Transcript nuralain khuda

GBA 573 - IT Project Management
Final Project – “FoodMart Corp - Making use of Business Intelligence”
July 12, 2004 N.Khuda
Project Overview
Company background

FoodMart Corp is a grocery chain with stores in the U.S, Canada and Mexico.
Problem Statement

The company has seen sales stagnate in some sectors while drop in other areas over the
past year
-Company has a database system that stores sales and customer data but has not been
able to analyze this data to answer key questions to remain competitive such as:

Which products are we selling the most, when, where and at what prices?

What was most popular item sold last week, what was the least popular?

Which department took in the most money?
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Project Objectives

Deliver an application that allows users to extract meaningful customer and product sales
information to identify changing trends, new market opportunities and predict demand.
-Develop a Business Intelligence (BI) system that will use the existing database system. The
system will incorporate:
-A Data Mart
-Data “Cubes” to analyze the data using an On-line Analytical Processing System (OLAP)
-Provide some client tools to view and manipulate this information
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Project Deliverables
Project deliverables include the following:

Multi-tiered Data Mart and OLAP Business Intelligence system that will offer daily updated
information on company sales trends and performance.
-Initial focus will be on Sales and Customer data. Future expansions may include Orders, HR
and Finance data.

Develop the necessary Training Manuals

Offer on-site training for the client user interface.

Offer on-going support as needed.
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Expected Benefits
The primary benefit of establishing a BI application will be improved
assessment of sales trends:

Inventory control of popular items, reduction/removal of slow selling products.

Analysis of customer demographics and spending habits to deliver additional or new
products.

Closing stores or departments in consistently weak performing areas, expanding in more
profitable regions.

Future deployments of modules to track internal operations such as “Time sheet reporting”
and Financial analysis” based on success of initial BI application.

Reverse a 5% drop in sales revenue for a net target gain of 8-10% within 1 year of BI
deployment. Based on current years sales revenue of $25million this translates to a
minimum gain of $2million

Improved decision making with regards to maximizing efficiency, revenue and profits.
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Expected Costs
Forecasted Expenses
Software
Microsoft SQL Server (which includes MS Analysis Services)
Cognos PowerPlay (Client) Application (10 person license)
Hardware
Dedicated Server for Data Mart
Other
Development (100 hours)
Cognos PowerPlay on-site training
10% Project Contingency fee
Total
Resource Cost $
8000
32000
2500
15000
1500
5900
64900
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Measures of Success

Deliver a fully functional BI application within projected time.

Have system reliably update information on a nightly basis.

Successfully train users.

Get positive user feedback with the added possibility of expanding BI into other
areas of the company.
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Feasibility Study
Technical –
-BI development tools/technology are well established in the market and are reasonably
priced.
-Various consulting companies have specialized in developing integrated BI solutions thus
programming expertise is readily available.
Operational –
-Senior management and those involved in cost control have expressed a strong interest in
a tool that will allow them to make more informed decisions.
-Strong indication of upper management to see this project succeed.
Economical –
-The project duration and expense is reasonable.
-Predicted ROI in the first year is 2900%. Application can yield additional gains for many
years to come if it’s deployed in other areas as well. Justifies the development and risk.
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Project Design

Involves a multi-tiered application

The Production Data will be the underlying
MS SQL Server database used by the
company.

The middle tier will be an independent Data
Mart server which utilizes SQL Server’s Data
Transformation Services (DTS) to extract and
transform data

Business layer will be web-based client
interface from Cognos.
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Project Design
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Project Design
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Risk Management
MS Analysis Services allows for seamless integration of the OLAP system to SQL
Server production database of the company with minimal down-time.

Separate Data Mart tier reduces any performance issues that might arise if we
interacted directly with the primary database. Also allows us to do data cleansing and
formatting where needed ensuring the OLAP data cubes are generated off a reliable
data source.

MS Analysis Services is compatible with MS Excel, this gives management an
emergency back-up option of being able to access BI information in the event the
web-based Cognos PowerPlay client UI should suffer down-time.

Phased development of additional sections or data cubes over time minimizes risk
by allowing the development team to learn from previous deployments.
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Conclusion
Any questions?
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