Individual Business Analytics Assignment: Determine a set of business analytic needs for a functional area

In this individual assignment, you are required to develop a business case by determining a set of business analytic needs in a real organisation chosen by the learner in consultation with the lecturer. This assignment is to analyse some set of business analytics needs of an Organisation in a functional area and the impact that business analytics can have on the business value the organization is offering in the market by identifying the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of the industry which should help you to suggest areas of improvement for data-driven decisions.

Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to improve the nominated organization's business analytical capabilities. You are free to choose any organization or government department and are recommended to review recent press releases, competitive information, policy statement and news to help build context and relevancy.

Objective: The business case must relate to building some data-driven, decision-making capability, ideally one that relates to improvements in business analytics or that will drive economic returns. To provide appropriate context inform the lecturer:

1. Your chosen organization; and

2. The initiative you are proposing.

Task: In building your case

A. Research on an organization and provide a summary of the type of industry, level of competition, and the source of competitive advantage for the organization/business value it is offering in the market.

B. Propose some set of business analytics solutions to aid the functional area in supporting the needs of the organizations and that can drive decision making and improve time to insight.

C. You should conclude by identifying the "Critical Success Factors" (CSF) of the industry in which the organization operates.

CSFs can be defined as "the limited number of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful competitive performance for the individual, department, or organisation" (Mard et al., 2004, p.114) and CSF can prove to be instrumental in determining organisational need for business analytics.

Examples of the CSFs: new product development, good distribution, and effective advertising. For a fast-food restaurant can be specified as reducing the duration of time a customer waits for his food without compromising the quality of the food.

D. Identify the business analytics needs of your chosen organization (Based on the business value it is creating and the industry CSFs) related to daily operations that have implications to a particular functional area, not necessarily the whole organisation. Information needs for business decision making may relate to regional sales data, supply-chain management for a specific product, or any other similar information.

The objectives of studying business analytics needs are:

I. To identify the existing usage of business analytics or expressed needs in an organisation;

II. To suggest improvement of the utilization of business analytics; and

III. To recommend the business analytics requirements (based on business value and CSFs) which will improve data-driven, decision-making capability.