ASSIGNMENT 1 FRONT SHEET

Qualification BTEC Level 5 HND Diploma in Computing

Unit number and title 1641: Business Intelligence

Submission date Date Received 1st submission

Re-submission Date Date Received 2nd submission

Student Name PHAM TRAN BA HOANG Student ID GCD18754

Class Assessor name Phyo Min Tun

Student declaration

I certify that the assignment submission is entirely my own work and I fully understand the consequences of plagiarism. I understand that
making a false declaration is a form of malpractice.

Student‟s signature HOANG

Grading grid

P1 P2 P3 M1 M2 D1 D2
 Summative Feedback:  Resubmission Feedback:

Grade: Assessor Signature: Date:

Lecturer Signature:
 Content
Introduce the basic information of a dataset .............................................................................. 9
I. Name dataset: Biodiversity by County - Distribution of Animals, Plants and Natural
Communities ..................................................................................................................... 9
II. Purpose ......................................................................................................................... 9
III. Basic Information ....................................................................................................... 9
1. Metadata Last Updated ........................................................................................ 9
2. Date Created ........................................................................................................ 9
3. Data Provided by: ................................................................................................ 9
4. Organization ........................................................................................................ 9
5. Time Period ......................................................................................................... 9
6. Posting Frequency ............................................................................................... 9
7. Dataset Owner: .................................................................................................... 9
8. Contact Information ............................................................................................. 9
9. Coverage: ............................................................................................................. 9
10. Granularity ........................................................................................................ 9
V. Sample data set ........................................................................................................... 10
VI. Conclude ................................................................................................................... 10
LO1 Discuss business processes and the mechanisms used to support business decision-
making ..................................................................................................................................... 11
I. Examine, using examples, the terms ‗Business Process‘ and ‗Supporting Processes‘ 11
1. What is Business Process? ................................................................................. 11
1.1. The 7 steps of business process.............................................................. 12
Step 1: Define your goals ............................................................. 12
Step 2: Plan and map your process ............................................... 12
Step 3: Set actions and assign stakeholders .................................. 12
Step 4: Test the process ................................................................ 12
Step 5: Implement the process ...................................................... 12
Step 6: Monitor the results............................................................ 12
Step 7: Repeat ............................................................................... 12
1.2. Types of Business Process ..................................................................... 12
1.3. Importance Of Business Process ............................................................ 12
1.4. What will happen if the business process is not applied? ...................... 13
2. Business Process Management (BPM) .............................................................. 14
3. What is Supporting Processes? .......................................................................... 14
3.1. Define .................................................................................................... 14
3.2. For instance, support processes include ................................................. 15
3.3. Related terms and methods .................................................................... 15
3.4. Related management field...................................................................... 15
II. Differentiate between unstructured and semi-structured data within an organisation 16
1. Structured data ................................................................................................... 16
2. Semi-Structured data.......................................................................................... 16
3. Unstructured data ............................................................................................... 16

4. Differences between Structured, Semi-structured and Unstructured data ......... 17

5. Conclude ............................................................................................................ 18
5. 1 Data Structured ...................................................................................... 18
Advantages ................................................................................... 18
 Disadvantages ............................................................................... 18
Sources of Structured Data ........................................................... 18
5. 2 Data Semi-Structured ............................................................................. 18
Advantages of Semi-structured Data ............................................ 18
Disadvantages of Semi-structured data ........................................ 18
Sources of semi-structured Data ................................................... 19
5. 3 Data Unstructured .................................................................................. 19
Advantages of Unstructured Data................................................. 19
Disadvantages Of Unstructured data ............................................ 19
Sources of Unstructured Data ....................................................... 19
5. 4 Conclude................................................................................................. 20
III. Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of using application software as a mechanism
for business processing ................................................................................................... 21
1. The benefits of using application software as a mechanism for business
processing .............................................................................................................. 21
2. The drawbacks of using application software as a mechanism for business
processing .............................................................................................................. 22
3. Conclude ............................................................................................................ 23
LO2 Compare the tools and technologies associated with business intelligence functionality
................................................................................................................................................. 24
I. Compare the types of support available for business decision-making at varying levels
within an organisation ..................................................................................................... 24
1. What is Decision-making? ................................................................................. 24
2. Top 3 Levels of Management Decisions............................................................ 24
Strategic Levels of Decision-Making Authority ................................... 24
Tactical Decision Making ..................................................................... 25
Operational-Level Planning .................................................................. 25
II. Justify, with specific examples, the key features of business intelligence functionality
26
1. Six Key Features of any Business Intelligence Solution.................................... 26
1.1. Executive dashboards ............................................................................ 26
1.2. Location Intelligence ............................................................................. 26
1.3. ―What if‖ analysis .................................................................................. 26
1.4. Interactive reports .................................................................................. 26
1.5. Meta data layer....................................................................................... 26
1.6. Ranking reports ...................................................................................... 27
2. Conclude ............................................................................................................ 27
III. Compare and contrast a range of information systems and technologies that can be
used to support organisations at operational, tactical and strategic levels ...................... 28
1. A comparison of different kinds of Information Systems .................................. 28

1.1. Transaction Processing Systems .............................................................28

1.1.1. What is a Transaction Processing System? .................................28
1.1.2. Functions of a TPS ......................................................................28
1.1.3. The role of TPS ...........................................................................28
1.2. Management Information Systems .........................................................28
1.2.1. What is a Management Information System? .............................28
1.2.2. Functions of a MIS .....................................................................29
1.2.3. The role of MIS ..........................................................................29
 1.3. Decision Support Systems ......................................................................29
1.3.1. What is a Decision Support System? ..........................................29
1.3.2. Functions of a DSS .....................................................................29
1.3.3. The role of DSS ..........................................................................30
1.4. Executive Information Systems ..............................................................30
1.4.1. What is an EIS? ..........................................................................30
1.4.2. Functions of an EIS.....................................................................30
1.4.3. The role of EIS............................................................................30
2. Information system at an operational, tactical and strategic level ......................31
Strategic Level .......................................................................................31
Operational Level ...................................................................................31
Tactical Level .........................................................................................31
3. Conclude .............................................................................................................32
Reference ..................................................................................................................................33
Introduce the basic information of a dataset
N ote: Data set referenced by

Data.ny.gov. 2020. [online]

Available at:
<https://data.ny.gov/Energy-Environment/Biodiversity-by-County-Distribution-of-A n imals-
Pla/tk82-7km5>
[Accessed 26 March 2020].
I. Name dataset: Biodiversity by County - Distribution of Animals, Plants and Natural
Communities
II. Purpose
The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) collects and maintains several datasets
on the locations, distribution and status of species of plants and animals. Information on distribution
by county from the following three databases was extracted and compiled into this dataset.
III. Basic Information
1. Metadata Last Updated: June 11, 2019
2. Date Created:July 14, 2014
3. Data Provided by: New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation
4. Organization: New York Natural Heritage Program and Division of Fish, Wildlife,
and Marine Resources
5. Time Period: Current
6. Posting Frequency: As needed
7. Dataset Owner: NY Open Data
8. Contact Information: NaturalHeritage@dec.ny.gov
9. Coverage: Statewide
10. Granularity: County
IV. Criteria to Collect
County
NY Listing Status
Category
Federal Listing Status
Taxonomic Group
State Conservation Rank
Taxonomic Subgroup
Global Conservation Rank
Scientific Name
Distribution Status
Common Name
Year Last Documented

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 V. Sample data set

VI. Conclude
The information columns of the data are necessary information, but I think that information can add some information to make it easier to manage
such as how much, where is the location, etc.

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LO1 Discuss business processes and the mechanisms used to support business
decision-making
I. Examine, using examples, the terms „Business Process‟ and
„Supporting Processes‟.
1. What is Business Process?
A business process is a series of interlinked steps which are assigned to every stakeholder
for a specific work to deliver a product or service to the customer.
Each stakeholder performs a specific task they are specialised in to achieve a concrete goal.
These steps are often repeated many times by multiple users in a standardized and
optimized way.
Example: BPMN Business Process - Book Lending Example
A Business Process Diagram using BPMN 2.0 depicting a library book lending example.

This BPMN diagram is configured with simulation script to support a simulation that
displays a UI dialog, that interacts with the user, when running the simulation.

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 1.1. The 7 steps of business process
Step 1: Define your goals
What is the purpose of the process? Why was it created? How will you know if it is
successful?
Step 2: Plan and map your process
What are the strategies needed to achieve the goals? This is the broad roadmap for the
process.
Step 3: Set actions and assign stakeholders
Identify the individual tasks your teams and machines need to do in order to execute the
plan.
Step 4: Test the process
Run the process on a small scale to see how it performs. Observe any gaps and make
adjustments.
Step 5: Implement the process
Start running the process in a live environment. Properly communicate and train all
stakeholders.
Step 6: Monitor the results
Review the process and analyze its patterns. Document the process history.
Step 7: Repeat
If the process is able to achieve the goals set for it, replicate it for future processes.
1.2. Types of Business Process
Primary Processes: These are the fundamental processes of a business through which a
company delivers the end product to the customer. Every step involving in these processes
works towards adding value to the final offering.
Support Processes: Support processes don‘t add value to the final product directly but
they make an environment for primary processes to operate efficiently and effectively.
These processes support the everyday operations of an organisation.
Management processes: Management processes govern operations, corporate
governance and strategic management. These processes set goals and standards which lead to
the efficient and effective working of primary and support processes. Besides planning, these
processes also involve monitoring and control of other business processes. Management
processes are used to manage a business through strategic planning, tactical and operational
planning.
1.3. Importance Of Business Process
Reduced expenditure and risk: a business process reduce expenditure and risk by
already laying out the most efficient ways of doing the jobs considering the potential future
shortcomings.

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 Reduce human error: it reduces the human error by distributing tasks to people who
are specialised in it.
Improving efficiency: it enhances the productivity of a department by mapping
out moves and relevant steps which are best for the business.
More customer focused: a business process is a customer-oriented move. It
continuously updates the company about the customer wants and reviews about the
product/service.
Bridging communication gaps: It bridges the communication gap between the
company and its customers through reviews and market research.
Better time management: business process improves time efficiency by developing
strategies and flowcharts to minimize the time taken to do certain activities.
Adaption of new technology: business process often keeps changing and improves
over time. The company adopts new technologies to keep their feet on the ground by
improving business process according to the latest technologies.
1.4. What will happen if the business process is not applied?
Failure to recognise any problem: a company which doesn‘t focus on its business
processes will often fail to recognise the exact problem that prevented it to achieve the goals
due to its inability to set standardised processes.
Low motivation in employees: due to the absence of a competent business process, the
employees of the company will get demotivated as they might get placed in the departments
for which they do not hold enough knowledge.
Lack of change implementation: companies will often repeat the same errors over
and over again as there will be no system to recognise the problem and to implement
change in the process.
Time-consuming efforts: without proper flowcharts and workflow, specific work will
take more time to be done than normal.
Lower efficiency: if there is no proper business process a company cannot be
productive and its efficiency will be lower than a company with a proper business process.
A business process increases efficiency by laying out steps and possible ways to do a task.
High risk and increased expenditure: companies which do not have an adequate
business process they often failed to see the future risks and they are also incompetent to
find a cost-effective way to do a task.

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 2. Business Process Management (BPM)
Business process management focuses on discovering, optimizing, modelling,
monitoring and analysing the business activities and managing previous business
processes. Its primary agenda is to manage the business
process to achieve tangible and intangible goals. Business process management leads its
way to other steps such as business process design and business process modelling.
Business process management often involves the use of BPM tools which adds value to a
company in terms of higher productivity, reduced expenditure, better control and higher
visibility.
Business process management tools are used for optimising, measuring and automating a
business process. They effectively help in managing the business process. Some best BPM
tools available in the market are Appian, Comidor, Processmaker and Pega.
3. What is Supporting Processes?
3.1. Define
Supporting Processes is performed to maintain integrity of the product or service developed
by ―primary processes‖ as well as it ensures that products and processes comply with
predefined provisions and plans. Supporting processes accompany the ―primary processes‖,
which do not typically result in final products of the organization, but rather indirectly
contributes to the value added. Documentation, configuration management, verification,
training and audit process are all supporting processes

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 3.2. For instance, support processes include:
 Human Resource Management
 Financial Management processes
 Building and property management, cleaning and maintenance, Facility
management
 IT processes
 Procurement and sourcing processes (supplier selection processes, purchasing
services, purchasing materials, sourcing human and financial resources, etc.)
 Vendor Management processes
 Operational processes and routine operation and organization
management
 Risk Management processes
 Security Management processes
 Quality Management processes
 Corporate Governance processes
3.3. Related terms and methods:
 Administrative work
 Process Map
 Back office
 Resources (Business
 Business Process resources)
 Core Processes  Task management
 Workflow
3.4. Related management field:
 Innovation Management
 Risk Management
 Operations Management
 Security Management
 Process Management

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 II. Differentiate between unstructured and semi-structured data within an organisation.
1. Structured data
Structured data is data whose elements are addressable for effective analysis. It has been organized into a
formatted repository that is typically a database. It concerns all data which can be stored in database SQL in a
table with rows and columns. They have relational keys and can easily be mapped into pre-designed fields.
Today, those data are most processed in the development and simplest way to manage information. Example:
Relational data.

2. Semi-Structured data
Semi-structured data is information that does not reside in a relational database but that have some
organizational properties that make it easier to analyze. With some process, you can store them in
the relation database (it could be very hard for some kind of semi-structured data), but Semi-
structured exist to ease space. Example: XML data.

3. Unstructured data
Unstructured data is a data that is which is not organized in a pre-defined manner or does not have a
pre-defined data model, thus it is not a good fit for a mainstream relational database. So for
Unstructured data, there are alternative platforms for storing and managing, it is increasingly prevalent
in IT systems and is used by organizations in a variety of business intelligence and analytics
applications. Example: Word, PDF, Text, Media logs.

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 4. Differences between Structured, Semi-structured and Unstructured data:

PROPERTIES STRUCTURED DATA SEMI-STRUCTURED DATA UNSTRUCTURED DATA

Technology It is based on Relational database table It is based on XML/RDF It is based on character and binary data

Transaction management Matured transaction and various Transaction is adapted from DBMS not No transaction management and no
concurrency technique matured concurrency

Version management Versioning over tuples,row,tables Versioning over tuples or graph is Versioned as whole
possible

Flexibility It is sehema dependent and less It is more flexible than structuded data it very flexible and there is abbsence of
flexible but less than flexible than unstructured schema
data

Scalability It is very difficult to scale DB schema It‘s scaling is simpler than It is very scalable
sstructured data

Robustness Very robust New technology, not very spread —

Query performance Structured query allow complex Queries over anonymous nodes are Only textual query are possible
joining possible

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 5. Conclude
Before concluding, I will point out the strengths, weaknesses and sources of the data types:
5. 1 Data Structured
Advantages
Allows easier processing of data.
It allows information stored on disk very efficiently.
These are necessary for designing an efficient algorithm.
It provides management of databases like indexing with the help of hash tables and arrays.
We can access data anytime and anywhere.
It is secure way of storage of data.
Graphs models real life problems
It allows processing of data on software system
Disadvantages
It is applicable only for advanced users.
If any issue occurs it can be solved only by experts.
Slow access in case of some data types
Sources of Structured Data:
 SQL Databases
 Sensors such as GPS or RFID tags
 Spreadsheets such as Excel
 Network and Web server logs
 OLTP Systems
 Medical devices
 Online forms
5. 2 Data Semi-Structured
Advantages of Semi-structured Data:
The data is not constrained by a fixed schema
Flexible i.e Schema can be easily changed.
Data is portable
It is possible to view structured data as semi-structured data
Its supports users who can not express their need in SQL
It can deal easily with the heterogeneity of sources.
Disadvantages of Semi-structured data
Lack of fixed, rigid schema make it difficult in storage of the data

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 Interpreting the relationship between data is difficult as there is no separation of the schema
and the data.
Queries are less efficient as compared to structured data.
Sources of semi-structured Data:
 E-mails
 Zipped files
 XML and other markup languages
 Integration of data from different
 Binary executables sources
 TCP/IP packets  Web pages
5. 3 Data Unstructured
Advantages of Unstructured Data:
 Its supports the data which lacks a proper format or sequence
 The data is not constrained by a fixed schema
 Very Flexible due to absence of schema.
 Data is portable
 It is very scalable
 It can deal easily with the heterogeneity of sources.
 These type of data have a variety of business intelligence and analytics applications.
Disadvantages Of Unstructured data:
 It is difficult to store and manage unstructured data due to lack of schema and structure
 Indexing the data is difficult and error prone due to unclear structure and not having pre-
defined attributes. Due to which search results are not very accurate.
 Ensuring security to data is difficult task.
Sources of Unstructured Data:
 Web pages
 Reports
 Images (JPEG, GIF, PNG, etc.)
 Word documents and PowerPoint
 Videos persentations
 Memos  Surveys

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 5. 4 Conclude
As above, the data types are given the strengths and weaknesses of each type so the application
should be understood and selected appropriately for each data storage job. I will outline a few use
cases of the following data types:
Structured data suitable for for fast data lookup, data indexing, IP addressing, parsers,
dynamic memory allocation, process scheduling, dictionary, directory traversal, web
crawling, organizing file hierarchy etc.
Semi-structured data is located between structured and unstructured data. It contains certain
aspects that are structured, and others that are not. For example, X-rays and other large images
include most unstructured data - in this case, lots of pixels. These X-rays cannot be searched
and searched in the same way that a large relational database can be searched, queryed, and
analyzed.
Un-Structured data suitable for
Classification of images and sound. For example, a computer may be trained to identify
certain sounds that indicate a motor failure. This type of application is being used in cars and
aviation.
As input for predictive models. For example, organizations can extract entities (people,
places or objects), topics or emotions from the call center notes. That information can then be
combined with other customer information to build predictive models. For example, entities,
concepts and topics can be clustered by statistical techniques.
Chatbots in customer experience. For example, you have status with the company) and
what you have asked (using NLP to analyze the text), you will be directed to the appropriate
customer representative to answer your specific questions. . Other companies that use chatbots
for personalized shopping include understanding what you and others similar to you have
purchased, in addition to what you were looking for. These use cases require smart NLP-based
search as well as machine learning.
Finally, in reality we use unstructured data up to 80%. According to a recent report by Aberdeen
Group, businesses using unstructured data are twice as likely to be satisfied with their data quality
and usability. For regular unstructured data users, 60% are satisfied with the ability to share data
and 50% are satisfied with the accessibility, compared to 18% and 20%, of companies rarely Use
unstructured data.

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 III. Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of using application software as a
mechanism for business processing.
1. The benefits of using application software as a mechanism for business
processing.
Gain insight for growth. This is the main definition of BI. You can optimize business
intelligence for sales opportunities, lead generation, market analysis, customer
segmentation, etc. Combining relational database and multidimensional data models with
real-time data and cross-departmental collaboration, you can manipulate huge volumes of
data and surface insights in almost unlimited ways. Among others, you can identify growth
areas, assess supply and demand, measure product viability and determine your market
position. Moreover, data is sourced in real-time and analyzed through collaboration, further
enhancing your market knowledge. For instance, customer-facing staff like support and
sales can share feedback updates with top-level management, giving the latter an accurate
picture of current market behavior.
Address urgent issues. Crises can be immediately addressed if you have the right
information. BI solutions feature ad hoc reporting that let you input data and generate insights
in minutes, if not seconds. You can take a more informed action before a crisis further
escalates.Through a wizard interface, these solutions let you locate and extract critical data
off volumes of datasets and generate reports on the fly. This alone saves you time from
mindlessly browsing through databases. Does a social media rant affecting your whole market
or is it limited to a segment? Which branch has inventory surplus you can reallocate to a
needy branch in the next hour? How much a sudden current event set to impact on your
project? These questions need answers now and a BI solution makes that happen.
Ground data is immediate. Instead of waiting for weeks or months to collate and
process raw market data from frontline departments like sales, marketing and support, you
can now access real-time ground movement. BI solutions are equipped with powerful
multidimensional analytics that can be simultaneously used by teams. Data is dynamic and
moves with market events as they happen.Moreover, because many BI solutions today are
intuitive for
non-tech users, data analysis is widely adopted across the organization. Ground data sourced
by your frontline employees can be immediately cleansed, sorted and added to the central
repository, empowering the company with the latest information. Likewise, most BI
solutions feature collaboration tools that allow sharing of insights and best practices.
Get the big picture. Dashboards and scorecards are typical features in BI solutions.
They give senior executives a bird‘s eye view of the company‘s overall performance. Metrics
can be customized to align with your key performance indicators and reports generated in real
time.With dashboards you can plot the business health across a threshold range. Automatic
alerts can be triggered if you reach a minimum or maximum tolerance within the range.
Meanwhile, scorecards can be set to deliver periodic snapshots of your company‘s progress

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vis-a-vis its goals. Metrics and milestones are customized to align with your objectives
and overall strategy.
“See” the future. The more advanced BI solutions feature predictive analytics and
forecasting that enable you to anticipate future outcomes. These tools leverage historical,
recurring and current patterns to churn out calculated forecasts. The ability to anticipate
events lends to your company agility and flexibility, critical factors in highly disruptive
industries like tech, retail and entertainment.
2. The drawbacks of using application software as a mechanism for
business processing.
Inaccurate data leads to wrong forecasting . Too much dependence on BI software
can lead to clunky data gathering. Sales may feed the system with guesswork just to comply
with management‘s requirement. As a result, BI software churns out misleading or
inaccurate reports.
Unused or under-utilized complex and expensive BI tools. Some BI solutions have
comprehensive set features in an attempt to cover the whole range of business analytics.
But not all companies need to cover the whole nine yards, leading to some of these
sophisticated tools unused or underutilized.
Partly, the BI solution becomes a liability as its cost isn‘t optimized.
Steep learning curve. Because it involves complex analytics and uses data sources
managed by different teams, BI software has a higher-than-average learning curve among SaaS
solutions. It has a lot of moving hardware and software parts like multiple-stack architecture
and predictive analytics. Likewise, it leverages frontier technologies like multidimensional
analytics, big data and OLAP. These technologies are fast evolving that both vendors and users
have to play catch-up.
Difficulty in rollout among large enterprise. In a survey of 2,500 users
by Bi-Survey.com, one in ten enterprise Bl system rollouts take a year or more to implement.
However, small businesses only take one to three months, according to the survey.

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 3. Conclude
Finally, do we choose to use an application software as a mechanism for enterprise
processing? In my opinion, using an application software as a business processing
mechanism is necessary because it brings the benefits that I mentioned above. We will be
puzzled that using software has risks, it is obvious because everything always exists in two
aspects. To overcome the risks that I have written above, I would like to offer some solutions
as follows:
Inaccurate data leads to false predictions: This is partly because we do not
know how to handle raw data or inaccurate data, etc. To solve this problem, we need to
give it to someone who has experience in data processing, is careful and serious, or we
can handle the data when we learn carefully about the problem to be analyzed and
understand how (use) the software we use it for data analysis
Unused or under-utilized complex and expensive BI tools: This issue we need to
learn carefully about what we need to use of a software then learn the appropriate
business management software to Avoid buying software that doesn't use its
functionality. There is also some free software that we can use at a basic level without
the need for sophisticated functions for small and medium businesses that will cut
unnecessary costs.
Steep learning curve: In this regard we need to find a software that has specific
instructions on how to use it and we need to learn those instructions to be able to use the
software. Learning to guide the use of software is frequent because the software often
has to update errors during use such as: Security, function errors, miscalculation, etc.
Therefore, updating and learning are inevitable so we should choose the software of
reputable and famous enterprises, etc.
Difficulty in rollout among large enterprises: Slow deployment can have the
following reasons: a large number of employees but inexperience, inefficient
implementers, poor choice of software (difficult to use, etc.), have seen older software
change smarter software, etc. To overcome this, we need to give it to people with
implementation experience, who are careful and serious. Regular management software
training sessions for employees needed to understand the function and how it works
when using new software or replacing old software

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LO2 Compare the tools and technologies associated with business
intelligence functionality
I. Compare the types of support available for business decision-
making at varying levels within an organisation.
1. What is Decision-making?
Decision making is a vital component of small business
success. Decisions based on a foundation of knowledge
and sound reasoning can lead the company into long-
term prosperity; conversely, decisions made on the basis
of flawed logic, emotionalism, or incomplete
information can quickly put a small business out of
commission (indeed, bad decisions can cripple even
big, capital-rich corporations over time). All
businesspeople recognize the painful necessity of
choice. Furthermore, making these choices must be done
in a timely fashion, for as most people recognize,
indecision is in essence a choice in and of itself—a
choice to take no action Ultimately, what drives
business success is the quality of decisions and their
implementation.
Good decisions mean good business.
2. Top 3 Levels of Management Decisions
Strategic Levels of Decision-Making Authority
At the top of the corporate tree, the C-suite (chief executive officer, chief operating officer,
chief financial officer, presidents) are responsible
for strategic planning. This involves making long-term, big-picture

decisions and establishing policies that will impact the organization for at least the next five
years.
Examples include:
 Launching new products.
 Becoming a market leader.
 Gaining market share.
 Diversifying revenue streams.
 Going international.
 Improving customer satisfaction.
 Reducing financial waste.
 Developing the company's reputation as an ethical business.
Strategic decisions give direction to the growth and development of a business and are thus
critical to its success or failure. There's a level of risk associated with these decisions, and
senior leaders will do a lot of financial modelling and

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situational analysis to assess the risk based on predictions about future trading conditions.
Tactical Decision Making
Middle managers are largely responsible for tactical decision making. Their job is to
translate the company's strategic goals into action plans – for example, by specifying
work processes, cash levels, price points, inventory levels and

manpower requirements. The focus is on using resources and creating

performance standards to achieve the objectives set out in the strategic plan.
Tactical decisions cover a much shorter time frame than strategic decisions – somewhere in
the region of 12 to 36 months is normal – and are associated
with less uncertainty and risk. Examples of managerial-level decision making at the tactical
level include:
 Allocating budgets and resources.
 Manpower planning.
 Designing jobs and work processes, including the automation of tasks.
 Specifying technology to improve production efficiency.
 Pricing decisions.
 "Make or buy" decisions.
 Developing preventive maintenance plans to ensure that production runs
smoothly.
Operational-Level Planning
The bottom layers of management are responsible for making operational decisions. These
decisions are routine in nature and involve the day-to-day
operations of the business, such as: Who should do this job? What machines or resources
should we use? How many items of stock shall we reorder?
On any given day, a business may make hundreds or even thousands of operational decisions
without even realizing it. These decisions tend to be
administrative in nature and much smaller in scope and scale than tactical or strategic
decisions. They can usually be spelled out quantitatively in terms of time and targets. For
example, a line manager might decide how many units of production are needed to satisfy a
work order or how many labor hours to
allocate to a job.
While generally seen as low risk, operational decisions are the decisions that
employees experience on the ground. If decisions are regarded as oppressive or unethical, or
if too many constraints are placed on decisions made at this level, then employees are likely
to feel frustrated. Suppose, for example, an engineer spots a fault and knows exactly how to
make it right. If she has to wait several days for authorization from a higher up in order to fix
the problem, then she
may feel restricted in her job, underused, undervalued and distrustful of the decisions made
by management.

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 II. Justify, with specific examples, the key features of business
intelligence functionality.
1. Six Key Features of any Business Intelligence Solution
1.1. Executive dashboards
Personalized Dashboards deliver relevant, easily understood real-time data to business leaders,
enabling faster and better decision-making whilst lowering response times to internal and
external events. Executives need access to personalized dashboards that deliver easy-to-
understand KPIs and summary information on a regular, scheduled basis. Additionally,
exception reporting should alert the executive to unexpected events and scenarios that require
action. Personalized data delivery means executives are able to make decisions quickly,
without any guesswork, and without having to wade through irrelevant information.
1.2. Location Intelligence
Location Intelligence is the ability to map and visualize data in geographical formats.
Exploring and visualizing data sets based on spatial elements enables organizations to
understand their business operations from new perspectives, such as sales per region.
1.3. “What if” analysis
―What if‖ analysis allows businesses to assess the potential effects of critical business
decision before they‘re actually made. Using existing data, users can formulate strategies to
achieve business targets and avoid the default ―hit and miss‖ approach. This helps
management undertake accurate strategic planning.
1.4. Interactive reports
Interactive reports help users convert data into knowledge. They allow users to better
understand the analysis within reports, and the underlying data those reports are based on, to
support better decision-making. User should be able to:
 Drill down and through reports
 Conduct slice and dice OLAP analysis
 Apply analysis such as moving averages and regression to highlight trends in
data
 Use time-series zooming to scan large data sets to understand anomalies in their
data
 Use conditional formatting to set data alerts which highlight data
exceptions
1.5. Meta data layer
A metadata layer makes reporting easy and eliminates the need for coding and SQL,
allowing users and report writers to see and access information in simple business language.
Users solely interact with data at the meta data level without having to comprehend the
complexities of the underlying data or database.

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 1.6. Ranking reports
This feature allows you to create reports that order specific categories of information, from
across multiple dimensions, by selecting specific criteria. Ranking reports let you view the
best and worst performing aspects of your business. For example, you could create a report
that ranks your 10 best selling products, regions or sales people.
2. Conclude
I think the main features of the business intelligence function will be many requirements
depending on the purpose of business or individual use. However, through my research, I
think that the above functions are really necessary for BI tools. In addition, we also need
advanced features to support businesses such as Management, security and architecture of
the BI platform; Metadata management; Analysis dashboard; Explore visual interactively;
Content of embedded analysis; Advanced embedded analysis; Publish and share analytical
content; Easy to use and intuitive; be able to use platform leather, multi devices, etc

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 III. Compare and contrast a range of information systems and technologies that
can be used to support organisations at operational, tactical and strategic levels.
1. A comparison of different kinds of Information Systems
1.1. Transaction Processing Systems
1.1.1. What is a Transaction Processing System?
Transaction Processing System are operational-level systems at the bottom of the pyramid.
They are usually operated directly by shop floor workers or front line staff, which provide
the key data required to support the management of operations. This data is usually
obtained through the automated or
semi-automated tracking of low-level activities and basic transactions.
1.1.2. Functions of a TPS
TPS are ultimately little more than simple data processing systems.

Functions of a TPS in terms of data processing requirements

Inputs Processing Outputs

Transactions Events Validation Lists

Sorting Detail reports
Listing Action reports
Merging Summary reports?
Updating
Calculation

1.1.3. The role of TPS

Produce information for other systems
Cross boundaries (internal and external)
Used by operational personnel + supervisory levels
Efficiency oriented
1.2. Management Information Systems
1.2.1. What is a Management Information System?
For historical reasons, many of the different types of Information Systems found in
commercial organizations are referred to as "Management Information Systems". However,
within our pyramid model, Management Information Systems are management-level systems
that are used by middle managers to help ensure the smooth running of the organization in the
short to medium term. The highly structured information provided by these systems allows
managers to evaluate an organization's performance by comparing current with previous
outputs.

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1.2.2. Functions of a MIS
MIS are built on the data provided by the TPS

Functions of a MIS in terms of data processing requirements

Inputs Processing Outputs

Internal Transactions Sorting Summary reports

Internal Files Structured Merging Action reports
data Summarizing Detailed reports

1.2.3. The role of MIS

Based on internal information flows
Support relatively structured decisions
Inflexible and have little analytical capacity
Used by lower and middle managerial levels
Deals with the past and present rather than the future
Efficiency oriented?
1.3. Decision Support Systems
1.3.1. What is a Decision Support System?
A Decision Support System can be seen as a knowledge based system, used by senior
managers, which facilitates the creation of knowledge and allow its integration into the
organization. These systems are often used to analyze existing structured information and
allow managers to project the potential effects of their decisions into the future. Such systems
are usually interactive and are used to solve ill structured problems. They offer access to
databases, analytical tools, allow "what if" simulations, and may support the exchange of
information within the organization.
1.3.2. Functions of a DSS
DSS manipulate and build upon the information from a MIS and/or TPS to generate
insights and new information.

Functions of a DSS in terms of data processing requirements

Inputs Processing Outputs

Internal Transactions Modelling Summary reports

Internal Files Simulation Forecasts
External Information? Analysis Graphs / Plots
Summarizing

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 1.3.3. The role of DSS
Support ill- structured or semi-structured decisions
Have analytical and/or modelling capacity
Used by more senior managerial levels
Are concerned with predicting the future
Are effectiveness oriented?
1.4. Executive Information Systems
1.4.1. What is an EIS?
Executive Information Systems are strategic-level information systems that are found at the
top of the Pyramid. They help executives and senior managers analyze the environment in
which the organization operates, to identify
long-term trends, and to plan appropriate courses of action. The information in such systems
is often weakly structured and comes from both internal and external sources. Executive
Information System are designed to be operated directly by executives without the need for
intermediaries and easily tailored to the preferences of the individual using them.
1.4.2. Functions of an EIS
EIS organizes and presents data and information from both external data sources and internal
MIS or TPS in order to support and extend the inherent capabilities of senior executives.

Functions of a EIS in terms of data processing requirements

Inputs Processing Outputs

External Data Summarizing Summary reports

Internal Files Simulation "Drilling Forecasts
Pre-defined models Down" Graphs / Plots

1.4.3. The role of EIS

Are concerned with ease of use
Are concerned with predicting the future
Are effectiveness oriented
Are highly flexible
Support unstructured decisions
Use internal and external data sources
Used only at the most senior management levels

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 2. Information system at an operational, tactical and strategic level.
Strategic Level:
IS (Information system) supports business processes and operations:
IS helps managers to execute their daily activities and functions properly, for example, in
bank, creation of accounts, statement generation etc take place; and IS helps managers
control such activities with greater accuracy and in a timely manner with the help of
software.
IS supports decision making for managers and employees:
IS takes data as input and then processes it to generate information; simply defined as Input
Ĭ Process Ĭ Information. This information is used by the managers for the improvement
of their organizations, for example, existing historical data about customers in bank can be
analyzed by IS and important information can be generated like bad customers and good
customers, etc. This information can be used by managers while deciding whether to
approve loan for new customers or not
IS supports in making strategic decision for competitive advantage:
By analyzing data collected from different sources, IS can provide valuable information
such as which items to launch in which location; so that the company can have advantage
over their competitors using this information. IS can also help business houses; in carrying
out their business processes differently than their competitors.
Operational Level:
IS promises Operational excellence: In order to achieve higher profitability, businesses
improve their operations‘ efficiency. Managers make use of IS in business operations to
achieve higher levels of productivity and efficiency. An excellent example is the use of the
RetailLink system at Wal-Mart; this system digitally links every one of the Wal-Mart‘s
stores with its suppliers; the supplier is monitoring the items and as soon as an item is
purchased, the supplier knows that a replacement must be shipped to the shelf.
IS helps create new products, business models and services: In firms, Information system is a
crucial tool in creating new services and products and new business models. Business models
describe how the companies produce, deliver and sells a product or service to be successful.
An example is Apple Inc; it transformed an old business model which was based on its iPod
technology platform that included iPod, iPhone and the iTunes music service.
Tactical Level:
IS helps making better decisions: Many managers operate in an information bank and they
never have the relevant information at the right moment to make a learned decision; poor
outcomes like these loose customers and raise costs.
Managers can use real time data while making decisions; IS allow managers to use real-
time data from the marketplace while making decisions. An example is

Page 31
the Verizon Corporation, which uses a Web-based digital dashboard that gives managers
accurate real-time information on customer complains and network performances. By using
this information, managers can rapidly inform customers of the repair work, assign repair
resources to the involved areas, and restore service promptly.
Competitive advantage: When the firms achieve the business objectives, for example,
customer intimacy, operational excellence, improved decision making, new services,
products and business models, than it is most like that they have achieved a competitive
advantage already. Accomplishing these things finer than their objects, responding to
suppliers and customers in real time, charging less for premium products all add up to higher
sales and profits. An example is the Toyota Production System which mainly focuses on
organizing work to make continuous improvements, eliminating waste; Toyota Production
System is based on what the customers actually ordered.
3. Conclude
There are different versions of information
systems available, but the most common is
probably a four-level model based on system
users. Based on the classification of information
system users there are many other characteristics
such as the nature of the task and the information
request. Each information system has its own
functions and tasks, but it is related to each other.
Each system should be given to each individual
department (manager) with review and summary
experience. In order to work best, we need to
understand each function and tasks of each system,
and finally need to find the right person to take on
each information system to make the
information system the best way and Based on that, we propose remedies and developthe
business management

Page 32
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