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 Page 2 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 Page 3 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 Page 4 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 Page 5 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 Page 6 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 Page 7 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 Page 8 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 Page 9 Project Design Page 10 Project Design Page 11 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 Page 12 Conclusion Any questions Page 13