Sample MIS500 Foundations of Information Systems Case Study

MIS500 Foundations of Information Systems Case Study Sample

Task Summary

In groups of 3-5, you are to act as consultants hired by the company the case study is based on, to research, investigate and propose an information system for your client.

Part A: In response to the case study provided, your group will produce a report explaining the information system plan you develop for your client. The report should be no more than 3000 words.

Part A Group report

1. Fibre Fashion – Case Study

To complete this assessment task you are required to design an information system for Fibre Fashion to assist with their business. You have discussed Porter’s Value Chain in class and you should understand the primary and support activities within businesses. For this assessment you need to concentrate on Marketing and Sales only.

2. Watch the case study video about Fibre Fashion (link below). This video will allow you to understand the business and where you, as consultants, can add value by improving their information systems in marketing and sales.

4. For further details about current information systems of Fibre Fashion, please see the Assessment 2 Database document and the Fibre Sales Figures Contacts spreadsheet in the Assessment 2 area of Blackboard.

5. Based on the information provided as well as your own research (reading!) into information systems for SMEs (small to medium enterprise), write a report for Fibre Fashion to assist them in using Business Intelligence (BI) to develop insights for their marketing and sales.

Solution

Introduction: Student 1

The main aim of the report is to propose the Advanced Business Intelligence Information System to assist the business of the Fibre Fashion Company. For Assignment Help, The report discussed the issues regarding the business information recording system of the Fibre Fashion Company. The first section of the report identified the main issue regarding the recording system of marketing and sales data of the company. It also identified the research questions for further research regarding the advanced marketing and sales data analysis system for the Fibre Fashion Company. The second section of the report reviewed the different journals and articles regarding the importance of the marketing and sales data analysis for Small and Medium Enterprises and available updated the Business Intelligence system for meeting the need of marketing and sales data analysis of the SMEs. The Final Section proposed a recommendation about the business intelligence information system that will assist the business record and marketing and sales data analysis system of the Fibre Fashion Company.

Background of the issue: Student 1

Fibre Fashion Company has been an effective and consistent presence in the wholesale fashion industry of Melbourne for over 20 years. The fledgling business of the Fibre Fashion Company has evolved with colour, flourish, embellishments and accents of the pure boutique. The main issue of the Fibre Fashion Company is their inefficient Excel Spreadsheet recording System of the company for recording details of the client and business sales per brand of the boutique. Moreover, the order placing system and invoice creation system of the company also is inefficient. The company uses a simple database system for placing the order and creating an invoice for the order that only contains the style number, category of the product, the colour of the product, and total cost of the product. The company also does not enter the other details of the product in the record like delivery date, pattern, job number, manufacturer details, etc. The Company also uses a simple database to keep the record regarding the simple information of customers including the contact details, customer code, customer address, mail details, credit and discount details and product purchase price details. The Company uses a simple Excel spreadsheet for keeping the details of the clients of the company. It contains the name of the retailer details and location details of the retailer. It contains the details of all open and closed retailer details in the excel spreadsheet. It removes the close retailer name by striking on the name of the retailer. It contains the details regarding “new client details”, “viewed but didn’t place order”, “Placed, then cancelled”, “Sale or return”, “viewed look book”, “Sent pack”, “Appt”, “cancelled appt”, “not interested to view”, “Order to come” etc. details regarding the client appointment and the order details of the product in a numerical format. It is very inefficient in nature for handling bulk data of marketing and sales information of the Fibre Fashion Company.

The report aims to review the needs of marketing and sales data analysis for SMEs and the range of updated Business Intelligent Systems for handling these needs. The report also aims to propose a better BI Information System for Fibre Fashion Business to assist their marketing and sales data.

Following are the objectives:

- To investigate the needs of the marketing and data analysis for SMEs.
- To identify the range of BI systems for meeting marketing and data analysis for SMEs.
- To propose a better BI information system for Fibre Fashion Company to handle their client and sales data.

Research Questions: Student 1

What are the needs of marketing and sales data analysis for SMEs and the range of updated Business Intelligent Systems for handling these needs?

Analysis and Review: Student 2 and Student 3

Identification of the issue:

According to the case study, The Fibre Fashion Company maintains a simple excel spreadsheet and database for handling and keeping records regarding the client details and sales details per brand of the company. Storing and keeping the data in the excel spreadsheet is not easy for data visualisation and it increases the chances of the error. Moreover, there is no particular indication regarding “who are the clients”, “what they order” and “when” etc. It is quite painful for reporting regarding the details of the client and sales per brand for the company. It can increase the chances of fraud and corruption and also it is difficult to troubleshoot and test. It is sometimes not possible to interrelate the spreadsheet data across the workstations on different locations. Lack of security and control issue is the major problem. It is not user-friendly and the excel round-off the large numbers using imprecise calculation. It reduces the accuracy of the data. Excel spreadsheet is not efficient for managing the advanced pricing rules. Moreover, the simple database system is not sufficient for handling the advanced pricing strategies like quantity based pricing, psychological pricing, handling pricing based on the market and different geographic locations, and attribute-based pricing etc. It is unfit for agile business practices. Maintaining and keeping the record in the excel spreadsheet is quite painful for extracting the marketing and sales data from different departments and retailers, consolidating those data and summarising the entire information is also painful for the management of the company. It is incapable of supporting the company to make a quick decision and because keeping the record and extracting the data from the spreadsheet is a time-consuming process. It is also totally unsuitable for the continuation of the business. It is required to use the updated BI information system to develop the new insights for the company’s marketing and sales data.

Importance and needs of the marketing and Sales data analysis for SMEs: Student 2

In the view of Jena & Panda (2017), sales and marketing data analysis is essential for unlocking the relevant commercial business insights. It helps to increase the profitability and revenue of SMEs. It also improves brand perception. It helps in uncovering new audience and customer niches, new markets and areas for future market development It helps SMEs to reach different segments of the market via the different channels that are working and not working. It helps SMEs to take all the necessary information regarding the market for building an effective marketing plan. It focuses on the internal and external environmental factors. It considers the weaknesses and strengths of the SMEs by gathering the data of all marketing channels of the SMEs. Marketing data analysis helps SMEs to analyse the current market and helps them to understand the market more efficiently (Chiang, Liang & Zhang, 2018). Sales data analysis helps SMEs to understand the behaviour of customers, the products that maximum customer select and the reason behind selecting the product and behaviour of the product.

Mikalef, Pappas, Krogstie & Giannakos (2018) stated that marketing and sales data analytics helps in predicting the behaviour of consumers, improves the SMEs decision-making process and determine the best path for increasing the return of investment based on the marketing efforts of the SMEs. It helps them to protect their market share. The study stated that big data technology to analyse the marketing and sales data of the business is important for increasing the business efficiency, reduces the operational cost, marketing and sales cost of the company. It helps in identifying the failures and weaknesses of the SMEs. It helps in conducting a review of customers and design the new services and products for SMEs for increasing the marketing and sales of their product. It helps in identifying the fraud while keeping the record of clients’ data and sales records of SMEs. It prevents fraudulent activities and helps SMEs to make smarter decisions for enhancing their business. It helps the owners of small businesses to meet their business goals. It helps the sourcing the marketing sales information for analysis the marketing and sales data from different sources such as sales receipts, email marketing reports, publicly available data, website data and social media data.

Based on the research by Grover, Chiang, Liang & Zhang (2018), the use of marketing and sales data analysis increases the chance of return on investments while taking any marketing initiatives in SMEs. It helps SMEs to make proper decisions for providing proper service to their customers to retain them (Becker & Gould, 2019). A real-time data analysis facility helps SMEs to provide critical meaningful insights to the decision-makers in real-time to make a proper decision regarding further steps. Data analysis system helps SMEs to grow their business by allowing them to develop an update and fine-tune marketing strategies and search engine strategies (SMEs who have their online websites) (Cortez & Johnston, 2017). It helps SMEs to determine the right mix (product, price, place and promotion strategy) strategy for optimising the sales of the product. It helps to store the sales data in one place to improve the performance of sales. It determines the areas that need modification by determining the facts and relevant data regarding the marketing and sales.

BI System for meeting marketing and data analysis needs of SMEs: Student 3

In the view of Anshari, Almunawar, Lim & Al-Mudimigh (2019), Business Intelligence is the advanced technology that enables the business processes to analyse, organise and contextualise the business data from the company. BI also includes multiple techniques and data to transform the raw data into actionable and meaningful information. The BI system has mainly four parts that include 1) The data warehouse stores that help in gathering a variety of sources in an accessible and centralised location. 2) Data management tools and Business Analytics Tools analyse and mine the data in the data warehouse system. 3) Business Performance Management Tools for analysing and monitoring the data. It helps SMEs to progress their business towards the goals of the business. 4) User Interface tools and interactive dashboards with the facility of data visualisation reporting tools that helps in quick access of the business information. Business Intelligence tools offer a wide variety of techniques and tools for supporting accurate and reliable decision making for progressing the business performance. BI based and data-driven process of decision making helps SMEs to stay competitive and relevant.

As an example, Lotte.com the leading and renowned shopping mall in Korea uses the BI Information system for understanding customer behaviour and uses that information to develop marketing strategies. It increases the sales of the product of the company. Stitch Fix Company provides online personal accessory and clothing styling services uses data science and recommended algorithms of BI Tools throughout their buying process to personalised their products as per the requirements (Ryan Ayers. 2020). Netflix also uses the information and data using BI software to get more people and engage them with their content. Walmart uses BI software to influence in-store and online activity. They analyse simulations to understand the purchasing patterns of customers. It helps them to increase the marketing and sales of products of the company.

Followings are some examples of advanced and updated Business Intelligence Software:

Power BI is the Business Intelligence Tools and it is serviced by the Microsoft Company. It provides interactive visualisations of data and provides the proper services for enhancing the business intelligence capabilities through the simple interface for creating the own business reports and dashboards. It brings the raw data from different sources also from a simple spreadsheet to cloud base data. It helps in sharing powerful insights by analysing the marketing and sales data.
Oracle Analytics Cloud is a Business intelligence Software system that is embedded with the machine learning facility (Oracle.com. 2021). It helps the organisations to discover effective and unique new business insights faster with the facility of a Business intelligence system and automation system.

Qlik Sense is another Business Intelligence Information System that helps SMEs and other companies to create interactive dashboards and tools based on marketing and sales data, operational data and data from different departments of the company (Qlik. 2021). It helps in creating stunning graphs and charts to make relevant business decisions.

SAS BI is also a cloud-based distribution model to deliver business analytics services like business reports and dashboards (Sas.com. 2021). It analyses the business data using modern cloud BI technology.

Tableau Business Intelligence uses the ad hoc analysis process to improve the ability to better see and understand the business data across every department of the company for better decision making (Carlisle, 2018).

Recommendation: Student 4

Based on the overall analysis, it is recommended that Fibre Fashion Company can use the Power BI Software to develop the business insights for marketing and sales of the company. Power BI will help the company to meet the enterprise business intelligence needs and self-service needs. It is the largest and fastest-growing business intelligence information system. It creates and shares effective and interactive data visualisations across the entire global data centre. It also includes the national clouds to meet the regulation and compliance needs of the Company (Powerbi.microsoft.com. 2021). Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service and Power BI Mobile Apps these three elements are the total package by Microsoft to provide an effective Business Intelligence Information system for the SMEs and also other leading companies. The Cost-effective plans and high-quality data analysis facility increases the demand for this product. Moreover, the Power BI Report server allows the company to publish the reports of the Power BI to the on-premises remote server after the report has been created in the Power BI Desktop. Iqbal et al. (2018) stated that the BI system drives the business decision based on the current, historical and potential future data. Predictive analytics system uses predictive modelling, data mining and machine learning system for making the projections and assumptions of future business events. It also helps in assessing the likelihood of particular events. Prescriptive analytics helps in revealing the actual reason for taking the particular action and initiative for enhancing the business performance. It enables the simulation and optimization of the marketing and sales data and uses the decision modelling system to provide the best possible business actions and decisions for the growth of SMEs. BI Tools helps marketers track the campaign metrics from the company’s central digital space. It helps SMEs in real-time campaign tracking that helps in measuring the performance of each effort and develop a plan for future business campaigns. It gives the marketing teams of the company more visibility into the overall business performance. BI Tools helps the sales team to quickly access complex information like customer profitability information, discount analysis information and information regarding the lifetime value for customers (Chiang, Liang & Zhang, 2018). It helps the sales managers to monitor sales performance, revenue targets with the real-time status of the sales pipeline using BI Dashboards with data visualizations and real-time business reports.

The main Key Features of the Power BI are:

Fig : Overview of Power BI information system
Source: (Powerbi.microsoft.com. 2021)

1. Power Query allows the transformation and integration of the company’s business data into the web service of Power BI. The company can shred the data across multiple users and multiple retailers in different geographic locations. The company can also model this data for enhanced data visualisation (Powerbi.microsoft.com. 2021).

2. The Common model of the database allows the company to use extensible database schemas and construction.

3. The Hybrid Development Support helps the tool of business intelligence to connect to the different data sources. It allows automatic data analytics application to information by creating the subsets of data through the use of quick insight feature.

4. The customisation feature can help the company to change the appearance of data visualisation tools. It also helps in importing new business intelligence tools into the platform.

5. The Dashboard of Power BI embedded in other appropriate software products through the use of APIs.

6. Complex data Models can also be divided into small and separate diagrams by using the modelling view common properties. It can be set, modified and viewed the data as per the requirements.

7. Cortana integration facility allows the employees and users of the company to query for any data verbally by using natural languages. It provides a digital assistant facility. The Power BI System helps in easily and quickly sharing the relevant data and meaningful insights after analysing the marketing and sales data across all system such as IOS, Windows and Android (Powerbi.microsoft.com. 2021).

Fig : Sales Performance Report
Source: (Powerbi.microsoft.com. 2021)

It will help the company to protect their marketing and sales data details by using the Power BI security facility with the other facilities like Azure Private Link, Service tags and Azure Virtual Network. It will help the company to prevent data loss. Power BI Desktop is also free for clients to use and the Pro level of the Power BI Information system is also available at a low monthly price per user. Moreover, the weekly and monthly updates of the Power BI improve the marketing and sales data analysis capability. It will help the Fibre Fashion Company to develop better decisions for enhancing the sales of the product. It will help the Company to get self-service analytics reports at an enterprise scale. It reduces the complexity, added cost and data security risks of recording the marketing and sales data and details clients, and sales per brand details that scales data from the individual level to the organisation level as a whole (nabler.com. 2021). It uses Smart tools, facility of data visualizations, tight integration of excel, prebuilt data connectors and custom data connectors and built-in AI Capabilities helps in providing strong outcomes for helping management of the company to make better decisions. Moreover, end-to-end encryption of the data, sensitivity labelling and Access monitoring system in real-time will increase the data security of the marketing and sales data, clients’ data and details of sales per brand of the company (Becker & Gould, 2019).

Fig : Transforming Excel data into Power BI
Source: (Powerbi.microsoft.com. 2021)

Power BI will allow the company to correlate the marketing data and metrics from the different business sources. It also removes the maximum possibility of having false positives from the marketing data. The Company can easily connect the data models, excel queries and other reports regarding the sales data to the Power BI Dashboards. It helps the company to gather the sales data of the company, analyse the data, publish and share the outcomes and business data in excel in new ways (Carlisle, 2018). It will help the company get new insights from the data and use the effective business insights for making the appropriate business decision for enhancing the business activities of the Fibre Fashion Company. It will help the company to track the record of their products in their inner-city warehouse of company. The use of the Power BI Software will enhance the skills and knowledge of the staff in providing unique services to the clients of the company. It will help them to maintain error-free transactions and ordering activities with their clients (Wright & Wernecke, 2020). It will help the fibre fashion Company to develop a loyal and trustworthy relationship with their clients that will help them to expand their business in the broader market.

Conclusion: Student 1

It concluded that the Fibre Fashion Company can use the Power BI Information System to get more meaningful business insights by analysing the marketing and sales data of the Company. The Power BI software will help the company to improve the security of their recorded data in the database system. It will help the company to enhance the privacy of the clients’ data and details of the sales record per brand. It will help the company to develop new business insights for improving the marketing and sales figure of the Fibre Fashion Company. It will help the company to take the appropriate decision for improving the market share of the company. It will help the company to track the record of their products per brand in the warehouse. It will help the company to develop a fruitful business relationship with their clients that will help them to increase their sales and marketing profitability in future. The report also discussed the importance of data analysis for SMEs for the enhancement of their business in the market. It revealed that the use of the data analysis facility helps SMEs to achieve their business goals and objectives.

References: