The SLP continues with a few more videos and a short video case to illustrate the use of data mining and analytics as the foundation for business strategies and practices using databases.
SLP Assignment
REI
To provide some background to the video case, REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) is an American consumers’ cooperative, selling outdoor recreation gear and sporting goods. REI sells to its members through an E-commerce site, hardcopy catalogs, and through 90 brick and mortar stores located in 27 states. REI is the largest consumer co-op in the U.S and faces competition from many other sporting goods retailers.
To better understand and serve its 3 million active co-op members and customers, REI launched an initiative to build a data warehouse containing many different types of information about its customers. REI needs to know precisely what customers do in the outdoors. With the help of IBM, REI’s data warehouse allows the organization to identify and organize all of the ways that each customer interacts with the company, including what they bought online or at retail outlets, whether they attended special training sessions for equipment and outdoor activities, or what items they returned.
REI uses IBM data warehousing technology to achieve its vision of understanding what its customers want, and how they want to interact with the company. REI also deployed IBM’s DB2 9 Viper technology to run REI’s marketing campaigns. REI’s site recognizes its members when they log in, allowing them to serve up content customized to individual users.
Required Readings
REI. (2009). REI builds a smart sporting warehouse with DB2. [Video file]. Retrieved fromhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEkA3O784s&feature=related
SASsoftware. (2011). Manage the data deluge with data mining and predictive analytics. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIcmd5zfu3c
SASsoftware. (2011). Manage all unstructured data with SAS text analytics. [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHAq8jG4FX4&feature=relmfu
SLP Assignment Expectations
After watching the videos and REI in particular, please answer the following questions.
- What is a data warehouse and why is REI building one?
- Describe some of the marketing strategies that REI’s data warehouse will allow them to use. Would these have been possible before the data warehouse was built?
- What are some of the risks or concerns surrounding the creation of a data warehouse?
- Why do you think REI chose to work with IBM’s data warehouse technology?
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