Mining the data warehouse A 2006 survey found that BI software and data-mining tools were at the top of the CIO’s technology spending list. Chapter 8 Page 87 Kimberly Carr

Ben & Jerry’s BI Software – Business Objects Database – Oracle They track all the ingredients and the life of each and every pint of ice cream BI software allows Ben & Jerry’s officials to… Access and analyze Sales, finance, purchasing, and quality-assurance Ben and Jerry’s is an ice cream company, who uses BI software from business objects and a database software from Oracle. B&J track every pint of ice cream and every ingredient in their ice cream. The advantage of tracking every pint and every ingredient is that if a customer complains about a certain pint of ice cream the consumer affairs staff will match that pint of ice cream with all the supplier’s of the ingredients in that pint to pin point what was wrong with that pint of ice cream The BI tools allow B&J officials to analyze all the information that were collected by sales, finance, purchasing and quality-assurance. The company can determine what milk their customers prefer in their ice cream. The software allowed B&J to track more than 12500 customers in 2005. The information collected ranged from comments about the ingredients in ice cream to the social causes the company supports.

California Pizza Kitchen A leader in premium pizza market 130 full-service restaurants 26 states, D.C., and 5 foreign countries Before BI tools Used spreadsheets to plan and track the financial statements and line items Finance team had difficulty with the volumes of data and complex calculations It would take several weeks to prepare one version of the financial statements Founded in 1985, there are according to the case study there are 130 rest. In 26 states, D.C., and 5 foreign countries. Before BI tools… CPK used spreadsheets to plan and track its financial statements and line items. Finance team had a hard time managing the volumes of data, complex calculations and constant changes to the spreadsheets It took several weeks with two people working full time to prepare one version of the financial statements and future forecasting Not only was the volume of data an issue for the finance team but they were limited by the software's inability to link cells and calculate across spreadsheets

California Pizza Kitchen After BI tools from Cognos Quarterly forecasting cycles have been reduced from 8 days to 2 days The finance team can now focus on interpreting the financial statements instead of spending all their time preparing the statement CPK is using BI tools from Cognos It has reduced the time from 8 days to 2 days for preparing the quarterly forecasting cycles And it has allowed the finance team the ability to focus on interpreting the data instead of just preparing the statements

Noodles & Company 70 restaurants Before BI tools from Cognos Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin Before BI tools from Cognos IT and finance professionals spent days compiling the reports requested by other departments Sales, marketing, human resources, and real estate

Noodles & Company After BI tools from Cognos Reports are being accessed daily online through Noodles & Company’s web site This provides users with a single 360-degree view of the company at that point in time Users are benefiting from the flexible query and reporting capabilities Allowing them to see patterns in data and adapt their strategies Identifying the patterns in the data could open the door for a new business opportunity

Question #1 Explain how Ben & Jerry’s is using business intelligence tools to remain successful and competitive in a saturated market. Ben & Jerry’s is using BI tools to track all of their ingredients so when a customer calls with a concern or question they can look up that specific pint of ice cream and where all the ingredients came from and correct the issue. They are using BI tools to meet the needs of their customers and to constantly improve their products.

Question #2 Identify why information cleansing is critical to California Pizza Kitchen’s business intelligence tool’s success. I think that information cleansing is important for California Pizza Kitchen so they can provide the most important information in real time for their stores. Since there are 130 restaurants all over world BI tools provides the fastest and most accurate way for the restaurants to communicate with each other.

Question #3 Illustrate why 100 percent accurate and complete information is impossible for Noodles & Company to obtain. It is impossible for Noodles & Company to have 100 percent accurate and complete information because there are over 70 restaurants throughout the U.S. and the likely hood that all of those restaurants reporting 100 percent complete and accurate information is every unlikely; therefore, the information accessed through their website will always have a certain margin of error.

Question #4 Describe how each of the companies above is using BI to gain a competitive advantage. Ben & Jerry’s is using BI tools to ensure that they have the best ingredients in their ice cream and if in some rare case their ice cream isn’t perfect they can correct the problem quickly. California Pizza Kitchen is using BI so all of their restaurants can have access to the most up to date information for forecasting as well as the financial state of the company Noodles & Company is using BI to connect all of their restaurants, so every manager can access the latest sales, marketing, human resources and financial information available for the company.

Current Information Ben & Jerry’s California Pizza Kitchen Environmental and Social Causes Still tracking all of their ingredients California Pizza Kitchen In the frozen pizza market Investors can access all the financial information from their website Noodles & Company Is still growing throughout the U.S.

Resources http://www.noodles.com/ http://www.benjerry.com/ http://www.cpk.com/