DataLab: Generation, Analysis, Iteration

This report focuses on Tesco's supply chain processes and suggests measures of digitization and integration of tools such as big data and decision management systems. It also highlights the potential adoption of data management systems to improve productivity and efficiency. The report covers topics such as business process map, key business decisions, business digital transformation, information/data management systems, database management systems, and big data for business.

BSc (Hons) Business and Management
DataLab: Generation, Analysis, Iteration
Coursework Title
………………………
Submitted by:
ID No: …………

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
Session: Spring 2021
Table of contents
1. Task 1: The Company and Business Processes.............................................................................3
1.1 Business Process Map / Flow Chart............................................................................................3
1.2 Main/Key Business Decisions......................................................................................................5
1.3 Business Digital Transformation...................................................................................................6
1.3.1 Procurement............................................................................................................................6
1.3.2 Production................................................................................................................................6
1.3.3 Processing units......................................................................................................................6
2. Task 2: Data Management Systems..................................................................................................7
2.1 Information/Data Management Systems.....................................................................................7
2.2 Database Management Systems.................................................................................................8
2.3 Big Data for Business....................................................................................................................8
3. Task 3: Business Intelligent (BI) Tools............................................................................................10
3.1 Opportunities for Intelligent Tools and Systems.......................................................................10
3.2 Business Intelligent (BI) Support................................................................................................11
3.3 Reflect on the BI tools..................................................................................................................11
4. References..........................................................................................................................................13
Student ID: Page 2 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
1. Task 1: The Company and Business Processes
When it comes to the modern business environment, there are numerous disruptions
which have resulted in increase of the level of unpredictability that firms face in undertaking their
routine market operations. One of the major disruptions have been occurring due to the advent
of the COVID-19 pandemic which has resulted in the rampant need for digitizing business
processes which are suffering from being terminally offline. This report will highlight some of the
major processes which are integral to the working of the company and recommended avenues
for advanced technological integration's such as business process digitization, use of big data
analytics along with smart business tools (Van Looy, 2018). This report will be based on the
organizational context of Tesco, which is the current market leader of UK's lucrative retail and
grocery sector and has seen massive growth all over the region ever since its inception in 1919
by Jack Cohen wherein he started the businesses as a single specialty shop. This report will
help suggest measures of digitization of the supply chain management process of the company
and help integrate tools such as big data and decision management systems.
1.1 Business Process Map / Flow Chart
Tesco being the most prime retailer in UK with hundreds of stores and supermarkets
spread out across most major and minor locations of the region, has to undertake extremely
tedious and winded route when it comes to supply chain management and logistics. The main
process that the company undertakes which will; be highlighted in this section of the report
includes supply chain management which is the backbone of retail companies like Tesco. The
major players which are included in this process include the following.
 Input suppliers – These units are responsible for providing all the major procurement
requirements which Tesco needs in the form of raw materials for its 1000+ product lines
 Producers – These typically include the local farmers which are partnered with Tesco
along with the extensive supplier network which takes care of the materials which the
farmers typically do not produce as Tesco often sells a lot of products whose ingredients
are suffering from off-season unavailability (Bowles and Gardiner, 2018)
 Processing units – These units are specially built by Tesco to produce and
manufacture the major product lines which are in demand. Tesco has large scale
Student ID: Page 3 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
factories located around Eastern London where the majority of the processing takes
place
 Trading – Tesco has gained major success thanks to being extremely proficient in the
art of trading which it does with the help of its impressive network of stores and
supermarkets
 Final customer – This group includes the target which the firm is actively targeting
which in Tesco's case is the people who use its multitude of stores to purchase many
products related to groceries and lifestyle (Direction)
A detailed business process map of the firm's supply chain management has been given
herein which details the various processes involved in the supply chain operations along with
the list of undertaken activities and deliverables which are expected at each stage.
Student ID: Page 4 of 14
Illustration 1: Supply chain process map of Tesco

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
1.2 Main/Key Business Decisions
The five stages which have been listed as a part of this process map are subject to
various decisions along with various inputs and outputs required at each specific stage which
have all been listed herein.
 Input supply chain – The main decision here is to select the way in which materials will
be procured which is often done through manual forecasting and going by supplier track
record. The inputs are mainly concerned about supply contracts and purchase orders
issued by Tesco while outputs come in the form of the needed goods.
 Production – Since Tesco also operates in the business of fresh grocery and food
product lines, the key decision here is to select the local farmers and communities to get
their ingredient requirement from. The major inputs include partnering with farmers and
analyzing local supply streams while output comes in the form of needed food
ingredients.
 Processing units – The major decision here lies with the way in which the production
line of the company produces the needed amount of goods to convert into final delivery.
The major inputs in this stage is the physical and good related material supply and the
output is the finished goods relating to numerous product lines of Tesco.
 Trading – There are a lot of decisions that have to made here and the most major one
involves around selecting the mode of transportation which will be used to delver the
finished goods to the various supermarkets of Tesco. Tesco has various options of
inputs as it even runs its own custom logistical rail network for the purpose of product
delivery and the output is mostly in the form of final goods which are duly shelved and
stocked in the Tesco supermarkets.
 Customers – The major decisions that matter here are often ethical and humanitarian in
nature as Tesco must decide key parameters such as product price, the level of
customer service and use of smart technologies. The input consists of high quality
product lines and experienced sales and store managing staff which engage customers
with the final expected output of robust sales (Tan, and et.al., 2021).
Student ID: Page 5 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
1.3 Business Digital Transformation
There are many parts of the above process which if digitized can help Tesco in
achieving much better nearest success and successfully push away the major losses which
have been subjected to the firm due to many factors such as Brexit and the COVID-19
pandemic. Some major areas have been identified below which are in need of an updation via
digital technology usage and integration.
1.3.1 Procurement
This area can benefit from digitization in the following manner.
 It will help Tesco arrange raw material requirements during emergencies with ease
 Smart procurement enables a lot of cost saving
 It supplements and helps various processes such as inventory management
1.3.2 Production
This area can benefit from digitization in the following manner.
 Digitized systems can help Tesco analyze and keep track of local ingredient production
areas
 Digitizing this process will help Tesco have access to various metrics to measure farmer
efficiency to partner with the best possible ones (Yang and Evans, 2019)
1.3.3 Processing units
This area can benefit from digitization in the following manner.
 Smart warehousing can help Tesco to undertake faster means of transportation to move
their goods from one place to other and make their operations faster
 Digitizing the factories can help the company become more sustainable by minimizing
human involvement in hazardous task which will boost workforce safety.
Student ID: Page 6 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
2. Task 2: Data Management Systems
Modern businesses such as Tesco have to deal with a lot of data in relation to the
process identified above as the supply chain process is quite extensive which starts from
identifying potential suppliers and demand forecasting all the way to engaging and proving
final goods to customers on time. Such complex processes contain a lot of raw data
streams which are very difficult to handle for businesses, even for those which are well
established like Tesco. In order to properly process and manage the extensive data which
originates as a result of the firm's supply chain processes, the use of data management
systems is highly recommended (Poltronieri, Ganga and Gerolamo, 2019). Data
management systems are special system software's which allow the running of queries,
storage and analysis of a large volume of data which can also be customized by firms to
suit their specialized needs. This section of the report will highlight the potential adoption of
such data management systems for Tesco's supply chain processes to improve productivity
and efficiency.
2.1 Information/Data Management Systems
After the due analysis of the firm's supply chain processes, it is evident that the firm can
benefit a lot from the application of data management systems in many key areas out of which
two have been identified to be of great use which are listed below.
 CRM (Customer relationship management) – This is one of the most useful data
management systems which can help Tesco is having a much greater chance at having
superior customer engagement and eventual sales. CRM software's are systemic
programs which are responsible for holding all customer oriented data of the company
including personal details, sales lead, sales opportunities and key leads and customer
contacts for follow up. Using this data management system will help Tesco become
much more efficient in the final customer stage of its supply chain process as CRM
programs help in understanding and responding to customer needs in an efficient
manner.
 Data warehouse systems – This is a type of decision support system (DSS) which are
special software's designed to provide additional support and backup to various
business processes by the way of providing additional data metrics and executing key
calculations which aid in making key decisions. Tesco can beenfit from such systaems
Student ID: Page 7 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
as it will make product processing and transportation post production much more easier
and they can also maintain multiple customer and factory data repositories this way.
2.2 Database Management Systems
It has been identified with the help of the supply chain process map of Tesco along with
the analysis done in the above section regarding database management systems that the two
best software integrations which the firm must focus on include customer relationship
management (CRM) and data warehouse systems. The database requirement along with the
major information contained in these systems which can be utilized by Tesco for process
optimization have been listed herein.
 Customer relationship management systems – The database requirement to
successfully implement and develop these systems in the supply chain process of the
company will be immense. This is due to the customer and sales oriented framework by
which the software works as databases related to customer's personal data, their
payment gateway choices and preferences, the sales leads and funnel are all stored in
separate warehouses. The data which these systems contain include sales data,
information about customer lead status as cold or interested prospects along with major
data on the marketing and customer service aspect of Tesco
 Data warehousing systems – The database requirements which Tesco will need here
is also quite complex but not as much in number as compared to CRM. Data
warehousing systems require a relational database to store the relevant data and then
extra databases are required for special purposes such as data mining and statistical
analysis. There is also a need for ELT (extraction, loading and transformation) system to
properly undertake the statistical analysis of the collected data which contains
information regarding warehousing logistics (Komarova, and et.al., 2019)
2.3 Big Data for Business
Big data refers to the large and extremely complex streams of individual or collective
data sets whose degree of enlargement and complexity makes it virtually impossible to properly
analyze them with traditional tools of business and market analytics. Companies like Tesco
which have access to a large number of financial resources can effectively use tools which help
extract, filter and utilize big data for the betterment of the business. Usage of big data can be
very helpful for the company's supply chain process which has been mapped and explained in
Student ID: Page 8 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
earlier sections of the report. The various ways in which big data analytics can help the supply
chain process of the company and impact its information systems are listed herein.
 Usage of big data is very helpful in facilitating efficient and accurate demand and
inventory forecasting which can make the company more efficient in predicting and only
procuring what is needed
 Big data systems can be used to make the workplace in factories and warehouses much
safer by facilitating means of integrating systems which promote automation
(Kunnathuvalappil Hariharan, 2019)
 Tesco's CRM software can also benefit from the application of big data as it provides a
lot of additional metrics for the analysis of customer behavior and sales trend
The firm can use the following big data analysis tools to perform this function in an
optimal manner due to their abundant access to financial resources.
 Apache Hadoop – Used by majority of the fortune 50 companies
 R-programming - Facilitates data analysis and visualization
 MongoDB – Will help Tesco in keeping track of large volumes of data
Student ID: Page 9 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
3. Task 3: Business Intelligent (BI) Tools
While not being as elaborate and effective as business analytics tools and techniques,
business intelligence tools have their own significant niche for companies like Tesco as they
help gather and analyzed a lot of data which is both structured and unstructured in nature and
collects them from a variety of sources including books, e-mails, journals and company related
documents (Khajehvajari, 2019). Business intelligence is a complex field and has many tools
which if integrated can help improve the supply chain process of Tesco which has been mapped
and explained above.
3.1 Opportunities for Intelligent Tools and Systems
There are many tools and techniques through which the field of business intelligence
affects the company’s operations in a variety of ways. When it come to the mapped supply
chain process of Tesco, the following tools of Business Intelligence have been recommended
which can prove beneficial in improving its operational efficiency and market performance.
 SAP Business objects – This is a highly advanced tool of business intelligence which is
used for extensive digital reporting of various business functions and departmental
operations, analysis of company specific and retail statistics along with the visualization
of said data into meaningful charts and diagrams. This tool can help Tesco’s supply
chain process in various aspects as it is a specialty software with tons of utility based
squashed in and it also help in creating statistics to predict and forecast the procurement
requirements of the firm.
 Qlik sense – It is also a highly advanced business intelligence tool which is used for the
purpose of enabling the workforce of the company to perform open ended business
analysis and exploration of various sets of data by helping create smart and open ended
interfaces with the help of cloud based analytics. This application is also of great benefit
to Tesco which is already looking towards building smart interfaces using tools such as
Power DB but Qlik sense is far safer and can help Tesco monitor the entirety of its
supply chain process without comprising on security (Santoro, and et.al., 2018).
Student ID: Page 10 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
3.2 Business Intelligent (BI) Support
The suggested business intelligence tools in the above section of this report were
made after conducting extensive research and there are a lot of utilities attached to both
SAP business objects and Qlik sense which can have a positive impact on Tesco’s
market competitiveness and its various stakeholders such as their employees. The way
in which the suggested tools can help Tesco have been listed herein.
 SAP Business Objects – The major stakeholder impact that usage of this
business intelligence tool will have will be on the employees of the company as
they will get a lot of data analysis metrics to complete their jobs in an efficient
manner. It is also a known fact that Tesco’s supply chain suffered from a lot of
disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic which is where SAP comes in as it
helps the process to become more agile through proper facilitation of data
visualization (Franchina and Sergiani, 2019)
 Qlik sense – Cloud adoption is always beneficial for the stakeholders of the
company as getting the opportunity to virtually analyze and store data not only
helps employees but the shareholders as well as they get to benefit from the
increased productivity of the firm. Qlik sense will be very helpful for Tesco in their
customer engagement phase of supply chain due to facilitating analysis of
complex consumer preference metrics. It will also help in the process of
production by monitoring production cost and supplier cost which can help Tesco
save a lot of money which it otherwise wouldn’t.
3.3 Reflect on the BI tools
Businesses intelligence might pale in recent times to the much superior business
analytics which involve big data applications but they are still adopted on a much larger
scale due to their relative low costing compared to big analytic techniques and their
widespread utility. However there are also legit concerns associated with the usage of
business intelligence tools, two of which have been highlighted herein.
Student ID: Page 11 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
 Security concerns – One of the major advantages of applications such as Qlik
sense and SAP business objects is their relative quickness in processing a wide
volume of data which can also be a major security risk. Tesco in its supply chain
process has to comply with a lot of governmental sanctioned terms and
conditions which contains sensitive data which if processed by SAP and Qlik
sense can lead to penalties.
 Ethical considerations – Using could analytic tools of business intelligence
such as Qlik sense come with their own set of questions in relation to business
ethics. Since Tesco is a leading retailer which serves both online and offline
channels, it gets to collect a lot of customer sensitive data which must be used in
an ethical way. Qlik sense and other similar business intelligence tools which
depend on cloud often have to hand over sensitive data to third party vendors
which carries major data leak and unethical use concerns which Tesco must
address with its company reports (Khan, Shakil and Alam, 2018).
Student ID: Page 12 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
4. References
Van Looy, A., 2018, September. On the synergies between business process management and
digital innovation. In International Conference on Business Process Management (pp. 359-375).
Springer, Cham.
Bowles, D.E. and Gardiner, L.R., 2018. Supporting process improvements with process
mapping and system dynamics. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management.
Direction, S., Mining tech-fueled value from the procurement function: Strategies for boosting
supply chain effectiveness.
Tan, P.J., and et.al., 2021. Behavioural and psychographic characteristics of supermarket
catalogue users. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 60, p.102469.
Yang, M. and Evans, S., 2019. Product-service system business model archetypes and
sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 220, pp.1156-1166.
Poltronieri, C.F., Ganga, G.M.D. and Gerolamo, M.C., 2019. Maturity in management system
integration and its relationship with sustainable performance. Journal of cleaner production, 207,
pp.236-247.
Komarova, A., and et.al., 2019. Organisational educational systems and intelligence business
systems in entrepreneurship education. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education, 22(5), pp.1-15.
Kunnathuvalappil Hariharan, N., 2019. Trends in Data Warehousing Techniques. Naveen
Kunnathuvalappil Hariharan.(2019). Trends in Data Warehousing Techniques. International
Journal of Innovations in Engineering Research and Technology, 6(8), pp.7-14.
Khajehvajari, M., 2019. Optimization of a Data-Driven Customer Relationship Management
System for Better Decsion-Making.
Santoro, G., and et.al., 2018. Big data for business management in the retail industry.
Management Decision.
Franchina, L. and Sergiani, F., 2019, September. High quality dataset for machine learning in
the business intelligence domain. In Proceedings of SAI Intelligent Systems Conference (pp.
391-401). Springer, Cham.
Khan, S., Shakil, K.A. and Alam, M., 2018. Cloud-based big data analytics—a survey of current
research and future directions. Big data analytics, pp.595-604.
Student ID: Page 13 of 14

Department of Business Management Studies DataLab: Generation, Analysis,
Iteration
You are required to provide a minimum of 12 references (6 academic and 6 trusted references)
Student ID: Page 14 of 14