Introduction to Competitive Advantage in Information Systems

As you read, think about how using, protecting, and managing information and data could support an organization's competitive advantage. Conversely, failure to protect data, particularly personal information, could reduce or destroy any competitive advantage within a business. How does understanding customer information and data support current operations? How might it impact future operations?

The Business Intelligence Toolkit

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

  1. What are some of the tools used to convert data into information?
  2. What is the difference between a canned reports and an ad hoc reporting?
  3. How do reports created by OLAP differ from most conventional reports?
  4. List the key areas where businesses are leveraging data mining.
  5. What is market basket analysis?
  6. What is customer churn?
  7. For data mining to work, what two critical data-related conditions must be present?
  8. Discus occurrences of model failure caused by missing or incomplete historical data.
  9. Discuss Tesco’s response to their discovery that “milk loaf” was a money-losing product.
  10. List the three critical skills a competent business analytics team should possess.
  11. Do any of the products that you use leverage artificial intelligence? What kinds of AI might be used in Netflix’s movie recommendation system, Apple’s iTunes Genius playlist builder, or Amazon’s Web site personalization? What kind of AI might help a physician make a diagnosis or help an engineer configure a complicated product in the field?