenhall(dot)com/wps/media/objects/14071/14409392/Learning_Tracks/Ess10_CH01_LT4_The_Emerging_Mobile_Digital_Platform.pdf
According to Laudon and Laudon (2012), “TelePresence refers to a set of technologies which allows a person to feel as if they were present at a location remote from their own physical location; or, a set of technologies that enables realistic group meetings among geographically remote sites. TelePresence is not the same as virtual reality because the actors involved in TelePresence are human beings, not avatars. TelePresence has many current and potential business applications such as enhancing social networks, remote observation of dangerous environments like subsea cables and nuclear reactors, and remote surgery” (p.4).
To illustrate TelePresence, in the first video, Cisco CEO John Chambers demonstrates the use of holograms over the Internet to create TelePresence. In the second video, Cisco uses its TelePresence technology to have the first global, life-size, high-definition virtual company meeting. Multiple offices throughout the globe were simultaneously connected.
Cisco (2008, November 6). Cisco TelePresence magic. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=rcfNC_x0VvE
Cisco (2008, November 8). Cisco TelePresence: It’s about the experience. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=1kY266SrNSI&feature=relmfu
After reading the course materials, please answer the following questions.
What are the business benefits of TelePresence described in these videos? What is the benefit of a hologram? What kinds of limitations do you see for users of TelePresence?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Your paper will be evaluated on the following criteria:
Answer the questions and the accompanying explanation must be written in 4-6 pages and be double spaced. Include a cover page and two outside references with the assignment.
The essay will be graded on these requirements
Precision: the question asked is answered.
Clarity: Your answer is clear and shows your good understanding of the topic.
Breadth and Depth: The scope covered in your answer is directly related to the questions of the assignment and the learning objectives of the module.
Critical thinking: Incorporate your reactions, examples, and applications of the material to business that illustrate your reflective judgment and good understanding of the concepts.
Your short essay is well written and the references are properly cited and listed.
Foundations of Management Information Systems
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
A data warehouse such as the one that Recreational Equipment Incorporated (REI) built is a large collective store of informative data that is sourced from a wide range of recorded activities and feedback within a company and is used as a guide for important management decisions and initiatives. REI is building such a warehouse to help them understand the needs and wants of the millions of clients that they serve on a daily basis. Providing outdoor equipment is the main role of the REI and since it has reached a large number of clients from all over the world, it is important that the company understands what is necessary to continue being efficient in the society while maintaining a constant or constantly elevating source of income to sustain their activities. Inspiring, educating, and outfitting people of all sizes, shapes and physical abilities are the main objectives of REI. To achieve these objectives, the company requires some knowledge about the clients it serves so as to predict what outdoor enthusiasts may prefer despite the weather. Digitized data from 1938 when the company was launched provides the power to analyse, state and produce what is necessary to get more people off the couch and inspire them to engage in outdoor activities (REI, 2009).
REI’s data warehouse allows the company to understand what their clients precisely like to do outdoors and through this knowledge, they can implement certain marketing strategies that would allow them to reach an even wider client base. Through the implementation of an online database, the company can be able to be relevant to their co-op members by communicating with them about new gear for outdoor activities, the places that the gear can serve them best, the points of access to the necessary gear and the price of the gear. This warehouse allows the company to provide better service by providing a platform of feedback that allows the client to communicate what gear serves them the best based on their preferences. The main marketing strategy that comes with REI’s data warehouse is the ability to inform their current and potential clients about new outdoor gear and apparel. This way, a client can access an online catalogue of their services from any part of the country or the world. Achieving such a marketing strategy would have been impossible without a data warehouse since the company would have no way to communicate and advertise their merchandise to their clients (SASsoftware, 2011).
The creation of a data warehouse is a delicate procedure. First, it requires the collection of sensitive and accurate data that can be safely stored as it provides information to the target clientele of an organization. Some of the risks associated with the creation of a data warehouse are mainly associated with the security of sensitive and private client information which is always at a risk of manipulation or exploitation by malicious fraudsters. Credit card numbers, customer files and company information must be secured within a safe and secure online storage system to ensure the efficiency of client transactions and the relationship between the company and the customers it serves. Another risk associated with the creation of a data warehouse system is the ability of the company to provide a comprehensive and easily accessible and understandable online interface that will be in line with the company’s marketing strategies while providing an informative and satisfactory range of data that improves client-company relations. Without a clear assessment of the software needed to provide secure and trustworthy information over a long period of time, a company might implement a data warehouse that may fail them in the long run. Therefore, it is very important that an organization understands the security and efficiency risks associated will a poorly designed data warehouse before it decides to create one (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).
The reason why Recreational Equipment Incorporated decided to work with IBM regarding their data warehouse is because IBM had the capability to build a sophisticated and secure data warehouse based on the DB2-9 Viper technology which offers flexibility and security at the same time. IBM also understood REI’s efforts to be more relevant to its co-op members and to reach its objectives towards fostering a good working environment within the company and between the company and its members. Through IBM’s DB2-9 technology, REI found the ability to reach farther, look deeper and act faster in regards to its relationship with its customers from all over the world. IBM also provided a platform that would allow REI to identify all the different ways each customer interacts with the company. These interactions were mainly about providing efficiency when it comes to ordering and buying outdoor gear such as ski-boards, mountain climbing gear and accessories, and attending in-store snow shoeing clientele. IBM also provided the ability for REI’s clients to comfortably and easily browse the REI website through its sophisticated data warehouse. IBM provided an insight that would enable different clients to identify the product numbers of the equipment and clothing they ordered, pointing them to workshops and equipment clinics, and alerting them to product recalls among other important news that made it easier for the customers to select and purchase the products that they wanted. Keeping track of current customers’ co-op dividends was also provided by IBM through their data warehouse (REI, 2009).
IBM also...