Advancing a Firm Through Big Data Usage Term Paper

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Problem Statement

Our company is in the fashion industry specializing in discounted designer clothes and accessories for men and women. We currently have a brick and mortar location and a small online presence. The owner’s goal is to promote growth of the online store and become customer centric. Through the expansion of the online presence, the owner wants to get the process streamlined from brick and mortar to the online platform.

Two Technologies

Through some research and considerations, we believe that Big Data and Knowledge Management along with Business Analytics and Business Intelligence Solutions will be the key to gaining the online presence that our company needs to build and sustain future growth.

Business Requirements

Objectives

As the ultimate goals are to create an online presence and customer focused business. Integrating Customer Knowledge Management, Business Analytics and Intelligence, will both provide us the necessary information about our current customers and allow us to segment the current customer base to find areas that trend better in our space. This will lessen the advertising budget due to the data that will map out who will be at what time of the year to market and advertise more efficiently.

Project Description

The project will be divided in to segments in order to integrate into the business at a pace that will not affect current business.

i. Interviewing prospective companies that will build the IT infrastructure

ii. Fully operational CKM system that will provide strong customer focused marketing. Streamlining process that connects the brick and mortar to the online presence that we are creating.

iii. Customers’ needs and desires have changed drastically in the last fifteen years. There is more online shopping than ever before, and as this trend continues to grow so does the platforms that are used. Customer systems that help track purchases, and reorder inventories are to the business owners advantage.

Technology Requirements

This technology specifically needs to allow the Customer to browse inventory online. Have up to date inventory levels that will tell the customer if it is in stock or there need to be and order placed. Managing the customer contacts as purchases are made will increase the number of repeat trips by providing reporting to the business owner about what items were purchase and how the timing plays into the process.

Competitors and Technology

Kohls has a large brick and mortar business in the US, but it also has one of the top customer Knowledge management systems as well. I will spend time and resources looking in to Kohls and the data management process and how we can use proprietary information to enhance our project. Thau (2014) explains that big data is extremely useful when it comes to targeting consumers with smart phones whose past buying habits are known to the company through the collection of big data and who are looking for a deal at the point of checkout: “it will be retailers’ basis of competitive advantage … and will be how you engage with your customers. Kohl’s, for example, is testing real-time, personalized offers in five of its stores. Shoppers who walk into one of those stores can opt in for offers via their smartphones.  So if a shopper lingers in the shoe department, for example, they’ll receive a coupon based on the shoes they looked at online but never bought.” The benefit to using such technology is that it allows the company to directly target specific consumers, knowing in advance what they are likely to be shopping for and how to approach them.

The second company that we will use to determine if business analytics solutions and business intelligence solutions are the best way to reach our ultimate goals is Zappos. Originally a online retailer, CEO Tony Hsieh built the company into a giant. As Deirdre M. (2014) reports, “75% of Zappos’ sales come from repeat customers, and that’s not just because of the catchy name.” It is because at Zappos, “every customer receives service based on all of his previous interactions with the company. The company logs a customer’s interactions through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, websites, and phone. Every customer service representative can access all of this information” (Deirdre M., 2014). Zappos’ ability to utilize business analytics solutions and business intelligence solutions sets it apart and certainly makes it a company that is worth emulating.

Big Data & Knowledge Management

Both Kohls and Zappos utilize CKM and Big Data to their advantage. In a market that is driven by how many times you can effectively get someone to click trail into your site, Zappos especially has done a great job. With 75% of their sales coming from repeat customers, Zappos shows us how to leverage the data that has been collected.

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They have created an individualized experience that customers can count on and come back to.

Business Analytics and Business Intelligence solutions

Zappos is on quest in the industry. They are working towards creating a one on one customer experience. Technology such as SMS push notifications, personal retargeting, and triggered communications to name a few areas. Zappos is considered one of the top companies in there industry in how they handle their customers and there over all experience. For instance, “when Zappos receives a complaint via Twitter, the company does not respond with a request to contact customer service. Instead, customer service personnel respond directly and resolve the issue in the forum where the customer raised it” (Deirdre M., 2014). Zappos is also able to use data to personalize marketing as well as to identify and fix customer service failures.

Technology Benefit

Kohls is taking the next step in creating unique preferences of its customers. Recently they have over hauled is merchandising and inventory program to better serve its customers. They have gone to a merchandise operations management system by Oracle. This system will not only leverage best practices across users, but the use of predictive technology that can be used in store to provide offers to customers in real time as they are looking at that item.

Technology Solutions

Big Data and Knowledge management

Being customer focused and driving to provide our customers a unique tailored experience that will drive frequency of purchase and maintaining a repeat customer. As Thau (2014) notes, “big data offers a means to understand shoppers via myriad digital touch points – from their online purchases to their presence on social networks.” Big data also allows retailers like Kohls and support firms like Zappos to monitor consumers’ browsing habits—which are growing at a rapid pace thanks to mobile phones: consumers now have the power of the Internet on them at all times via their smart phones. Thau (2014) comments that mobile technology is now virtually everywhere: “more people have a cell phone than running water and 25% of the world will be on a social network - that’s what created all of this big data: 2.5 billion gigabytes [of data] is created per day.” All of this data will form the basis of retailers’ competitive advantage. The more data retailers are able to collect, the more they are able to know who their consumers are what their consumers want. The more they are able to target directly their consumers, the more successful their business will be. Information is the new gold in the Digital Era: it is also vital to survival. The reason all firms are going to have to shift to a big data dependent model is simple: “Information is going to be our generation’s next natural resource like steam was to the 19th century because there are a number of technology shifts and their convergence is happening at once” (Thau, 2014).

Business Analytics and business intelligence solutions

Just like Kohls we are looking for key technology that will integrate with an online presence, manage the inventory, shipping systems and order status. More specifically mirroring the Oracle retail merchandising operations management solution. The Oracle Retail implementation is “part of a larger business transformation designed to support Kohl’s ongoing growth and enable marketing and merchandising teams to anticipate customer demand, identify market opportunities, and roll out new products and promotions online and in stores” (Oracle, 2014). In other words, it is an all-encompassing, all-in-one technological approach to enhancing analytics and intelligence solutions.

Kohls’ approach to business analytics and intelligence solutions can be effectively modeled by our business because it is scalable, stable and part of a long-term strategy of embedding predictive technology into its retail operations: “By managing pricing and promotions from a unified view that delivers accurate, real-time insight from multiple sources, merchants will gain efficiencies with a more agile promotional pricing process,” notes Oracle (2014) regarding its working relationship with Kohls. On the retailer, Oracle (2014) states that “the company is using Oracle Retail to manage pricing for all items (or SKUs) on a store-by-store basis and for its e-commerce site, to preserve….....

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