MIS CASE STUDY (CHAPTER 5) IT INFRASTRUCTURE AND EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES

11.      Why would a customer database be so useful for a company such as Forbes or Kodak?  What would happen if these companies had not kept their customer data in database?

A customer database is helpful to companies like Kodak because it lets them see who their customers are, so they can market specifically to them, and it lets them know what their customers are purchasing. If these companies did not have customer databases then they would have to find another way to gather the same information, IE: surveys. The information that gets housed after a customer purchases something is crucial in marketing strategies and production strategies. A company like Kodak could figure out which product is selling a lot of which is not selling and ramp up production or cut don production. Kodak could also market to specific age groups or specific regions with the information they gather from purchases. 

An entity would be a customer’s name, and the attributes would be their address, purchase history. An entity could also be an age group. Attributes could include specific age, where they are from, what they purchase, what they would like to purchase. 

The profile of buyers for kodaks c130 multi-function printer can be differentiated from that of people who purchase kodak's more advanced esp office 6150 printer. Armed with that information Kodak is able to target each type of customer more precisely with its retail packaging, product descriptions, and advertising placements. Instead of advertise its entire ink-jet printer in a broad publication, Kodak will target prospective 6150 buyers through a lower-cost combination of print ads in niche magazines, web banner ads on selected sits, and e-mail lists of small-office or home-office owners. Lastly, Kodak’s also though the data base to measure the actual effect of promotional offers, customer segmentation, and messaging across all of its channels.

In addition, if the company not kept their customer data in database it would cause inconvenience and disoriented to the company. First, the companies are hard to predict the potential consumer. The consumer taste and preferences is difficult to forecast without using customer database,the company don't have idea to learn detail about customer tendency. Besides that,the company can not set a actual target market without the database collection, because the market trend always changing. Thus, the company need the information to make an alignment to the production to satisfy the customer need,so that they can maximize their profit. On the other hand, the company without the customer database will break off the relationship with the customer. Normally, customer database is use to keep the customer record, so that the company can keep in touch with their customer and receive feedback from them. Therefore, the company can always update their product and service according to the customer specification.

22.    List and describe two entities and several of their attributes that might be found in Kodak’s marketing database.

There are two entities found in Kodak’s marketing database which is supplier and part. Oracle customer database and third-party database vendors is the example of supplier who is collect the Kodak’s customer database and transfer it to the Kodak’s as a output. However, part is Kodak’s which receive the database from the supplier and they have to pay money for the supplier to analysing the customer database. Besides that, they have several attributes that might be found in Kodak’s marketing database. First and foremost, Oracle customer database, which maintain data on 50 million customers compiled from direct purchases and registrations on Kodak’s Web site and photo sharing site,customer-service interaction, product registrations from retail store purchases, and interactions from social networks. This situation will help Kodak’s understanding their customer trend and they are able to do renovate for their products and services. In addition, third-party database vendors will supply customer data with demographic and psychographic information, so that Kodak’s  can know the customer wants and try their best to satisfying the customer preferences. Furthermore, the Kodak’s company has consolidated data on all of its marketing activities, including customer targets, campaign plans, budgets , list, and results. On the other hand, Kodak’s has been able to replace its crude customer “personas” with detailed in depth profiles of customer groups and buying patterns based on the actual data. Armed with that information, Kodak is able to target each type of customer more precisely with its retail packaging, product descriptions , and advertising placements. Lastly, Kodak can measure the actual effect of promotional offers, customer segmentations, and messaging across all of its channels with the customer database.

33.How did better data management improve each company’s business performance? Give examples of two decisions that were improved by mining these customer databases.

Data management can imrpove each company’s business performance by analysing customer database , supplier database and other business partnership database. From the customer database, the company can finding out about their customer’s purchasing habits, opinions and preferences. Armed with these information, company is able to capture the customer need and continuously update their product and service to fulfill the customer wants. Besides that, they can also create new products and services to stimulate the existing market. Moreover, profiling individual customers and groups of customer to market more effectively and to increase sales. The company can do segmentation market, thus they will more easier to manage the data record. With the precise database the company are able to set a target market, so that they can maximize the profit. Nevertheless, customer database will changing the way the company run  their business to improve customer service. The company will according to the situation of the customer survey to renew the business operation to convenience the customer.

In addition, supplier database also important for improving company business performance. Understanding more about your supply chain will help you establish priorities for working more closely with customers and suppliers.Businesses that get closer to their suppliers are more likely to get better performance out of them. There are technological and logistical

steps that can be taken, which we will review shortly – but at the heart of getting closer to a key supplier is the need to understand how that supplier works and who its key personnel are, and then build a two-way trust between the two firms. A small firm that will sack a supplier instantly upon being offered a marginal cut in prices is not likely to get the best out of its new

supplier – who will (inevitably) reason that it in turn faces being sacked as soon as a better price comes around the corner. Therefore, data management have to make a choice to choose the right suppliers. There are few benefit that choose the right suppliers will getting control of stock and production. A critical factor in company supply chain is capacity to hold stock of purchased goods or raw materials. If company cannot hold much stock,then they will need suppliers that are able to deliver new stock in small quantities at short notice. On the other hand, if company are able to breathe cost of holding significant stocks, this may enable the company to save money by buying in bulk, or to take advantage of price fluctuations in the marketplace. However, how the company handle stock can have a massive impact on their customer service and profit margins. Many businesses are now concentrating more on efficient stock management to cut warehousing costs while still being able to meet customer demand. To be able to manage company stock more effectively, the company will need to gather accurate information about the volume of orders that company business deals with. This will enable the company to assess how much stock to hold, how much to keep in reserve, how often to replenish etc. Besides that, for many businesses, there is a lot of scope to smooth and simplify production processes to save time, cut unnecessary costs and become more competitive as a result. Automating the links between company various production processes means that information can flow more quickly. Once company were identified logjams and established what is causing delays, you can then remove unnecessary obstacles and streamline processes.

Lastly, at its simplest, a successful business partnership can mean that company start to win

business that company would not have won without the partnership. Thus, data management play a vital role to keep partnership record and continuous coordinate with each other. Each partner can offer the other partner access to or an introduction to new markets. Therefore, the company can access to a new market to introduce their product so that they can also increase the market share. Besides that, one partner is able to add value to a product or service that the other partner can then use to create new business. The partnership can share their technologies and knowledge to each other to improve every level of department, so that they can work more efficiency and effectiveness.

Furthermore,data mining derives its name from the similarities between searching for valuable business information in a large database and mining a mountain for a vein of valuable ore. There can divide into two: Automatic prediction of trends and behaviours and Automatic discovery of previously unknown patterns. In the Automatic prediction of trends and behaviours,data mining automates the process of finding predictive information in large databases. Questions that traditionally required extensive hands-on analysis can now be answered quickly and directly from the data. A typical example of a predictive problem is targeted marketing. Data mining uses data on past promotional mailings to identify the targets most likely to maximize return on investment in future mailings. Other predictive problems include forecasting bankruptcy and other forms of default, and identifying segments of a population likely to respond similarly to given events.

However, within Automatic discovery of previously unknown patterns, data mining tools sweep through databases and identify previously hidden patterns. An example of pattern discovery is the analysis of retail sales data to identify seemingly unrelated products that are often purchased together. Other pattern discovery problems include detecting fraudulent credit card transactions and identifying anomalous data that could represent data entry keying errors. In the short word, mining customer database can improve the sales market and predict the customer need and wants in the future, so that the company can forecast the potential market to maximize profit.