Assignment: Data Driven Decision Making
1. Using Business Analytics
Many organizations today do not utilize business analytics to help them with their decision-making processes. For some organizations, it could be a lack of knowledge about how to apply it, and for other organizations, it could be a lack of technology. When managers do not feel applying business analytics is worth their time or they feel that it is too complicated, they will not utilize it. If you were to work for a company that did not utilize business analytics, how would you convince them that they should?
Using the online resources and the Internet, research the benefits and challenges of implementing business analytics.
Respond to the following questions:
• How do you think business analytics can help your current organization with their decision-making processes?
• What challenges do you anticipate in getting your organization to implement and utilize business analytics?
• How would you approach management in regards to getting them to implement business analytics?
• Why should you have an understanding of statistics in order to utilize and implement business analytics?
• What would be some challenges in using business analytics?
Write your initial response in 300-500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
2. Business Analytics and Informed Business Decisions
Many times organizations will make decisions based upon what other organizations are doing at the time or based upon the latest business trend. Think about the dot-com bubble as businesses soared and perhaps were also part of the major bust. Many organizations felt that they needed to join the crowd and have an online presence, only to realize within a couple of years that the decisions were made in haste, which resulted in many companies filing for bankruptcy. This era also had some companies that did not follow the trend only to realize within a couple of years that they were losing out on a new market, such as the online trading industry. This is why doing some research in the beginning can really help organizations make decisions based upon what is truly good for the organization.
Using the online resources and the Internet, research ways of making informed decisions.
Respond to the following:
• Why do you think managers, or business decision makers, get caught up in following the crowd versus making decisions that are truly going to add value to the business? For example, some businesses may make decisions that drive only short-term gains at the cost of future growth. Can such a blind leap be a good thing for the business? Is it worth the risk?
• How can managers ensure that they are not following a trend but instead doing what is truly best for the organization?
• Have you seen your organization make trend mistakes? What were the mistakes? How could these mistakes have been avoided or improved upon?
• How do you think business can learn from the mistakes of others or business decision mistakes such as the dot-com era?
Write your initial response in 300-500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
3. Implementing a Data Management System
With the implementation of business analytics, an organization will also need to implement a good information systems plan in order to collect, manage, and organize all of the data. Not only is an information system needed, but the data has to be organized in a structured way otherwise any queries will produce bad results. This could be catastrophic for an organization because managers would be making decisions based on bad data. To make sure that the query generates good reports, you need to think about how to best organize data for each of the markets you are exploring.
Using the online resources and the Internet, research ways of optimizing data organization.
Respond to the following:
• An organization does not have a good Management Information System (MIS) in place to help manage all of their data. What are some of the possible problems this could cause for decision makers?
• Assume you are going to conduct some research in the field of toy making. What are some of the items for which you would want to collect data? For example: market trends in toy making, latest sales nationwide, etc. How would these pieces of data help the company to determine what toy to release for the holiday market?
• With the implementation of an MIS for decision making, what would be some of the concerns related to ensuring that the organization can support the system? Would you control access to the system? Would there be someone to keep the data structures updated? Be sure to explain your ideas when answering these questions.
• Why would an organization want to create an implementation plan for the integration of a MIS? Is this something that needs to be well thought out and, if so, why?
Write your initial response in 300-500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
4. Managing Data
There are many solutions today that can help organizations reduce their need for an in-house MIS for decision making or at least provide better storage solutions. With the amount of data that organizations collect and utilize, they need to consider all of the available options to ensure that the system will perform according to expectations.
Another thing that you need to consider when it comes to MIS and decision-making systems is that when inaccurate or incomplete data is entered, you will get bogus results. This is also known as garbage in, garbage out (GIGO). You need to be sure to review all of the data for accuracy before any decisions are made that will affect the organization. A failure to review could result in analysts making critical decisions based on faulty data.
Using the online resources and the Internet, research the efficacy of MIS and decision-making systems.
Respond to the following:
• With the technology available today, could organizations get to a point where they could let the computers (information systems) generate decisions instead of managers? If yes, do you think you would truly trust the decisions the computer generated? Why or why not?
• Cloud computing has come into the marketplace over the past few years. What are some advantages of using a cloud-based solution? Would this be something your past or current organization could utilize? Why or why not?
• You have learned that the data utilized should align with the outcomes for which the business is striving. What if the data does not align with the business outcomes? What potential issues could this cause in terms of making an informed decision? Explain.
• You have examined making informed decisions based on the data with the information system. Once an organization starts utilizing an information system or decision-making system, can that organization become dependent upon it for all the answers? If the systems go down, will the organization still be able to make decisions or will everything be put on hold? Explain your answer using examples to illustrate your ideas.
Write your initial response in 300-500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.
5. Techniques and Tools for Managing the Data
You have explored many options for managing data as well as its importance to the overall health of an organization in making well-informed decisions. Many organizations feel that they have to utilize powerful and expensive solutions, but there are also cheaper alternatives. For example, MS Excel can be a great tool to manage data and identify answers to any questions. Thus, whether your organization is big or small, all the tools need to be evaluated to determine the one that will work best, not only in managing the data but also in lowering the overall cost. Managing cost is important, as you do not want to implement a solution that will bankrupt the organization; that, in itself, is an ill-informed decision.
Using the online resources and the Internet, research tools and techniques of managing data.
Respond to the following:
• What would be some of the mistakes or consequences of not investigating the costs associated with the organization's information systems (data collection) choice? Besides going bankrupt, what other effects could it have on the organization? Could it lead to bad decision making? Explain.
• What systems does your organization utilize, either as a whole or per department? Is this solution effective? Why or why not? Is there a solution that would be more effective? If not, explain why.
• With the various solutions available today, which one do you think would work best for you? Meaning, which of these solutions (such as MS Excel or a decision-support system) would work best on the following criteria:
o Ease of use
o Interpretation of data
o Sharing of data
• Often, we think of business analytics as only for businesses. However, can any of these tools be used for personal decision making? Provide some examples of how you could utilize these tools.
Write your initial response in 300-500 words. Apply APA standards to citation of sources.