1. Introduction to Operations and Information Management

2. For Wednesday
Read five articles under the Additional Required Readings/Supply Chain Management folder on CULearn
Quiz 7 on Wednesday will cover these readings
On CULearn – Open 7:00 – 11:30 AM

3. For Friday Friday recitations in KOBL 320 or KOBL 380
Section 101: 9:00 – 9:50 AM in KOBL 380 – Noah
Section 102: 10:00 – 10:50 AM in KOBL 380 – Whitney
Section 103: 11:00 – 11:50 AM in KOBL 380 – Whitney
Section 104: 12:00 – 12:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Jason
Section 105: 12:00 – 12:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Addison
Section 106: 1:00 – 1:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Vimi
Section 107: 1:00 – 1:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Chris
Section 108: 2:00 – 2:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Nhan
Section 109: 2:00 – 2:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Chris
Section 110: 3:00 – 3:50 PM in KOBL 320 – Addison
Bring your laptops or thumb drives to your recitation so you can continue working with your data

4. Interim Project Deliverable Due in Recitation This Friday, March 12th
For Friday
Interim Project Deliverable Due in Recitation This Friday, March 12th

5. Midterm Review

6. Exam Appeal Process
Submit your exam to me for re-grading no later than TODAY (Monday, March 8th by 4 pm)
I will re-grade the entire exam
You may gain or lose points as a result of this process
I have copied exams; if you submit an exam different than what you submitted originally, you will get an F in the course and will be subject to disciplinary action

7. Question 1 (30 points)
Assume your customer is someone who needs a general understanding of Colorado casino gaming. Create a flowchart to document the process of a customer entering a casino from the moment he/she enters the door through the point where they leave the casino. Evaluation of your flowchart will be dependent on the quality of your work including accuracy, appropriate detail for your customer, and neatness.

8. Question 1 (30 points)
2 points each, up to 30 points total, for inappropriate, incomplete and/or improper sequencing of flowchart symbols
Full credit is available for different versions as long as the answer meets the previously stated parameters
Up to 8 points off if messy, difficult to read and/or disorganized

10. Question 2 (10 points)
Why do successful firms need business-savvy IT personnel and IT-Savvy business persons?

11. Question 2 (10 points)
Work together to achieve the business’s KPIs (align IT and corporate strategy)
Business Savvy IT Personnel:
Explain BI solutions to business people in words they understand
Train business users in the use of the new technology
Understand the business and help it choose technology that will help it achieve its objectives (e.g. maximize gaming net revenue)
IT Savvy Business People:
Answer business questions by utilizing multi-dimensional analysis in order to maximize gaming net revenue
Clearly explain to the IT personnel the information requirements of the business
Help train other business users on how to utilize the BI solution

12. Question 3 (10 points)
What does aligning information systems and corporate strategy mean, and why is this important for your casino development project?

13. Question 3 (10 points)
Aligning IS and Corporate Strategy means: (5 points)
Linking business objectives and tactics to IS objectives and tactics
Business objectives involve the overall vision and strategy of the business, such as product innovator or customer relationship, and its goals, such as increase revenue by x%
Business tactics involve tasks that when done achieve the company’s objectives
IS objectives and tactics are used to identify and implement the technology necessary to capture the information needed by the business to accomplish it’s business objectives and tactics

14. Question 3 (10 points)
Aligning IS and Corporate Strategy for our Casino Project: (5 points)
Our business objective is to maximize gaming net revenue
One of our business tactics will be to determine the appropriate floor layout to maximize gaming net revenue
One of our system objectives would be to identify technology that increases black-jack speed of play to an average of 90 hands per hour
One of our system tactics would be to research technology available to accomplish this objective

15. Question 4 (10 points)
Describe in detail the concept of multi-dimensional analysis? What is a relevant example of multi-dimensional analysis for your casino project?

16. Question 4 (10 points) Multi-dimensional analysis involves (5 points):
Using BI tools to discover new patterns and trends in the data collected by OLTP systems and consolidated into a data warehouse (OLAP system)
These discoveries are then used to gain valuable insights, either operational or strategic, which can be used to take actions that will accomplish our business objectives, such as maximize gaming net revenue
These actions can be measured against key performance indicators to see if they are having the desired results
Some tools used to gain this insight include transforming data in the data warehouse into data marts, or cubes, that involve measures that are sliced and diced by various dimensions. This data can also be rolled up or drilled down into, depending on the level of summarization or detail desired (often depends on the level of user of this data)

17. Question 4 (10 points)
Multi-dimensional analysis for our Casino project (5 points):
A relevant example of multi-dimensional analysis involves using coin-in and AGP data to determine our floor layout
We must start with the measures of coin-in and AGP and slice and dice these measures by the dimensions of time (by month and by day), by game and by square feet
This information will provide us with KPIs such as ‘Win per Unit’ that can later be used to measure the actual Casino performance

18. Question 5 (10 points)
Why is it important to grade opportunities by importance and difficulty? What relevance is this process to your casino project?

19. Question 5 (10 points)
Grading opportunities by importance and difficulty: (5 points)
By grading opportunities by importance and difficulty, it enables the organization to select opportunities which will have the biggest impact on the company’s objectives
Grading opportunities by importance includes actionability, materiality (which opportunity adds the most to the bottom line), tactical vs. strategic (how well opportunity aligns with company goals).
Grading opportunities by difficulty includes complexity of calculations, cross-functional and availability of data
Opportunities with high importance/hard (high difficulty) are good candidates for a pilot project. Those with high importance/easy (low difficulty) are good candidates for early successes

20. Question 5 (10 points)
Grading opportunities by importance and difficulty for our Casino project: (5 points)
By grading opportunities by importance and difficulty, we were able to determine which opportunity areas to pursue for our project objective of maximizing gaming net revenue
An example of a high importance, hard to implement idea is a card membership program. This program increases productivity by reducing the number of cash/chip transactions, while also collecting data about our most profitable customers. This is hard because it is cross-functional and requires data collection at all points of Casino/customer interaction.

21. Question 6 (30 points)
The consulting company you work for just signed a contract with a major retailer. The retailer is having difficulty meeting its profit targets and has asked you and your team to investigate the issue and develop action plans. By demonstrating your knowledge of course material covered to date, describe in substantial detail the steps you will take to meet the client’s demands.

22. Question 6 (30 points)
Step 1: Design a Business Intelligence Solution that will provide the information needed to determine why the retailer is having trouble meeting its profit targets
Do your homework by asking questions to determine who will use the information (higher level or lower level personnel), where the information will be used (business units, functional areas) and what information is needed (level of detail, measures and dimensions)
Share and collect ideas by brainstorming with selected groups to identify information needs (measures and dimensions) and record these in a BI Blueprint
Evaluate alternatives by splitting the blueprint into opportunity areas, grading opportunities by importance and difficulty and creating a BI scorecard to determine which opportunities to pursue

23. Question 6 (30 points)
Step 2: Use opportunity areas to create BI solutions that will improve inefficient processes and have the most positive impact on the business objectives
Document the as-is processes in order to find disconnects, inefficiencies, eliminate unnecessary steps, etc.
Design the to-be processes by fixing the problems identified and benchmarking the as-is against competitors and other best practices (iterative process)
Identify and implement the solution(s) that best accomplish the client’s objectives

24. Question 6 (30 points)
Step 3: Implement the BI solution and reengineered processes and continually monitor for incremental improvements
Prepare for process reengineering by gaining executive support/consensus
Think big and start small by balancing the big picture with small successes
Continually/iteratively improve the process designs by measuring the organization’s performance against its KPIs using multidimensional analysis (slicing/dicing, roll-up/drill down, and ad-hoc reporting)