SWOT Analysis of Business Data and Analytics in Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA)

Introduction
It is with no doubt that the supermarket business realm has evolved over time to become more
competitive and diverse therefore necessitating different approaches for businesses to be
sustainable (Ahmadi, Dileepan and Wheatley, 2016). Moreover, the tremendous development in
the fields of big data, data analysis and analytics have posed much benefits besides having its
downside. The aim of this paper is to the use of business data and level of analytics, conduct a
SWOT (Strength, Opportunity, Weakness, and Threats) analysis on business data and level of
analytics as adopted by Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA) in Brisbane so that to provide
better ways for the utilization of business data and analysis in the firm.
Big data and data analysis
Business problem and the role of big data
One of the main challenges that Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA) have faced is the issue
of increased competition which subsequently threatens to dwindle the market share held by the
firm. In the recent past, the firm has adopted aggressive price promotions which has ideally
defended the firm’s sales/share. In 2017, the firm adopted Big data as a means with which to
derive vital information when making business decisions (Industry Insider,2018).
Big Data
In the data world, business data has over time become synonymous with big data which is a large
or complex set of datasets (Bowen, 2019). In the Australian supermarket and groceries business
context, there are 2 types of business data which are mostly utilized i.e. scan data as well as
panel data. Scan data or EPOS is the data that is gathered in-store when items are sold or

‘scanned’ at the counter. Such data offers a huge deal of numeric data including units sold, price
of the product sold, time of day that the product is sold etcetera.
After collection of the scan data, the business firm further collects panel data whose aim is to add
substantial depth to the scan data as the consumers join the panel and take their shopping to their
homes and scan the purchases. Therefore, the panel data consists of other consumer data
including consumer’s age, number of persons in household, income levels etcetera. Main
Providers of panel data in Australia are IRI and Nielsen from where the IGA obtain panel data
too.
Level of analytics
In 2013, IGA firm adopted the services of Quantium, a data analytics company based in Sydney
Australia. So according to the CEO Metcash Jeff Adams, “...we can better understand the needs
of our customers and deliver a better shopping experience.” (Bowen, 2019).
Role of Quantium
Quantium mainly specializes in:
i. Data cleansing and curation
ii. Data ecosystem
iii. Data monetization
iv. Applied analytics
All of the activities of Quantium are powered by Q, which is “...a cloud based data science and
artificial intelligence platform, integrating 16 years of Quantium’s IP into one powerful
platform” (Quantium,2019). The firm collects, analyzes, monetizes datasets, generates insights
as well as creates decision support tools for the IGA’s firm. Further, the firm delivers actionable

commercial solutions to enable reshaping of the business and adopt to the market, to the
groceries categories and even the society at large
SWOT analysis
Given below are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats for the use of business
data and data analysis by Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA).
Strengths
1. After up to 6 years of incorporation of Big Data into the business processes of IGA, the
enterprise has begun to realize benefits. In reference, authors of the report “Big data,
analytics and the path from insights to value” note that the use of Big Data and analytics
increases the chances of the business to be a top performer in their market up to two
times (LaValle, Lesser, Shockley, Hopkins & Kruschwitz, 2011).
2. Adoption of big data collected through scan and panel methods has provided means with
which to obtain information on the trends on shopping by the consumers, their
preferences, what time they shop, the shoppers’ age, etcetera
3. Quantium being one of the biggest players in the data analytics industry provides a
reliable source of data analytics to the Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA)
management thereby facilitating the process of decision making which to the largest
extent determines the direction of business operations hence the success and
sustainability of the business.
Weaknesses
1. One major weakness that is prone to arise from adoption of big data and analytics is
probability of drawing poor quality conclusions and insights gathered from the data.