business intelligence application

3094797_wk_2_case_1 x3094797_notes_6 x

see attached word doc

Inthis module’s case, you’re going to explore some of what passes for conventional wisdom in the domain of business intelligence application, probably noting in passing that first, much of the advice may be contradictory although delivered with great passion and enthusiasm, and second, most of it manages to avoid any real confrontation with traditional management structures and decision procedures and priorities, concentrating instead on ways of manipulating information to presumably work around the organization rather than allow itself to point out shortcomings in the organizations themselves. This is not a course primarily about organizational politics — there is plenty of time in the rest of your program to come to terms with the old reptilian sub-brains of the organization that perpetuate power differentials, reward distributions only vaguely related to organizational priorities, suboptimization of organizational resource utilization, and all of the other weirdnesses that pretty much guarantee performance and satisfaction shortfalls and failures. But, as you may have surmised, even though it’s not our main focus it is the key subtext for all these issues. Unless we openly acknowledge that decisions are largely political (in either the organizational or national sense) and that information is often more useful as a cloak for political priorities than as a substitute for them, the only ones we’re going to fool are ourselves.

The Business Intelligence Guide website is a gold mine of useful information about BI specifically. Read some of the overview articles (they’re short), to generally familiarize yourself with BI terminology:

Electrosmart Ltd. (2011) The Business Intelligence Guide. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/index.php. Recommended sections include:

BI Best Practices. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/BI_Best_Practices.php

BI Solutions. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_solutions/index.php

BI Drivers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Drivers_Of_BI.php

BI Barriers. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_strategy/Barriers_To_BI.php

Getting Started in BI. http://thebusinessintelligenceguide.com/bi_program/index.php

But feel free to follow up in any other sections that you believe will help you address the case.

Now let’s look at two specific cases of BI implementation. Remember, these cases were written by the companies supplying the “solutions”, so read carefully and if possible between the lines:

Konitzer, K. and Cummens, M. (2011) CASE STUDY – Using Analytics to Improve Patient Outcomes and Billing Accuracy at Marshfield Clinic. TDWI. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://tdwi.org/articles/2011/07/11/case-study-using-analytics-to-improve-patient-outcomes-and-billing-accuracy-at-marshfield-clinic.aspx

Microsoft Inc. (2011) Exclusive Resorts, LLC Destination Club Generates Rapid ROI, Enhances Services, Takes Control of Business. Microsoft Case Studies. Retrieved September 16, 2011, from http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-Dynamics-AX/Exclusive-Resorts-LLC/Destination-Club-Generates-Rapid-ROI-Enhances-Services-Takes-Control-of-Business/4000009718

There’s a lot more out there in the optional and supplemental readings as well as the wide wonderful world of the Internet to give you a feel for what’s working and what’s not in this area; the more widely you can spread your own information gathering net, the more effective your analysis is likely to be.

When you believe you have a reasonable feel for a variety of business intelligence implementation experiences, you’ll be in a position to write an effective short paper on the topic:

Lessons to be learned from the Clinic and Resort cases about creating, implementing, and using business intelligence

Remember, BI is a complex socio-technical innovation, so thinking about the question in socio-technical terms is likely to be of some value to you.

Case Assignment Expectations:

Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely — what are the “lessons learned”?

Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you draw these conclusions. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.

Then establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your conclusions.

Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.

Case1Assignment

——————-

—

–

Are organizations likely to find better solutions to information overload through changes to their technical systems or their social systems — or both?

Why?

Case assignment expectations:

———————

———

—–

Your paper should be short (4pages, not including cover sheet and references) and to the point

.

It is to be structured as a point/counterpoint argument, in the following manner. You are expected to:

-Begin this paper by stating your position on this question clearly and concisely — take one or the other position (either for or against formality), but not both!

-Citing appropriate sources, present the reasons why you take this position. Be sure to make the most effective case you can.

-Then present the best evidence you can, again citing appropriate sources, against your position — that is, establish what counterarguments can be made in response to your original position.

-Finally, review your original position in light of the counterarguments, showing how they are inadequate to rebut your original statement.

-By the end of your paper, you should be able to unequivocally re-affirm your original position.

The following features of your paper will be assessed in particular:

——————————————————

—————————

—-

-Your ability to see what the module is all about and to structure your paper accordingly.

-Your focus on the question as presented, and your ability to use the language of the module convincingly. .

-Your ability to consolidate ideas from reading materials and your understanding of the materials.

-Your informed commentary and analysis — simply repeating what your sources say does not constitute an adequate paper.

-Some in-text references to your readings, with citations in proper academic format. Please, use APA format to provide sources, intext citations and references (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01)

The following criteria/rubrics will also be used to assess your paper:

———————————————————————————

Breadth (comprehensive quality of written paper)

Depth (deepness of thought)

Precision (doing what asked to do)

Clarity (clearness of thought)

Critical thinking (application of logic and intellectual criteria such as clarity, creditability, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, and significance)

Essay organization: cover page, introduction, body section, conclusion and referencing,

——————————

The cover page is not in compliance with APA/TUI recommendations. You need a running head and essay’s title among others. Please, review the model copy of cover page I sent you at the start of the class

The Overall

The article shows that you have put a lot of research into doing your homework. You presented a picture of what you think the assignment is all about and structured your essay to fit your perspective of assignment. The article used your informed analysis from your research materials and your understanding of the research materials to construct persuasive arguments to support your article.

But, the essay did not address the assignment topic:

Are organizations likely to find better solutions to information overload through changes to their technical systems or their social systems — or both? Why? The first thing to do is to state clearly and concisely the purpose of your essay (which you did), then answer the question posed by case1 assignment and use the balance of the introduction to provide me (reader) the roadmap of points to be discussed in the essay. But, the essay did not do either of the above rather it went straight into information overload in an STS organization which has nothing to do with the assignment.

In a nutshell, the case1 assignment wants to argue why you believed that managing information overload from perspective of total STS is more effective than either individual component of STS. But, your essay was about STS organization which has nothing or little to with case1 assignment.

Areas you did do not well

essay was fragmented, difficult to read and follow. This partly due to the fact you did not use all the required readings as the main source for backing up your arguments. Did you get the email I sent you earlier on using all required readings assignments to write your essay? You can use optional sources such as Wikipedia to compliment the required readings rather than replacing them

The introduction did not begin by stating the essay’s thesis and your position on the thesis clearly and concisely. For example, the thesis for case1 assignment is: “Are organizations likely to find better solutions to information overload through changes to their technical systems or their social systems — or both? Why?” You did not answer the question posed by the thesis in the introduction section before going about to defend your answer with point/counterpoint arguments with supportive evidence (sourcing, intext citations and references) in the body section of the essay. You did not use the balance of the introduction section to provide the reader (me) the roadmap of points you will use in body section to defend your answers to the question posed by case1

.

-Thus, the introduction did not clearly and concisely state the problem the article is addressing; your solution to the problem and how you will prove your solution (See the tips for good writing I sent you). The introduction is the most important part of an essay because everything else depends on it.

In the introduction start with something like this – The purpose of this article is to address: “Are organizations likely to find better solutions to information overload through changes to their technical systems or their social systems — or both? Why?” Then, state your position on the topic and use the balance of the introduction to provide a road map of points to be discussed in the body of the essay.

– In the body section, there were several improper intext citations to support your essay. The SLP and Case assignments are research papers. All research papers in this class must be properly sourced, cited and referenced regardless of how assignment question is framed. You need at least three to five different in-text-citations to support your arguments for or against the assignment topic. There is no wrong or right answer as long as you have sources, citations and references to backup your claim(s).

Please, visit the following site for intext citation in APA style. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/

-There was no conclusion section. The conclusion section should not be more than two paragraphs long (one paragraph is preferable). A paragraph is normally 3 to 5 sentences. The main goal of a conclusion section is to sum up the key points made in the article without adding new information. Wrap up the article, recount how you have proven that your solution is correct and leave the reader with relevant final thought. A conclusion validates what you said you are going to do in the introduction

Expected approach to doing the assignment

——————————————————

Another approach to writing the essay would have been to: (1) begin the introduction by stating the purpose of the essay and clearly and concisely state your position on the topic by answering the question posed by the case assignment. (2) argue (pros and cons) from the perspective of social management of information overload, (3) argue (pros and cons) from the perspective of technical management of information overload, and (4) argue (pros and cons) why from the perspective of total STS management of information overload is more effective than from the individual components of STS

Keep the followings in mind when writing an essay in the class:

———————————————————————————–

– Make sure you answer the question posed by the assignment, since everything else in the paper depends on your answer. But, remember that there is no right or wrong answer as long as you have sources, citation and references to back up your answer

– In the introduction section, you should state the problem the article is addressing, state the problem’s solution and state how you are going to prove your solution is correct. Then, use the assignment expectations to outline the points that will be discussed in the paper.

– In the body section of your article, you should use the assignment expectations, the required readings and real life examples to build the essay. For example, this Case#1 assignment has several assignment expectations. Therefore, the body of the article should contain several paragraphs (sections), each paragraph corresponding (addressing) to each of the assignment expectation. All arguments in each paragraph should support the main assignment expectation for that paragraph. You should use the assignment readings, your individual research work and real life examples as supporting evidence. Make sure that your arguments for or against the article’s subject are sourced, cited and referenced.

– In the concluding section, you should sum up the key points made in the article without adding new information. Wrap up the article, recount how you have proven that your solution is correct and leave the reader with relevant final thought. A conclusion validates what you said you are going to do in the introduction

You need to read the homework at least three to five times before doing the assignment. You need to incorporate the required readings, your research works and real life example coherently and logically into the essay. Remember to use the assignment expectations, objectives, required readings, and expectations as the base for writing your essay in this class.

– Please visit the following site for TUI Guidelines for a Well Written Paper. http://www.trident.edu/files/Well-Written-Paper

– Please make sure you read my specific comments on your paper.

Additional Notes

———————

As is true for all the case assignments in this class, the question posed by assignment is unstructured. This is not a bad thing since it promotes complex and abstract thinking needed to successfully complete this course. Thus, there is no right or wrong answer as long as your arguments are supported. That being said, your paper was evaluated on how well your essay was structured to fit into the assignment, whether you answered the question posed by assignment (no right or wrong answer as long as the answer is supported), how logically you explained and supported your arguments and how accurately you used the literature (assignment required readings, expectations, objectives, your independent research works, and real life examples) to make your point coherently and logically.

Final Comments:

——————-

I expect you to incorporate my concerns in your next essay

This is a good start. I cannot wait to see your next assignment that embeds my concerns

Reading your paper carefully, I give you a C

Do not forget that:

———————

– Case assignment requires 4 pages (double spaced) excluding the cover and reference pages

– SLP assignment requires 2 pages (double spaced) excluding the cover and reference pages

As always, you are free to