799 - Chapter 11. Look Outward Angel <blockquote> <p><script> function OpenWin(url, w, h) { if(!w) w = 400; if(!h) h = 300; window. open (url, "_new", "width=" + w + ",height=" + h + ",menubar=no,toobar=no,scrollbars=yes", true); } function Print() { window.focus(); if(window.print) { window.print(); window.setTimeout('window.close();',5000); } } </script><span></span></p> <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="0"><tr valign="top"></tr></table> <table width="100%" height="20" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1"><tr></tr></table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr valign="top"> <td align="center"><table width="95%"><tr><td align="left"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"> <tr><td valign="top" height="5"><img src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/pixel.gif" width="1" height="5" alt="" border="0"></td></tr> <tr> <td><b><font size="1" color ="#0000FF">Team-Fly<img border="0" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/Fly-Logo.gif" width="81" height="25"></font></b></td> <td valign="top" align="right"> </td> </tr> </table> <hr size="1"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="76" rowspan="4"><img src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/0130409510/0130409510_xs.jpg" width="76" height="95" border="0"></td> <td valign="top">Internet-Enabled Business Intelligence<br>By William A. Giovinazzo<br> </td> </tr> <tr><td>Table of Contents</td></tr> <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td valign="bottom">Part 4. Building Relationships Over the Internet</td></tr> </table> <hr size ="1"> <br><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding ="0"><tr><td valign="top"> <h2>Chapter 11. Look Outward Angel</h2> <blockquote> <p><span>There are many companies that have a 1 percent share of an enormous market and have spent millions trying to get to 2 percent. It's perfectly acceptable if you're not the market share leader. Not every company can be. But businesses of all sizesfrom the corner store to a global conglomeratecan and should look at sales from a customer perspective. The investment required to find, convince, and ultimately acquire new customers can be significant. Adopting a customer share strategy requires that you look at your prospects and customers along a continuum, where the marketer methodically develops an ever-increasing level of loyalty. </span></p> <p><span>Tom Osenton</span><br><span>Customer Share Marketing</span><sup>[1]</sup></p> <blockquote><p><sup>[1]</sup> Osenton, Tom, <span>Customer Share Marketing</span>, Prentice Hall, 2002. Used by permission.</p></blockquote> </blockquote> <p>Earlier, we discussed the IEBI solution and its elements. We saw that as the Internet evolved, it caused organizations to change and affected business intelligence (BI). We then examined the Internet at the hardware level. We learned that by moving from single, monolithic systems to multitiered architectures, we change information dictatorships to information democracies. These structures enabled IEBI to reach deeply into the organization while expanding the entire value chain. We also examined the software of the Internet. We reviewed how Java is structured for the Internet and multitier architectures and how XML can be used as a means of exchanging both data and metadata. We discussed all the pieces of IEBI, from the applications to how they are brought together in a single information infrastructure. Now, let's look at IEBI in its entirety.</p> <p>Let's return to our good friend Billy Boy of Billy Boy Bowling Balls to see this in action. When we last visited with Billy Boy, his CIO, Miles Mody, had implemented a new information infrastructure. Figure 11.1 presents the applications that run on this structure. As we saw in Chapter 7, all of the main servers are maintained by the IT department. One server is dedicated to supporting the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications as well as real-time OLAP analyses and reporting. A second dedicated data warehouse server is responsible for the company's balanced scorecard application, activity-based costing, OLAP and data mining. Both of these servers are front-ended by an application server. Both the ERP/Operational Data Store (ODS) system and the data warehouse are based on the same database technology. The ETL process uses database procedures to transfer the data from one system to the other.</p> <center> <h5>Figure 11.1. Billy Boy Bowling Balls revised information infrastructure.</h5> <p><img border="0" width="500" height="385" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/0130409510/graphics/11fig01.gif" alt="graphics/11fig01.gif"></p> </center> <p>The legacy mainframe, responsible for the administrative applications, is also front-ended by an application server. In addition to supplying an interface to the various users, the application server is responsible for the Extraction, Translation, and Loading (ETL) of data for both the ODS and data warehouse. As new data is entered into the administrative system, the application server generates an XML document, which is passed to the ODS. Each night, the data is extracted in batch mode from the administrative system and sent to the data warehouse, again in the form of an XML document.</p> <p>Also, note the production department. J2ME processes drive the numerically controlled devices. In addition to controlling production, these applications report back status to the ODS and data warehouse. The data is then incorporated into the company's strategic reports and BI applications. The shipping department has fewer information processing requirements. Billy has opted , therefore, to supply this department with thin clients. Running on these thin clients are Java applets. The applets provide shipping information as well as data supporting entry by the dispatcher and loading dock supervisors.</p> <p>Each of Billy Boy's managers is provided with an IEBI portal. The content of each portal is dependent on the role of the manager. The portals are also <span>customizable,</span> allowing the manager to modify the portal to fit his or her individual needs and taste. An example of one such portal is presented in Figure 11.2. Each window in this portal is an application <span>portlet.</span> The portlet is a window on the Web page that provides information from a specific application. In the upper right-hand corner of the portal is an email portlet. To receive a particular email message, the manager simply selects the message. The portlet brings the manager into that specific application where he or she can review the email. The other portlets work in the same way. To go into the balanced score card application, the user selects which perspective within the scorecard he or she would like to review.</p> <center> <h5>Figure 11.2. Billy Boy Bowling Balls IEBI portal.</h5> <p><img border="0" width="486" height="357" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/0130409510/graphics/11fig02.gif" alt="graphics/11fig02.gif"></p> </center> <p>Notice how this one Web page brings together all the information needed by the manager. From this portal (or window), the user can view the state of the organization. If properly designed, this window becomes the decision maker's standard system interface. The decision maker can easily move from one application to the next in one integrated environment. Quite often, he or she need never know which application is supporting the queries; as far as the decision maker is concerned , this one portal <span>is</span> the information system. In Chapter 7 we discussed the abstraction of the different layers of the application stack. The IEBI portal abstracts the entire stack. Each application stack layer, from the hardware to the application itself, is abstracted by the portal.</p> <p>Billy Boy Bowling Balls' decision makers can now focus on what is important: the strategy of the organization. Let's imagine what this means in a very real and practical sense. On Monday morning, Billy Boy comes into the office and the first thing he does is log on to the system. Immediately, the IEBI portal in Figure 11.2 is displayed on his thin client. Among the various items on his screen, he notices that Earnings Per Share (EPS) is not increasing at the desired rate. He realizes there is a problem, but he is not certain of the cause. Billy Boy decides to examine the components of EPS to better understand what is causing this problem.</p> <p>He looks down the screen to examine the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of his organization. Each KPI is displayed in one of scorecard perspectives. The financial perspective confirms what he has seen in the graph above: Overall profitability is down. He also sees in this perspective that while the company has been doing well in reducing expenses, it has done a poor job in increasing sales. Billy decides that he wants to look at his strategy to understand what is happening with sales. He selects <span>View Strategy Map</span> from the list of business reports. The system displays the strategy map presented in Figure 11.3.</p> <center> <h5>Figure 11.3. Billy Boy Bowling Balls strategy map.</h5> <p><img border="0" width="500" height="298" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/0130409510/graphics/11fig03.gif" alt="graphics/11fig03.gif"></p> </center> <p>It doesn't take Billy Boy long to understand what is happening. The reduction in cost has been successful because they have delivered on their strategy. The IT department has implemented an ABC system and trained the managers of the production department on its use. He has seen how his production staff has used this system for budgeting and expense control. The program has been very successful. The other half of the picture is not bright; not all this stuff about developing a customer-driven culture and increasing customer lifetime value has really taken shape. Returning to the IEBI portal, Billy Boy sends an email to Miles Mody and the head of sales. He points to the reports he just reviewed and wants a plan of action from them by the end of the day.</p> <p>What do customer satisfaction, customer lifetime value, and customer-driven culture mean in an Internet age? These expressions weren't always snappy marketing clich s. There was a time when no one thought about <i>customer lifetime value</i> or being a <span>customer-driven organization.</span> No one thought about it because it was just an accepted way of doing business. If you were a tailor or grocer, you never thought about creating a mutually beneficial relationship. You knew Mrs. Barretta down the street. She was the one who made that great Bagne di San Giuseppe. You knew Mr. Barretta would stop in every night on his way home for a fresh loaf of bread. You could set your watch by it. When a nice shipment of peppers came in, or artichokes came in season , you would put some aside for her. You knew she would want them.</p> <p>The world changed, though. Somewhere along the way, we got the idea that antiseptic, homogenized warehouses of prepackaged industrial slop could somehow replace good ol' Mr. Piasentino and his counter of nickel candy . Part of this change was that the relationship between the company and the customer was lost. We turned to selling product in mass to leverage economies of scale. When dealing on such a large scale, we lost the ability to deal with individuals one on one. Chapter 12 discusses this situation in more detail as well as how the Internet can assist us in solving this problem.</p> <p>The key to building this better relationship is developing a better understanding of the customer. The old-time grocer knew us, which meant he knew our needs, wants, and behaviors. The Internet gives us the ability to develop this understanding of our customers again. In the old days, the corner grocer watched when you came into the store. He knew you and remembered what you did. In the big warehouse stores, they may be able to know what you bought, but they can't track what you put back on the shelf. They can't analyze which products you may have seen but decided not to buy. Chapter 13 discusses how, with the Internet, we can do this type of analysis. We look at how we can collect data to perform clickstream analysis.</p> <p>Once we have all this data, what do we do with it? In Chapter 3, we discussed data mining, and in Chapter 8, we discussed data mining with Java. In Chapter 14, we discuss how to apply data mining to the clickstream data to better understand customer behavior. Based on this behavior, we can help guide our customers through our site, enhancing their shopping experience. <span>Enhancing their shopping experience</span>doesn't that sound like a slick marketing phrase? While this may sound like fluff, there is substance behind it. We mean by this that we will help them fulfill their needs and desires. We will assist them in finding what they want and what they need. We will not try to cram a bunch of stuff down their throats or sell them products or services just to get their money. We will work with them so that they come to accept our company not just as a vendor, but as a trusted advisor. When we achieve this goal, we have truly developed an <span>enormous</span> strategic competitive advantage.</p> </td></tr></table> <hr size="1"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2"> <tr><td valign="top" height="5"><img src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/images/pixel.gif" width="1" height="5" alt="" border="0"></td></tr> <tr> <td><b><font size="1" color="#0000FF">Team-Fly<img border="0" src="/books/2/551/1/html/2/Fly-Logo.gif" width="81" height="25"></font></b></td> <td valign="top" align="right"> </td> </tr> </table> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"><tr><td valign="top" align="right">Top</td></tr></table> </td></tr></table></td> <td align="center"> </td> </tr> <tr><td colspan="3" align="center" valign="bottom"> <br><table width="100%"><tr><td height="25" valign="middle" colspan="4" align="center"> </td></tr></table> </td></tr> </table> </blockquote>
