Role of Business Intelligence in Decision Making and Achieving Competitive Advantage: A Case Study of Maidenform Company

This report discusses the role of business intelligence in decision making and achieving competitive advantage using a case study of Maidenform Company. It covers different aspects of BI such as inventory management, financial decision making, planning marketing strategy, and executive decision making. It also explores how BI can help in achieving competitive advantage using five forces analysis and the internet.

Business Intelligence Big Data Report

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................1
ROLE OF BI IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS..................................................................1
ACHIEVING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE USING BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE.........3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Talking in relation with business intelligence, it is being referred as the data driven
process as well as place in which pertinent information, tools, scales and applications are
being evaluated and knowledge is contributed into the decision making process of business.
Further, business intelligence is extensively being utilized in the companies for making
informed decisions. In simple words, it can be said that it is an amalgamation of technologies
as well as methodologies which are utilized by the firm for carrying out effective evaluation
of data (George and et.al, 2018). Based on this, the present research report will throw light on
the significant role of business intelligence to help Maidenform Company, which is one of
the growing manufactures of shape wear and undergarments based in America. The company
operates around 75 stores all across the world. Additionally, the report will also going to
analyse the manners in which the company will going to attain competitive advantage using
business intelligence (BI). Relevant examples along with the scenarios will be critically
evaluated as well.
ROLE OF BI IN DECISION MAKING PROCESS
Business intelligence is being executed by different firms for improving the
production level, for generation of enhance return on investment and for accessing crucial
data or investment in different matters of operations of the business. Other than this, it can be
mentioned in this references that execution of Enterprise Resource Planning software by
firms like Maidenform and many other have led to momentous enhancements in the growth
related to sales. It needs to be renowned that ERP like SAP are software in the business
process management which supports in the automation of the back office functions and
management of business which are technology and services (Larson and Chang, 2016). There
are different aspects in the business of Maidenform which includes making informed
decisions and the manners in which BI impacts different strategic decision making processes
is elaborated below:
 Inventory management – It is a vital element being comprised in supply chain
management which emphases on overseeing the record or items which are not
capitalized. It helps in making decisions in relation with decreasing the excessive
inventory for managing cost. This is an added advantage of utilizing business
intelligence. Moreover, obtaining a notion of the pattern of ordering of the item will
also enable the manager in modulating the pricing tiers for generating superior
amount of profits.
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 Decision related to sales – With the help of BI, Maidenform is in a position to explore
comprehensive trends ion sales that are highly relied on the choices of the customers,
buying habit, experiences and response to advertisements. Through leveraging the
buying behaviour of the customers, firm can achieve a competitive edge over the
other firms in the market and can also gain insight for making effective decision in
relation with exploring specified sell prospects for enhancing the sale of a specified
item. In addition to this, for determining the clients which are in decline, firm might
allow repositioning of a certain product for boosting the sales (Thamir and Poulis,
2015).
 Financial decision making – The utilization of business intelligence has also allowed
the managers to look and analyse the financial structure like profit and loss, balance
sheet and general ledgers. Through researching about the past as well as present
inflow and outflow of finance of the firm, the managers can make decisions in
relation with the monetary condition of the firm.
 Planning marketing strategy – For planning and developing marketing strategies,
checking the trend in the behaviour of customer will going to offer an insight into
identifying the preferences of the clients. The execution of business intelligence
provides support to the company in deciding the tailored promotions, advertising,
message content and campaigns for maximizing the activities of marketing.
 Executive decision making – Seeking help from the business intelligence, the
statistical information can be gathered. This helps in offering useful support to the
managers and executives of Maidenform to undertake informed decisions in relation
with the growth of the organization. other than this, through analysing the competition
in the long run and market status will give direction to the managers to institute
decisions that needs to be done in future in respect with the production level and
growth. Imagining in regards with determining the production level, for example
employee management might prove useful for the managers (Puklavec, Oliveira and
Popovič, 2018). Moreover, the managers also gets advantage of determining the most
operative methods and techniques for decreasing turnover of employees and
enhancing production level.
There are different aspects being covered in the business intelligence system within
Maidenform Company and is being presented in the subsequent paragraphs. Talking in
volume in relation with the company, it is a company which manufactures undergarments of
women. After execution of BI within the company it has been reported that provision of the
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target data at the right place and time is the main fact towards the inventiveness of the
abilities and procedure of the decision making. Through this, the firm is been in a position to
achieve competitive advantage in the market. Other than this, the implementation of BI is
also going to support in increasing the retail customers and shoppers value. It has also been
reported that after the execution of this system, enhancement can be witnessed in relation
with ensuring that they are in a position to maintain delivery of one version of truth.
Furthermore, there is one more company engaged in the similar kind of business known as
the Bravissimo has also availed different advantages of using business intelligence systems
(Trieu, 2017). The firm has connected their BI instruments with the MET office in order to
predict the changes in weather conditions. Overall, it can be said that business intelligence
provides different benefits and also plays a crucial role in making informed decisions.
ACHIEVING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE USING BUSINESS
INTELLIGENCE
Business intelligence has been successfully implemented over the retail section of the
Maidenform Company. As per the analysis, it has been proved that BI is been regarded as a
boon in carrying out large businesses. The present case firm is one of the best companies of
women intimate wears and has emerged out as the successful agent in executing business
intelligence plan. Considering one scenario of Maidenform wherein they are being facing the
issues related to accuracy in predicting the demand of the customer for some specified
products being manufactured (Maidenform, 2021). Further, if the firm does not gather
information from the supply chain effectively then they might not be in a position to ship the
real quantity of that specified product or item when there is a huge demand situation. This
incapability of the company would have been resulted into dissatisfaction of their valuable
customers. In this regards, the chief officials of the firm attributed that measurement is very
essential in this case to be improved. In such a scenario it is important for the company to
understand where the firm is standing right now and in what manner the firm has to move
forward. This problem has been significantly solved through implementing business
intelligence system and it has become the backbone for the digital marketing department.
In addition to this, critical analysis to competitive advantage can also be done through
seeking help from five force analysis and the internet. Based on the scenario explained above
information system can build barriers to entry as company will not requires sales force and
access to different channels for collecting information about the likes and dislikes of the
customers. In addition to this, internet technology will also help in keeping proprietary from
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new entrants. Further, talking in relation with the rivalry in the existing competitor,
Maidenform will be in a position to expand their geographic market which will also increase
the number of competitors (Peters and et.al, 2016). Additionally, the competition will migrate
towards the price of the product and thus, it can be said that BI can alter the basis of
competition. Moreover, the bargaining power of the suppliers will be weak as the firm will be
in a position to procure more customer through using internet trends and this will raise their
bargaining power over the suppliers. Additionally, with the development of the overall
industry, internet can be utilized for expanding the market and this will reduce the threat of
the substitute goods. Finally, the bargaining power of the channels or end users will increase
as there will be elimination of strong channel and they can directly contact with the firm over
internet regarding their issues, needs and requirements (Puklavec, Oliveira and Popovič,
2018).
Execution of the business intelligence tool has enabled the Maidenform to see a
reduction in the percentage in the email subscription prices. Additionally, the platform has
also been developed for enhancing the dealing with the augmenting popularity for utilizing
smart devices such as tablet, Iphone and smart phones at the time of shopping. Furthermore,
with the help of the mobile applications progressive, innovative as well as augmented
features are being delivered to the customers effectively which in turn also harnesses
enormous data storage about the products (Nylen and Holmström, 2015). Thus it can be said
that the fundamental advantage of accepting the business intelligence system comprises
different advantages. The very first states that with the utilization of business intelligence
system it will allow Maidenform to take such decisions which are more insightful and are real
time decisions. This further makes sure that all the decision are not being undertaken by their
gut feeling rather they have taken informed decision based on analysis of data. Other than
this, the company can also develop new offers in order to make adjustments with the present
situation of the market and for better contentment of the valuable customers. At times, when
any form of information is modified or altered, individuals receives a notification and they
can easily figure out in regards with the issues or things that have taken place. Besides, it also
becomes quite easy to fix the matter. BI also provides automated insight and this is the main
beauty of this system.
CONCLUSION
From the above evaluation, it can be concluded that business intelligence is proving
quite beneficial for the managers and big businesses houses. The report has determined the
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importance of BI in informed decision making at Maidenform in different aspects of business
such as in planning a marketing strategy, managing the inventory, financial decision and
many other aspects. Further, for gaining competitive advantage utilization of five forces and
the internet has also been depicted in the report.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
George, A., Schmitz, K. and Storey, V., 2018. The BI&A System: Building Matured
Business Intelligence in Organizations. Academy of Management Global Proceedings,
p.144.
Larson, D. and Chang, V., 2016. A review and future direction of agile, business intelligence,
analytics and data science. International Journal of Information Management, 36(5),
pp.700–710.
Nylen, D. and Holmström, J., 2015. Digital innovation strategy: A framework for diagnosing
and improving digital product and service innovation. Business Horizons, 58(1), pp.57-
67.
Peters, M.D., Wieder, B., Sutton, S.G. and Wakefield, J., 2016. Business intelligence systems
use in performance measurement capabilities: Implications for enhanced competitive
advantage. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 21, pp.1-17.
Puklavec, B., Oliveira, T. and Popovič, A., 2018. Understanding the determinants of business
intelligence system adoption stages: An empirical study of SMEs. Industrial
Management & Data Systems, 118(1), pp.236-261.
Thamir, A. and Poulis, E., 2015. Business intelligence capabilities and implementation
strategies. International Journal of Global Business, 8(1), p.34.
Trieu, V.H., 2017. Getting value from Business Intelligence systems: A review and research
agenda. Decision Support Systems, 93, pp.111-124.
Online references
Maidenform. 2021. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.maidenform.com/>.
[Accessed on 3rd March 2022].
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