M.I.S. Exam 3 Review

The two major components of operational CRM systems:

-Customer-facing applications. -Customer-touching applications.

Analytical CRM systems analyze customer data for a variety of purposes:

-Designing and executing targeted marketing campaigns. -Increasing customer acquisition, cross-selling, and upselling. -Providing input into decisions relating to products and services. (Pricing and product development) -Providing financial forecasting and customer profitability analysis.

The capabilities of dashboards:

-Drill down: The ability to go to details, at several levels; it can be done by a series of menus or by clicking on a drillable portion of the screen. -Critical success factors (CSFs): The factors most critical for the success of business. These can be organizational, industry, departmental, or for individual workers. -Key Performance Indicators (KPI): The specific measures of CSFs. -Status access: The latest data available on KPI or some other metric, often in real time. -Trend analysis: Short-, medium-, and long-term trends of KPIs or metrics,which are projected using forecasting methods. -Exception reporting: Reports that highlight deviations larger than certain thresholds. Reports may include only deviations.

Operational CRM systems provide the following benefits:

-Efficient, personalized marketing, sales, and service. -A 360 degree view of each customer. -The ability of sales and service to access a complete history of customer interaction with the organization, regardless of the touch point.

Three technologies provide support for IOSs and SCM systems:

-Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) -Extranets -Web services

Major categories of Intelligent Systems:

-Expert systems. -Neural Networks. -Fuzzy Logic. -Genetic algorithms. -Intelligent agents.

Economist Herbert Simon (1977) described decision making as composed of 3 major phases:

-Intelligence. -Design. -Choice.

The following capabilities are considered to be signs of intelligence:

-Learning or understanding from experience. -Making sense of ambiguous or contradictory messages. -Responding quickly ans successfully to new situations.

There are typically 3 flows in the supply chain:

-Material -Information -Financial

Other types of CRM systems:

-On-demand CRM systems -Mobile CRM systems -Open-source CRM systems -Social CRM

An organization's CRM system contains two major components:

-Operational CRM systems. -Analytical CRM systems.

Two dimensions of decision making:

-Problem Structure. -Nature of the decision.

Two basic types of corporate portals:

-Procurement portals. -Distribution portals.

3 specific Business Intelligence targets that represent different levels of change:

-The development of one or a few related BI applications. -The development of Infrastructure to support enterprise wide Business Intelligence. -Support for organizational transformation.

Even when Information is available, decision making is difficult due to the following trends:

-The number of alternatives is constantly increasing, due to innovations in technology, improved communications, the development of global markets, and the use of the Internet and e-business. The greater the number of alternatives, the more a decision maker needs computer-assisted searches and comparisons. -Most decisions must be made under time pressure. It often is not possible to manually process Information fast enough to be effective. -Due to increased uncertainty in the decision environment, decisions are becoming more complex. It is usually necessary to conduct a sophisticated analysis in order to make a good decision. -It is often necessary to rapidly access remote information, consult with experts, or conduct a group decision-making session, all without incurring major expenses.

Potential problems with on-demand CRM systems:

-The vendor could prove to be unreliable, in which case the client company would have no CRM functionality at all. -Hosted software is difficult or impossible to modify, and only the vendor can upgrade it. -Vendor-hosted CRM software may be difficult to integrate with the organizations existing software. -Giving strategic customer data for vendors always carries security and privacy risks.

Example of tier of suppliers for an automobile manufacturer:

-Tier 3 suppliers produce basic products such as glass, plastic, and rubber. -Tier 2 suppliers use these inputs to make windshields, tires, and plastic moldings. -Tier 1 suppliers produce integrated components such as dashboards and seat assemblies.

Why Stella service online customer service ratings are important:

1. Customers can see how well companies are performing in a variety of areas. 2. Companies can see how well they and their competitors are performing.

All managers perform three basic roles (Mintzberg, 1973):

1. Interpersonal roles: Figurehead, leader, liaison. 2. Informational roles: Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, analyzer. 3. Decisional roles: entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator.

The transfer of expertise from an expert to a computer and then to the user involves four activities:

1. Knowledge acquisition 2. Knowledge representation 3. Knowledge inferencing 4. Knowledge transfer

5 basic components of supply chain management:

1. Plan 2. Source 3. Make 4. Deliver 5. Return

Data mining can perform two basic operations:

1. Predicting trends and behaviors 2. Identifying previously unknown patterns.

All successful CRM policies share two basic elements:

1. The company must identify the many types of customer touch points. 2. It needs to consolidate data about each customer.

Problems along the supply chain arise primarily from two sources:

1. Uncertainties -A major source of supply chain uncertainty is the demand forecast. 2. The need to coordinate multiple activities, internal units, and business partners.

The supply chain involves 3 segments:

1. Upstream: Where sourcing or procurement from external suppliers occurs. -In this segment, supply chain managers select suppliers to deliver the goods and services the company needs to produce its product or service. Furthermore, SC managers develop the pricing, delivery, and payment processes between a company and its suppliers. Included here are processes for managing inventory, receiving and verifying shipments, transferring goods to manufacturing facilities, and authorizing payments to suppliers. 2. Internal: Where packaging, assembly, or manufacturing take place. -Supply chain managers schedule activities necessary for production, testing, packaging, and preparing goods for delivery. In addition, they monitor quality levels, production outputs, and worker productivity. 3. Downstream: Where distribution takes place, frequently by external distributors. -In this segment, supply chain managers coordinate the receipt of orders from customers, develop a network of warehouses, elect carriers to deliver products to customers, and implement invoicing systems to receive payments from customers.

Fuzzy logic:

A branch of mathematics that deals with uncertainties by simulating the processes of human reasoning.

Business Intelligence (BI):

A broad category of applications, technologies, and processes for gathering, storing accessing, and analyzing data to help business users make better decisions.

Vertical Integration:

A business strategy in which a company purchases its upstream suppliers to ensure that its essential supplies are available as soon as the company needs them.

IT steering committee:

A committee, comprised of a group of managers and staff representing various organizational units, set up to establish IT priorities and to ensure that the MIS function is meeting the needs of the enterprise.

Electronic Data interchange (EDI):

A communication standard that enables business partners to exchange routine documents, such as purchasing orders, electronically.

Product knowledge system:

A comprehensive source of information regarding products and services.

Geographic Information Systems (GIS):

A computer-based system for capturing, integrating, manipulating, and displaying data using digitized maps. Its most distinguishing characteristic is that every record or digital object has an identified geographical location. This process, called geocoding, enables users to generate information for planning, problem solving, and decision making.

Rapid application development (RAD):

A development method that uses special tools and an iterative approach to rapidly produce a high-quality system.

Bundling:

A form of cross-selling in which a business sells a group of products or services together at a lower price than their combined individual prices.

Joint application design (JAD):

A group-based tool for collecting user requirements and creating system designs.

Sales forecasting system:

A mathematical technique for estimating future sales.

Software-as-a -service (SaaS):

A method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications and provides them as a service to customers over a network, typically the internet.

Algorithm:

A problem-solving method expressed as a finite sequence of steps.

Management:

A process by which an organization achieves its goals through the use of resources (People, money, materials, and Information.) -These resources are considered to be inputs. -Achieving the organization's goals is the output of the process. -Managers oversee this process in an attempt to optimize it. -A manager's success often is measured by the ratio between the inputs and outputs for which they are responsible for.

IT strategic plan:

A set of long-range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and major IT initiatives needed to achieve the goals of the organization.

Prototype:

A small-scale working model of an entire system or a model that contains only the components of the new system that are of most interest to the users.

Purchasing Profile:

A snapshot of a consumer;s buying habits that may lead to additional sales through cross-selling, upselling, and bundling.

agile development:

A software development methodology that delivers functionality in rapid iterations, measured in weeks, requiring frequent communication, development, testing, and delivery.

Component-based development:

A software development methodology that uses standard components to build applications:

Intelligent agent:

A software program that assists you, or acts on your behalf, in performing repetitive, computer-related tasks.

Management Cockpit:

A strategic management room containing an elaborate set of dashboards that enable top-level decision makers to pilot their businesses better. -The goal of the management cockpit is to create an environment that encourages more efficient management meetings and boosts team performance via effective communication.

Upselling:

A strategy in which the salesperson provides customers with the opportunity to purchase related products or services of greater value in place of, or along with, the consumer's initial product or service selection.

Artificial Intelligence (AI):

A subfield of computer science that studies the thought processes of humans and recreates the effects of those processes via machines, such as computers and robots. -"Behavior by a machine that, if performed by a human being, would be considered intelligent."

Object-oriented development:

A system development methodology that begins with aspects of the real world that must be modeled to perform a task.

Neural Networks:

A system of programs and data structures that simulates the underlying concepts of the human brain.

Intelligent systems:

A term that describes the various commercial applications of artificial intelligence.

Information agent:

A type of Intelligent agent that searches for information and displays it to users.

Scope creep:

Adding functions to an information system after the project has begun.

Data visualization:

After data has been processed, they can be presented to users in visual formats such as text, graphics, and tables. -Makes IT applications more attractive and understandable to users. -Data Visualization is becoming increasingly popular on the web for decision support. -Two particularly valuable applications are geographic information systems and reality mining.

The nature of decisions:

All managerial decisions fall into one of three broad categories. 1. Operational control: Executing specific tasks efficiently and effectively. 2. Management control: Acquiring and using resources efficiently in accomplishing organizational goals. 3. Strategic planning: The long-range goals and policies for growth and resource allocation.

Systems stakeholders:

All people who are affected by changes in Information systems.

Pull Model:

Also known as make to order, the production process begins with a customer order. -Therefore, companies make only what customers want, a process closely aligned with mass customization.

Push Model:

Also known as make-to-stock, the production process begins with a forecast, which is simply an educated guess as to customer demand. The forecast must predict which products customers will want and in what quantities. The company then produces the amount of products in the forecast, typically by using mass production, and sells , or "pushes", those products to consumers. -These forecast are often incorrect.

Application Service Provider (ASP):

An agent or vendor who assembles the software needed by enterprises and packages them with outsourced development, operations, maintenance, and other services.

Prototyping:

An approach that defines an initial list of user requirements, builds a prototype system, and then improves the system in several iterations based on user's feedback.

genetic algorithm:

An approach that mimics the evolutionary, "Survival-of-the-fittest" process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem.

Buyer agent (shopping bot):

An intelligent agent on a web site that helps customers find products and services that they need.

Mobile CRM systems:

An interactive system that enables an organization to conduct communications related to sales, marketing, and customer service activities through a mobile medium for the purpose of building and maintaining relationships with customers. -Mobile CRM systems involve interacting directly with consumers through portable devices such as smart-phones. -The opportunities offered by mobile marketing appear so rich that many companies have already identified mobile CRM systems as a cornerstone of their future marketing activities.

Customer-facing CRM applications:

An organization's sales, field service, and customer interaction center representatives interact directly with customers. These applications include customer service and support, sales force automation, marketing, and campaign management.

end-user development:

Approach in which the organization's end users develop their own applications with little or no formal assistance from the IT department.

Machine learning systems:

Artificial intelligence systems that learn from data.

Procurement portals:

Automate the business processes involved in purchasing or procuring products between a single buyer and multiple suppliers.

Distribution portals:

Automate the business processes involved in selling or distributing products from a single supplier to multiple buyers.

Integrated CASE (ICASE) tools:

CASE tools that provide links between upper CASE and lower CASE tools.

Open-source CRM systems:

CRM systems whose source code is available to developers and users. -Provide the same features and functions as other CRM software, and they may be implemented either on-premise or on-demand. -The benefits of open-source CRM systems include favorable pricing and a wide variety of applications. Are also easy to customize. -A good choice for organizations that need CRM software that is designed for their specific needs -created for a large community of developers.

Decision Support Systems (DSSs):

Combine models and data to analyze semi-structured problems and some unstructured problems that involve extensive use involvement. -DSSs enable business managers and analysts to access data interactively, to manipulate these data, and to conduct appropriate analyses. -Have the capabilities of sensitivity analysis, what-if analysis, and goal-seeking analysis.

Expert Systems:

Computer systems that attempt to mimic human experts by applying expertise in a specific domain. Expert systems can either support decision makers or completely replace them. Expert Systems are the most widely applied and commercially successful intelligent systems. ex.) IBM's Watson. -Human resources use expert systems to analyze applicants for available positions. (assigns scores to applicants) -An ES is typically decision-making software that can perform at a level comparable to a human expert in certain specialized problem areas. -Expert systems can integrate and manipulate enormous amounts of data.

IS operational plan:

Consists of a clear set of projects that the IS department and the functional area managers will execute in support of the IT strategic plan.

Information flows:

Consists of data related to demand, shipments, orders, returns, and schedules, as well as changes in any of these data.

Customer-touching CRM applications:

Customers interact directly with the applications themselves. -also called e-CRM There are many types of e-CRM applications: -Search and comparison capabilities. -Technical and other Information and Services. -Customized products and services. -Personalized web pages. -FAQs. -Email and automated response. -Loyalty programs.

Structured decisions:

Deal with routine and repetitive problems for which standard solutions exist, such as inventory control. The first three phases of the decision process--intelligence, design, and choice--are laid out in a particular sequence, and the procedures for obtaining the best solution are known. Two basic criteria used to evaluate proposed solutions are minimizing costs and maximizing profits. -These type of decisions are candidates for decision automation.

Problem Structure:

Decision making processes fall along a continuum ranging from highly structured to highly unstructured.

Systems design:

Describes how the new system will resolve the business problem.

Turning Test:

Designed by Alan Turning. -A test in which a woman or a man and a computer both pretend to be women or men, and the human interviewer has to decide which is the real human. -Based on this standard, the intelligent systems exemplified in commercial AI products are far from exhibiting any significant intelligence.

High-end CRM systems:

Designed for enterprises with a few large customers.

Low-end CRM systems:

Designed for enterprises with many small customers.

Computer-aided software engineering (CASE):

Development approach that uses specialized tools to automate many of the tasks in the SDLC; upper CASE tools automate the early stages of the SDLC and lower CASE tools automate the later stages.

Request for proposal (RFP):

Document that is sent to potential vendors inviting them to submit a proposal describing their software package and how it would meet the company's needs.

Bullwhip effect:

Erratic shifts in orders up and down the supply chain.

Technical specialists:

Experts on a certain type of technology, such as databases or telecommunications.

Service-level agreements (SLAs):

Formal agreements regarding the division of work between a company and its vendors.

Campaign management applications:

Help organizations plan campaigns that send the right messages to the right people through the right channels.

Programmers:

IS professionals who modify existing computer programs or write new computer programs to satisfy user requirements.

Systems analysts:

IS professionals who specialize in analyzing and designing information systems.

Direct conversion:

Implementation process in which the old system is cut off and the new system is turned on at a certain point in time.

Phased conversion:

Implementation process that introduces components of the new system in stages, until the entire new system is operational.

Pilot conversion:

Implementation process that introduces the new system in one part of the organization on a trial basis; when the new system is working properly, it is introduced on other parts of the organization.

Interorganizational Information System (IOS):

Information flows among two or more organizations. By connecting the IS of business partners, IOSs enable the partners to perform a number of tasks: -Reduce the costs of routine business transactions. -Improve the quality of the information flow by reducing or eliminating errors. -Compress the cycle time involved in fulfilling business transactions. -Eliminate paper processing and its associated inefficiencies and costs. -Make the transfer and processing of information easier for users.

CRM systems:

Information systems designed to support an organization's CRM strategy.

Collaborative CRM systems:

Integrate communications between the organization and its customers in all aspects of marketing, sales, and customer support. Collaborative CRM systems also enable customers to provide direct feedback to organizations.

Predictive agents (monitoring and surveillance agents):

Intelligent agents that constantly observe and report on some item of interest.

Feasibility study:

Investigation that gauges the probability of success of a proposed project and provides a rough assessment of the project's feasibility.

Financial flows:

Involve money transfers, payments, credit card information and authorization, payment schedules, e-payments, and credit-related data.

Corporate performance management (CPM):

Involved with monitoring and managing an organization's performance according to key performance indicators (KPI) such as revenue, overhead, and operational costs. -BI applications allow managers and analysts to analyze data to obtain valuable information and insights concerning the organizations KPIs.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP):

Involves "slicing and dicing" data store in a dimensional format, drilling down in the data to greater detail, and aggregating the data.

Extranets:

Link business partners over the Internet by providing them access to certain areas of each other's corporate intranets.

Vendor-managed Inventory (VMI):

Occurs when the supplier, rather than the retailer, manages the inventory process for a particular product or group of products.

CRM systems can be implemented as either on-premise or on-demand:

On-premise: The organization purchased the systems from a vendor and then installed them on-site. -This arrangement is expensive, time consuming, and inflexible. On-demand: One that is hosted by an external vendor in the vendors data center. -This arrangement spares the organization the costs associated with purchasing the system. -Because the vendor creates an d maintains the system, the organization's employees need to know only how to access and utilize it. -The concept of on-demand is also known as utility computing or Software-as-a-service(SaaS). -Salesforce is the best known on-demand CRM vendor.

Semi-structured decisions:

Only some of the decision process phases are structured. -ex.) evaluating employees, setting marketing budgets for consumer products, trading bonds, and performing capital acquisition analysis.

2. Source:

Organizations choose suppliers to deliver the goods and services they need to create their product or service.

Customer touch points:

Organizations must recognize the numerous and diverse interactions they have with their customers. -Theses interactions are referred to as customer touch points.

Analytical CRM systems:

Provide business Intelligence by analyzing customer behavior and perceptions. For example, analytical CRM systems typically provide information concerning customer requests and transactions, as well as customer responses to the organization's marketing, sales, and service initiatives. These systems also create statistical models of customer behavior and the value of customer relationships over time, as well as forecasts about acquiring, retaining, and losing customers.

Dashboards:

Provides easy access to timely information and direct access to management reports. It is user friendly, it is supported by graphics, and, most importantly, it enables managers to examine exception reports and drill down into detailed data. -Dashboards evolved from executive information systems, which were information systems designed specifically for the information needs of top executives.

Supply chain management:

Purpose is to improve the processes a company uses to acquire the raw materials it needs to produce a product or service and then deliver that product or service to its customers. -The process of planning, organizing, and optimizing the various activities performed along the supply chain.

Decision:

Refers to a choice among two or more alternatives that individuals and groups make. -Decision making is a systematic process.

Supply Chain Visibility:

Refers to the ability of all organizations within a supply chain to access or view relevant data or purchased materials as these materials move through their supplier's production processes and transportation networks to their receiving docks.

Data Mining:

Refers to the process of searching for valuable business information in a large database, data warehouse, or data mart.

Goal-seeking analysis:

Represents a "backwards" solution approach. It attempts to calculate the value of the inputs necessary to achieve a desired level of output. -ex.) let's say that an initial BI analysis predicted a profit of $2 million. Management might want to know what sales volume would be necessary to generate a profit of $3 million. To find out, they would perform a goal-seeking analysis.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM):

Returns to personal marketing. That is, rather than market to a mass of people or companies, businesses market to each customer individually. By employing this approach, businesses can use information about each customer- for example, previous purchases, needs, and wants-to create highly individualized offers that customers are more likely to accept.

Models:

Simplified representations, or abstractions, of reality.

5. Return:

Supply chain managers must create a responsive and flexible network for receiving defective, returned, or excess products back from their customers, as well as for supporting customers who have problems with delivered products.

Just-in-time (JIT) Inventory systems:

Systems deliver the precise number of parts, called work-in-process inventory, to be assembled into a finished product as precisely the right time. -JIT doesn't eliminate excess inventory, rather it simply shifts it from customers to suppliers.

Customer service & support:

Systems that automate service request, complaints, product returns, and request for information.

Traditional customer touch points:

Telephone contact, direct mailing, actual interactions during store visits.

Sales Force Automation (SFA):

The component of an operational CRM system that automatically records all of the components in a sales transaction process. SFA systems include a contact management system: Tracks all communications between the company and the customer, the purpose of each communication, and any necessary follow-up. -SFA also includes a sales lead tracking system: Lists potential customers or customers who have purchased related products; that is, products similar to those that the salesperson is trying to sell to the customer.

Systems analysis:

The examination of the business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system.

Expertise:

The extensive, task-specific knowledge acquired from training, reading, and experience.

Supply Chain:

The flow of materials, information, money, and services from raw material suppliers, through factories and warehouses, to the end customer. -A supply chain also includes the organizations and processes that create and deliver products, information, and services to the end customer.

Systems investigation:

The initial stage in the traditional SDLC that addresses the business problems (or business opportunity) by means of a feasibility study.

Cross-selling:

The marketing of additional related products to customers based on a previous purchase.

Market capitalization:

The number of shares of the company's stock outstanding multiplied by the price per share of the stock.

Material flows:

The physical products, raw materials, supplies, and so forth that flow along the chain. -Also includes reverse flows. -A supply chain thus involves a product life cycle approach, from "dirt to dust."

Implementation:

The process of converting from an old computer system to a new one.

Reverse flows or reverse logistics:

The process of returning damaged or unwanted products.

Application portfolio:

The set of recommended applications resulting from the planning and justification process in application development.

1. Plan:

The strategic component of supply chain management. Planning involves developing a set of metrics (measurable deliveries) to monitor the organization's supply chain to ensure that it is efficient and it delivers high quality and value to customers for the lowest cost.

Sensitivity analysis:

The study of the impact that changes in one or more parts of a decision-making model have on other parts. Most sensitivity analyses examine the impact that changes in input variables have on output variables. -Most models include two types of variables: decision variables (internal) and environmental (external) variables. -Companies generally perform a sensitivity analysis to determine the impact of environmental variables on the result of the analysis. -Sensitivity analysis is extremely valuable because it enables the system to adapt to changing conditions and to the varying requirements of different decision-making situations. It provides a better understanding of the model as well as of the problem that the model purports to describe.

Programming:

The translation of a system's design specifications into computer code.

Social CRM:

The use of social media technology and services to enable organizations to engage their customers in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent manner. -In social CRM, organizations monitor services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin for relevant mentions of their products, services, and brands, and they respond accordingly.

Unstructured decisions:

These decisions are intended to deal with "fuzzy", problems for which there are no cut-and-dried solutions. An unstructured decision is one in which there is no standardized procedure for carrying out any of the 3 phases. Human intuition and judgement play an important role in making such decisions. -Although Business Intelligence cannot make unstructured decisions, it can provide information that assists decision makers.

The development of one or a few related Business Intelligence applications:

This BI target often is a point solution for a departmental need, such as campaign management in marketing. Sponsorship, approval, funding; impacts, and benefits typically occur at the departmental level. For this target, organizations usually create a data mart to store the necessary data. Organizations must be careful that the data mart--an "independent application"-- does not become a "data silo" that stores data that are inconsistent with, and cannot be integrated with, data used elsewhere in the organization.

The development of infrastructure to support enterprise-wide BI:

This BI target supports both current and future BI needs. A crucial component of BI at this level is an enterprise data warehouse. Because it is an enterprise-wide initiative, senior management often provides sponsorship, approval, and funding. In addition, the impacts and benefits are felt throughout the organization.

4. Deliver:

This component, often reffered to as logistics, is where organizations coordinate the receipt of customer orders, develop a network of warehouses, select carriers to transport their products to their customers, and create an invoicing system to receive payments.

3. Make:

This is the manufacturing component. Supply chain managers schedule the activities necessary for production, testing, packaging, and preparation for delivery. This component is the most metric-intensive part of the supply chain, where organizations measure quality levels, production output, and worker productivity.

upper CASE tools:

Tools that are used to automate the early stages of the SDLC (systems investigation, analysis, and design.)

Systems development life cycle (SDLC):

Traditional structured framework, used for large IT projects, that consists of sequential processes by which information systems are developed.

CRM is a fundamentally simple concept:

Treat different customers differently, because their needs differ, and their value to the company may also differ.

Outsourcing:

Use of outside contractors or external organizations to acquire IT services.

Business Intelligence can answer questions such as:

What happened, how many, how often, where the problem is, and what actions are needed?

Customer Interaction Centers (CIC):

Where organizational representatives use multiple channels such as the web, telephone, fax, and face to face interactions to communicate with customers. The CIC manages several different types of customer interaction. -Call center. -outbound center. -inbound teleservice. -Help desk.

Business Analytics can answer questions such as:

Why is this happening, what will happen if these trends continue, what will happen next, and what is the best (or worst) that can happen?

Support for organizational transformation:

With this target, a company uses BI to fundamentally transform the ways it competes in the marketplace. BI supports a new business model, and it enables the business strategy. Because of the scope and importance of these changes, critical elements such as sponsorship, approval, and funding originate at the highest organizational levels. The impact on personnel and processes can be significant, and the benefits accrue across the organization. This BI target is closely aligned with corporate performance management.

What-if analysis:

attempts to predict the impact of a change in the assumptions (input data) on the proposed solution. -In a well-designed BI system, managers themselves can interactively ask the computer these types of questions as often as they need to.

lower CASE tools Tools:

used to automate later stages in the SDLC (programming, testing, operation, and maintenance)