Business of Data Warehousing Foundations Essay

Executive SummarymySupermarket is a grocery obtain and analogy website which aims to provide clients with the best wrong for their obtain. This composition examines how selective randomness computer storage provided mySupermarket with the fanny in which to launch a sure-fire enterprise, and allowed a subsequent involution into the ancestry apprehension sector. The research draws attention to the conundrums and limitations that mySupermarket encountered including coping with diverse sources of info be adrifts, customer hardcorety issues, achieving real- epoch info, information integrity and genera domiciliateg a sustain fitting revenue stream. These problems were tackled respectively by dint of and by building their own data w atomic number 18ho role, adopting a CRM scheme underpinned by their wargonhouse, adopting Microsofts SQL software, supermarket website crawling, offering targeted advertising dummy and the realisation that the nubbiness of detail they offered, would allow them to expand into the melodic phrase intelligence sector.The report appreciates the importance of storing data, but concludes that data itself is the essential to success, and that approximate way is needed to convert this data into meaningful information. It is accordingly a combination of data wareho employ and good management that has enabled mySupermarket to become a successful venture.IntroductionOn the 31st August 2006, entrepreneur Johnny blunt received a seven-figure sum from investors to transform the way consumers shop for their groceries. From this, the legal injury comparison site mySupermarket.co.uk was born(p) and the confederacy has utilized data memory to give consumers access to cheaper grocery shopping. The venture has not been without its problems, however quaternary historic period on the company has withstood Adam Smiths invisible Hand1 and grown into a c.10m companymySupermarket is a grocery shopping and comparison site that allows customers to compare and shop from quartette main UK supermarkets in one central place. Their mission resignment is to get the best affirmable price for your supermarket trolley while enjoying an easier and to a greater extent consumer-friendly shopping experience. done the use of SQL and data wareho exploitation, mySupermarket is able to collect product pricing, promotion and availability data immediately from retailers websites. It then uses its proprietary technology to match identical Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) across retailers. After initial investment from Greylock Partners and Pitango estimate Capital (investors in Facebook & LinkedIn), mySupermarket abide faced the same difficulties as separate price comparison sites in generating a sustainable revenue stream after Stern declared that the portal would remain free in principle for shoppers.The customer proposition for mySupermarket is to first log into their account. Then charter which supermarket to shop at from Asda, Ocado/Waitrose, Sainsbury or Tesco. Tick their preferred supermarket and choose a deli really time/date, then start to shop. mySupermarket is modifyd on a casual basis so that the prices learnn are the most war-ridden. Once the customer has do their choice of store, they start to shop by using the tabbed choices along the carousel of the page. These are divided up into virtual aisles so making a choice from Fruit and Veg, Meat, Fish & Poul audition, or Drinks etc. Once shopping has been completed, it then shows basket prices across the four supermarkets and allows the customer an opportunity to batter supermarkets.This report testament critically discuss how data store has enabled mySupermarket to build a successful business model including the benefits and problems that have arisen from the use of this technology. The report leave finally analyse the extent to which data warehousing has contributed to mySupermarkets success.Technologies DiscussedAccording to Bill Inmon2 (1993) data warehousing peck be specify as, asubject-orientated, integrated, time variant and non-volatile, collection of data in harbor of the management decision making parade. It is, in essence, a humongous data storage facility which enables an enterprise to gain a competitive advantage with analytics and business intelligence. Providing integrated access to multiple, distributed, heterogeneous databases and some other information sources has become one of the leading issues in database research and industry, IEEE calculator (1991) which gutter be keep in linen through the success of First American tummy (FAC), Cooper et al (2000) and Tesco/Dunnhumby, J. Perry (2009). data mining is the process of digging-out patterns from data, usually through Clustering, Classification, Regression and Association rule learning. Data mining technology can recall new business opportunities by providing automate prediction of trends and behaviours. Automated discovery of previously unknown or hidden patterns D. Champion and C. Coombs (2010)This process is carried out by sophisticated software packages such(prenominal) as Oracle, IBM and SQL. This alleviates the (potentially) very time consuming task of manually inputting and analysing the dataWithin data warehousing, there is a high importance placed on the tone of data, as without it, meaningful analytic thinking is impossible. Data collection should therefore be taken with a high level of detail, and have solid definitions, as to avoid subjectivity.The purpose of a data warehouse is to support fanciful strategic decision making through a greater granularity of information with a consistent mess of whats happening. guest alliance Management (CRM) emerged in the 1990s at a time when customers were fitting better informed and less brand sure. CRM is an integration of technologies and business processes apply to satisfy the needfully of a customer during any interaction, Bose (2002, p. 89) a nd is underpinned by data warehousing. As with VISION in the FAC case (2000), the subsequentbenefits of CRM, is that firms are able to exploit the 8020 principle which states that some customers are more(prenominal) important/profitable than others. These information sources can solo come through data warehousing and data mining.mySupermarket The BeginningThe inspiration for mySupermarket came from Sterns bargain-obsessed elderly relative who would scour the aisles of Tescos to find his favourite tin of baked beans, jot down the price and travel to competitor stores to try and find a better deal. Stern identified the growing bet in online grocery shopping and felt that it was an area that could be victimized (Fig. 1). epithet 1 Mintel Intelligence Online Grocery DataStern fatigued 18 months before the launch developing the software and tweaking the concept (Fig. 2).Figure 2 Adaption of Martin et al., 2005 193The data warehouse was developed through crawling3 the four supermar ket websites and adding product pricing, promotion and availability data to the warehouse. Once this data was implemented in the warehouse, proprietary technology and SQL software allowed mySupermarket to match identical SKUs across retailers. This data was also used in developing its CRM strategy through the use of cookies4 to store data in the customers computer using the functionality of their browser to find out whether the computer has visited the site before and what SKUs they purchased. This enables us to operate an efficient service and to track the patterns of behaviour of visitors to the website. mysupermarket.co.uk. The feature enables mySupermarket to lend oneself this information by creating functions such as a Regular sell button, saving customers time on their shopping.mySupermarket ProblemsMany problems can arise through the use of data warehousing, both technically and commercially. According to Mintel Intelligence (2009), Consumer loyalty is fairly low in the p rice comparison market with more than 14 zillion community (c.58% of market) having used three or more unlike price comparison sites. Underlying these efforts was the recognition that, to succeed with this strategy, it must know its customers exceptionally well and leverage that knowledge in website design, service and interaction with their clients. mySupermarket would therefore have to find a strategy to retain a loyal customer base in a notoriously disloyal sector.Kimball & Ross (2002) state that a common pitfall of data warehousing is to presume that the business, its requirements, analytics, profound data and supporting technology are static an early problem mySupermarket encountered was the variation in regional pricing and a growing implore for real-time data.Another problem with data warehousing is ensuring the integrity of data, this is typically a human procedure and so subject to human error. change surface the most sophisticated data mining systems cannot produce good analysis from poor data. A good illustration of this is from Blastard and Dilnot The Tiger That Isnt where a hospital survey found that an alarming amount of patients were being born on the 11th November 1911. Further investigation showed that nurses often would not drive in patient files properly and to save time, when asked to enter patient D.O.B. they would lawsuit 11/11/11 into the database. No matter how intelligent a computer system is, if you put garbage-in you will get garbage-out.Beynon-Davies (2004) states that data warehousing projects are large scale development projects typically taking up to three years to complete. Some of the challenges of such problems may include selecting, installation and integrating the different hardware and software and also, the diverse sources of data provide a data warehouse introduces problems of design in terms of creating a homogenous data store.Finally, as with all comparison sites, the major bulwark facingmySupermarket was generating a sustainable revenue stream from the database they had accumulated. mySupermarket.co.uk did not generate any revenue 5 months after the website went live. Originally, mySupermarket didnt operate a search kick upstairsment scheme (a central platform for companies such as Google eg, BP paying for advertising of their oil spill cleanup when people typed in BP Oil Spill G. Cheeseman, 2010) . There are also no revenue-sharing agreements in place with the four stores whose prices it monitors in effort to remain independent. This, in part, may stem from mySupermarkets limited market, consisting of a comparison of groceries. mySupermarket recognised that they would have to expand their focus if they were to generate a large enough swage to operate a successful business.mySupermarket Technological ImpactThe first problem mySupermarket addressed was the industries poor customer loyalty. They decided to attack this through the implementation of a CRM strategy. After the initial launch, mySupermarket was receiving feedback from customers regarding such things as bouncing options, promotions on offer, instillable shopping lists and regular shops. mySupermarket realised that the information stored in their data warehouse could be exploited to meet these demands and increase customer utility. Subsequently, a Health Checker feature was launched based on the food Standard Authoritys approved traffic light system. In November 2008, the mySupermarket Quick Shop function was added, allowing users to type their shopping list on a virtual notepad and find their required items in one go.As delivery slots started running out towards Christmas we also introduced a new print your shopping list feature, which was popular, said Stern. A lot of our shoppers are using the website as a quick way to find the best deals and are then going to the supermarket to make their purchases. Recent analysis of visits shows mysupermarket.co.uk has a loyal repeat following, with Stern claiming visitors are spending an average of 20 legal proceeding on the site.Until recently, there were some viable tools to provide real-time data warehousing nor an absolutely current picture of an organizations business and customer J. Vandermay (2001). To combat the problem of achievingreal-time and regional data, mySupermarket used Microsofts SQL software5. Most data integration solutions focus on moving data only between homogeneous systems and database software. However, SQL integration is capable of moving data among a wide crease of databases and systems. It also offers transformational data integration tools to unify and synchronize heterogeneous data into a warehouse. This allows consumers to view whether a veritable item is in stock in their local store, or view delivery slots for their specific region. This real-time data saves the mySupermarket team having to continually update the warehouse manually.Fortunately for mySupermarket, their website crawling technique allows them to take the SKU data directly from the supermarkets themselves. Therefore data will only be wrong, if the supermarket has made the erroneousness (so would have to sell the item at that price) and so mySupermarket would not be liable.Although Stern took half the time recommended by Beynon-Davies, the warehouse has had to be forever tweaked since its launch. After its launch mySupermarket noticed a data stream that wasnt being filtered into the data warehouse calories. After the realisation, mySupermarket were able to add a calorie counter function on to the website.For any business to survive, it needs to generate a revenue stream to achieve a sustainable cash flowmySupermarket were able to negotiate with supermarkets a commission of 5 for every first-time buyer that shops through their site and 1 every time thereafter. Other sources of revenue came from the use of advertising, which could be split into two different segments on-site and search-related advertising. Mark s & Spencer (Fig. 3) are one company that has chosen to advertise with mySupermarket.co.uk as the content is relevant and it is independent from the four supermarkets being compared. Advertisers will typically pay $1.00 $1.50 per 1,000 run-of-site impressions for the advertising placement. However, advertisers may pay even more for targeted sidebar advertisements. Search advertisements are targeted to match recognize search terms entered on the search engine, these products (advertisements) will then appear first in the search. Danone (Fig. 3) haspaying for advertisement when the search term yoghurt is entered, and so their umbrella brands (eg, Activia) show at the top of the list, increasing its probability of being bought.Figure 3 mySupermarket.co.uk advertising exampleDue to the amount of data mining uncommitted to mySupermarket, an opportunity was identified for expansion, called mySupermarket insights. It acts as real-time B2B data service for the prompt Moving Consumer Go ods (FMCG) sector. As mySupermarket has access to SKU by SKU trends, it is able to offer passing high level, intelligent data. The services it offers include New Product victimisation (NPD) alert reports, Online auditing reports, Price comparison reports, Product substitution report and Customer profiling reports (allowing for further use of CRM through cluster analysis6). This elucidate of information is of high value to companies and a subscription to the service can range from 5,000 20,000p.a. (current clients include Kelloggs, Innocent Smoothies, Nielson and Ellas Kitchen).Finally, mySupermarket is often contracted by media companies, such as the case-by-case to analyse trends for news stories J. Burchill (2010).I feel that information is now widely recognised as being one of the key corporate resources, needing to be carefully managed so that it can be in effect utilised in the decision-making process. Timely, accurate and relevant information can only be generated, howev er, if corporate data is stored in a secure, accessible and whippy manner.The following table provides a summary of the impact that data warehousing technology had for mySupermarketFigure 6 Technological Impact SummarymySupermarket closingTo conclude, data warehousing has enabled mySupermarket to overcome issuessuch as customer retention, real-time data and generating revenue. It really does appear that information is key, whereby data is the prerequisite for information. J. Poole et al. (2003) state the underlying economic justification is ultimately based on the value a given technology provides to the customers of the computing systems and software products and so the determinate of mySupermarkets success is essentially based on whether people use the technology and the value of the company. Based on an monthly unique user level of 1 million, and 500k registered users turning over c.10m, we can assume that at this point in time mySupermarket is justified economically.On the o ther hand, you could argue that mySupermarket is a recession business and not a sustainable enterprise. In which case, the rapid growth in recent years could be due to the economic climate and not because there is a long term demand.Looking towards the future, Our investors have international ambitions, Stern said. They see the potential of transporting the model to different markets. mySupermarket are looking to expand the companys development team to support its entry into Europe and the US. mySupermarket are currently looking for another labialize of funding to bridge G. Murrays (1994) second equity gap. Technology firms often require follow on development funding, as cash is heavily plowed into look-alike testing and Research & Development. In terms of an exit, mySupermarket would be very attractive to major FMCG companies such as P&G, Unilever and Krafts venture arms. I believe that mySupermarket will achieve their second round funding as they are now profitable and have a pr oven concept that has high growth prospects for the future.Over the past few years there has been a huge growth in the use of numbers and analytics. Businesses are recognising that it is not enough to work harder than the competition they also have to work smarter. Davenport (2006) argues that it is virtually impossible to differentiate yourself from competitors based on products alone and so to pull ahead of the pack, businesses need to compete on analytics. In which case, mySupermarket insights is poised in a perfect position to gain on this new thirst for business intelligence, whereby companies feel thatthey will have to subscribe to the service to compete on an even acting field.However, it is not enough to just store data, it has to be managed, analyzed, implemented and utilised to convert raw data into real information. mySupermarket realised the benefits of data warehousing and were able to exploit this, expanding from a mere price-comparison site to a business intelligenc e provider to major FMCG companies. I believe that with the current touch towards analytics and business intelligence, mySupermarket has the potential to be a major force in the FMCG sector whilst offering a greater transparency for customers, all of which stems from good management and data warehousing.ReferencesBeyon-Davies, P (2004) Database Systems, 3rd edition, Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 527-538 and 547-553Bose, R (2002) Customer kind Management Key concepts for IT success, Vol. 102, No. 2, pp. 89-97Blastland, M & Dilnot, A (2007) The Tiger That Isnt Seeing a World Through NumbersBurchill, J (Aug 2010) The Independent So the Prince of Green Hypocrites is going on tour. Thank God Ill be abroadCooper et al. (2000) Data Warehousing Supports Corporate outline at First American Corporation Vol. 24, No. 4Champion, D & Coombs, C (2010) Handout BSC070 Enterprise Information SystemsCheeseman, G (June 2010) Triple beginner Is It Ethical For BP To Buy Oil-Spill-Related Google S earch Terms?Davenport, T. H (2006) Competing on AnalyticsIEEE electronic computer (Dec 1991) Special Issue on Heterogeneous Distributed Database Systems, 24(12)Inmon, W.H. and Kelley, C (1993) Developing the Data Warehouse. QED Publishing Group, Boston, MassachussettsKimball, R & Ross, M (2002) The Data Warehouse Toolkit The deal Guide to Dimensional Modeling, 2nd editionMartin et al., (2005) 193 Managing Information Technology fifth Edition, Pearson Education Inc, pp. 192-195Mintel Intelligence (Oct 2009) Web Aggregators, UKMurray, G (1994) The Second Equity shot Exit Problems for Seed and Early Stage Venture CapitalistsPerry, J (Nov 2009) Dunnhumby A lifetime of loyalty? RetailWeekPoole, J et al. (2003) Common Warehouse Metamodel Introduction to the sample for data warehouse integrationSmith, A (1959) The Theory of Moral SentimentsVandermay, J (2001) Considerations for Building a Real-time Data Warehousea