Business Intelligence Software at SYSCO Case Solution

1. What will be the biggest Obstacles faced by business intelligence implementation as it expands throughout SYSCO?

In implementing business intelligence, the first consideration should be to align it with SYSCO’s business strategies. It should improve the business and not be just a technical exercise. The decision making and strategy development should be changed from what was based on analysis to base on data and information. The software should help in the execution of the business strategy and not a hindrance or an additional burden on the workers. However, to ensure that the implementation is successful, the company should develop some pre-requisites for the company.

One of the biggest obstacles, in this case, would be the resistance from the employees to adopt new technology and integrating it into the daily routine. Since IT professionals would be the main employees working on the software, their resistance to change their working would be a hindrance to the software’s implementation. Other than that, other sources of resistance would come from some departments that already have business intelligence software integrated into their work. They would resist the up-gradation and the change. Also, it might be possible that they do not see the advantages that the new business intelligence software has. They would possibly see no change in the data that is gained through the new system, making them strong obstacles to the implementation.

Other implementation concerns would be training the workers not used to the BI system to implement it in making decisions and using numbers and data in the everyday work routine. It might be viewed as a compulsion to use and not as a tool to improve processes.

2. Why did SYSCO decide to initially address only two questions with its new BI software, rather than using it as a more general analysis tool in the operating companies? Why did Business Objects recommend this approach? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

The two questions that were initially addressed by the BI software were regarding the additional products that SYSCO could sell to its customers. The other question was regarding customer loyalty and the customers that SYSCO was most likely to lose. The reason to only answer two questions was to test the employees with the system. This slow implementation would allow them to become comfortable with the usage of the software and to integrate its findings to develop business strategies. Other than that, these two questions used the factors that were easy to comprehend.

The first question could be computed by the comparison of customer activity with the customer type, size, and geography. The second question analyzed the customer ordering patterns and history to assess the loyal customers. It also assessed the loyal customer’s order history and quantity to predict the ones that SYSCO could lose. Thus, the simplicity of the computations of the questions was to make the employees feel less anxious about using the product. A narrow assessment of its capabilities would also make the employees assess their capabilities.

Business objects recommended the two-question approach for the same reasons. Also, these two questions were important for demonstrating the software’s capabilities to the Business objects. The weakness of this approach is that the complete integration of the software into the employee’s working habits would take time since the approach is slow. The advantage, however, is as described, more effective implementation and integration approach and a good demonstration of the capabilities of the BI.