Case Analysis: The Cincinnati Zoo

1. What are the problems with the existing system of the Cincinnati Zoo?
The problem with their system is that their point of sale system is outdated.
Their system does not give enough information on what is happening in the zoo.
Another problem is that they have 4 separate point of sale system in one platform.

2. What are the data that are available to the zoo management and staff?
 Admission
 Membership
 Retail sales
 Food service sales.

3. How can these data be used to help the following perform their work better to achieve the business
objectives of the Cincinnati Zoo?
a. Zoo administrators
 Increase attendance and revenues
Management can increase the customer attendance by using the data gathered from Admission
and Membership. Using this they can make advertisements based on what the visitors enjoyed
about the zoo. With this it can help attract more visitors and more visitors means more revenue
to gain.
 Boost sales for food and retail
Management can use the data from Retail and Food service sales to know what kind of product
that they need to boost its sales numbers by seeing what products are in demand.
 Optimize labor costs
Management can have a better understanding of demands from patterns seen from the data so
that the management can comply with these demands.
 Maximize the workforce
Management can instruct the workers more efficiently by using the data from the Admission
and Membership to know which areas of the park needs more workers to be in.
b. Zoo staff
 Increase attendance and revenues
The staff can help by using the data from the Admissions and Membership to know which
visitors are frequent visitors. With this they can talk to them and help promote the park more to
increase its visitor’s numbers.
 Boost sales for food and retail
The staff can help promote the best products to the visitors which they gathered from the data
of Retail and Food service sales.
 Optimize labor costs
With the staff knowledge of the data they can easily understand what the visitor’s demands are
and can know what they can to comply with their demands.
 Maximize the workforce
With the data the staff can be ready to work on areas that are more in need of workforce and
can easily work more efficiently.
4. What solutions can be provided for the following stakeholders so that the business objectives of
Cincinnati Zoo are achieved? Explain in detail the proposed solution for each stakeholder. In each
solution, identify which type of analytics will be applied (i.e., descriptive, predictive or prescriptive).
a. Zoo visitors
With predictive analytics it can help the business by predicting the customers most likely to do
in the zoo. What areas they are likely to visit, what food they will eat or what item they will buy. Using
this data we can enhance the customer's experience by bringing more supply to the retail shop that the
customer will buy and food that the customer likes to eat.
b. Zoo management
With Prescriptive analytics it can help the management by optimizing the cost needed to run the
zoo with the data we can look for methods to gain the best outcome.
c. Zoo staff members
With Descriptive analytics it can help the staff to maximize its work by identifying which areas of
the park are needed for more staff