DSS Project: Phases of Selection and Deployment Report for Al Nahdee

This report presents a comprehensive analysis of a Decision Support System (DSS) project designed for Al Nahdee Pharmacies, a pharmaceutical business. The project aims to implement a new business intelligence system to manage a customer loyalty program and improve decision-making across various operations. The report details the project's phases, including intelligence, design, and choice phases, outlining the requirements, decision-making circumstances, and the need for a DSS to enhance customer loyalty and business growth. It explores different loyalty program options, recommending a referral program. Furthermore, the report proposes SAP Business Intelligence (BI) as the optimal solution, detailing a project schedule with task allocations, work breakdown structure, and resource management, encompassing project phases from planning to closing. The report provides a detailed roadmap for the successful implementation of the DSS project, focusing on improving customer relationships and business outcomes.

Running Head: INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Intelligent Support and Business Systems
Name of the Student
Name of the University

1INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................2
2.0 DSS Project: Phases of Selection and Deployment...................................................................2
2.1 General Background..............................................................................................................2
2.2 Intelligence Phase..................................................................................................................3
2.2.1 The Requirement............................................................................................................3
2.2.2 Decision Making Circumstances, Types and Reasons...................................................3
2.2.3 Need for DSS..................................................................................................................4
2.3 Design Phase..........................................................................................................................4
2.4 Choice Phase..........................................................................................................................5
2.4.1 Business Need.................................................................................................................5
2.4.2 Model to be used.............................................................................................................6
2.4.3 Choice of BI Solutions and Selection of One Solution..................................................6
3.0 Project Schedule, Task Allocation and Work Breakdown Structure.........................................7
References......................................................................................................................................14

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1.0 Introduction
Al Nahdee Pharmacies is a business organization that deals with the sale of
pharmaceutical products like medicines, disinfectants and others. In order to maintain and further
increase the customer base, the company wants to implement a new business intelligence system
that will be able to manage the entire customer loyalty scheme system as well as take the right
decisions at various points of the operations.
In this report, the proposed plan for the company has been analyzed and suitable
recommendations have been provided regarding the use of DSS in the proposed customer loyalty
program.
2.0 DSS Project: Phases of Selection and Deployment
2.1 General Background
This project is based on the implementation of a customer loyalty program and its
integration with the existing transaction system of the company. As a part of their new business
strategy, the company wants to roll out some customer loyalty programs that will enable them to
gain more customers as well as maintain the existing customer base by increasing their loyalty
towards the organization (Kimball et al, 2015). The features of the proposed system include the
following.
Customer Database – The first feature of the system will be to have customer database
where all the information of a customer including his dealings with the company will be stored

3INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
(Wixom et al., 2014). This will help the company to determine whether the customer is loyal to
the organization or not.
Loyalty Program – Next, the system should have a list of loyalty programs for the
customers that will be based on the subscription of the customers (Laursen & Thorlund, 2016).
There will be a number of subscription schemes for the customers depending on which, the
specific loyalty pack will be unlocked and the customer will be enrolled in it.
Link with Transaction – Finally, there should be link between the customer loyalty
program and the transaction process so that whenever the customer purchases anything, his
program will be automatically activated and the billing will be done for the discounted prices
only.
2.2 Intelligence Phase
2.2.1 The Requirement
As per the proposed plan, the entire system will be automated i.e. none of the loyalty
enrolment operations or discount in transactions are to be done manually. Hence, the system
needs sufficient intelligence to perform the necessary actions.
2.2.2 Decision Making Circumstances, Types and Reasons
The decision making system for the proposed set up needs to perform the following
actions.
Enrolment – Whenever a customer deals with the company for the purchase of certain
products, the system will automatically search for existing database for the same customer. If
database exists, it will redirect the process to the customer loyalty program database. If the

4INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
database does not exist, it will request the customer to enter his details and enroll for the loyalty
program if he is interested (Fan, Lau & Zhao, 2015). The system will also show the customers
the various loyalty schemes and the subscriptions that the customer has to buy. The customer can
enroll himself by buying a subscription pack on spot.
Transaction – Another action to be performed by the system is to sort the bill of the
customers as per their loyalty status, as the customer information is entered during the billing,
the system will automatically search for his loyalty status in the system (Larso & Chang, 2016).
Based on his subscription and loyalty program, the system will automatically apply the discounts
on the bill and print the discounted amount only.
2.2.3 Need for DSS
Decision Support System (DSS) will provide significant business opportunities for the
company as the right decisions will be taken during the business transactions regarding the
enrollment of the customer for loyalty program and providing suitable discounts and rewards
during the billing. Not only it will increase the loyalty of customers but will further enhance the
business of the company as the customers will bring in referrals thus increasing the entire
customer base. Furthermore, with increasing loyalty level, the customers will be upgraded to
higher loyalty rewards thus increasing the business and profit of the company.
2.3 Design Phase
All the possible alternatives that will affect the decision making system will be as
follows.
i. During Enrolment – The first decision making stage is during enrolment of a
customer in the loyalty program. Whenever the customer starts a deal with the

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company, the system will take his initial information and search for his profile in
the database (Chang, 2014). Here, the system needs to make decision on whether
the customer requires a profile or he already has a profile in the database.
ii. During Payment – During the payment, the customer information is entered into
the system and the system will search for his loyalty status in the database (Yeoh
& Popovič, 2016). The system will have to decide whether the customer has
sufficient loyalty status / subscription to earn discounts or he is a new customer
without any subscription and hence no discounts.
Again, there are three possible choices for the company to take regarding the type of
loyalty program. These programs are listed in the following table along with their advantages
and disadvantages.
Loyalty Program Advantage Disadvantage
Loyalty Upgrade with Increasing
Spend
Increase in profit with the
increase in purchase values
Customers forced to spend more
for gaining loyalty points
Multi Brand Loyalty Program Partnership with other brands for
increasing customer count
Brand is not significant in
pharmacies business
Referral Formation of referral chain,
increase in revenue and profit
Referred individuals may choose
other companies / already loyal
to other companies

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2.4 Choice Phase
2.4.1 Business Need
The business need for the company is to maintain and enhance the existing customer base
by keeping hold of the current customers and on the other hand, bring in more customers. The
company wants to attract more customers by the new customer loyalty programs. As per the
design phase, there are three possible choices for the company.
2.4.2 Model to be used
The most suitable one for this particular organization will be refer friends program where
the customers will be requested to refer their families and friends to deal with the company and
they will get special rewards and loyalty points in return. This program will definitely help the
company to keep hold of their existing customers and they will bring even more customers to the
company thus creating a referral chain. This referral chain will accelerate the generation of profit
for the company significantly.
2.4.3 Choice of BI Solutions and Selection of One Solution
There are several tools available for developing such decision making systems. Some of
the tools include database management system, statistical data analysis package, data analytics,
SAP business intelligence and others. However, judging by the requirements of the particular
problem and the new proposed system, the best possible choice for the system will be SAP
business intelligence. SAP software is able to develop an internal database where all the
information of the customers, subscription policies, customer loyalty programs and others will be
stored, processed and managed (Moro, Cortez & Rita, 2015). Furthermore, SAP business
intelligence will support the decision making process of the system so that the system will be

7INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
able to take the right decisions while handling and managing the customer data. SAP business
intelligence also provides attractive and useful user interface that the enables the users to find
any business solutions on the dashboard easily without any hassle.
3.0 Project Schedule, Task Allocation and Work Breakdown Structure
The proposed project schedule along with the task allocation to the project stakeholders
are shown in the following table.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Resource Names
SAP for Al Nahdee 130 days
Mon 09-
04-18
Fri 05-10-
18
Project Discussion Phase 7 days
Mon 09-
04-18
Tue 17-04-
18
Meeting, Discussion, Plan 2 days
Mon 09-
04-18
Tue 10-04-
18
Finance Manager,
Procurement Manager,
Project Leader, Project
Planner
Requirement Identification 1 day
Wed 11-
04-18
Wed 11-
04-18
Finance Manager,
Procurement Manager,
Project Leader, Project
Planner
Selection of BI Tools as 2 days Thu 12-04- Fri 13-04- Finance Manager,

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Possible Solutions 18 18
Procurement Manager,
Project Leader, Project
Planner
Select SAP BI for the proposed
system
1 day
Mon 16-
04-18
Mon 16-
04-18
Finance Manager,
Procurement Manager,
Project Leader, Project
Planner
Second Meeting regarding
Project
1 day
Tue 17-04-
18
Tue 17-04-
18
Finance Manager,
Procurement Manager,
Project Leader, Project
Planner
Project Authorized 0 days
Tue 17-04-
18
Tue 17-04-
18
Project Leader
Project Planning Phase 32 days
Wed 18-
04-18
Thu 31-
05-18
Initial Planning for Project 5 days
Wed 18-
04-18
Tue 24-04-
18
Project Leader, Project
Planner, Project
Supervisor
Hire Consultancy for Planning
and Implementation
2 days
Wed 25-
04-18
Thu 26-04-
18
Project Leader, Project
Planner

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Discussions regarding project
plan
2 days
Fri 27-04-
18
Mon 30-
04-18
Project Leader, Project
Planner
Testing for feasibility 2 days
Tue 01-05-
18
Wed 02-
05-18
Project Planner, Project
Supervisor
Analysis of Cost Benefit 2 days
Thu 03-05-
18
Fri 04-05-
18
Project Planner, Project
Supervisor
Go Ahead 0 days
Fri 04-05-
18
Fri 04-05-
18
Project Leader
Actual planning of project 3 days
Mon 07-
05-18
Wed 09-
05-18
Project Planner
Preparation of Project Charter 3 days
Thu 10-05-
18
Mon 14-
05-18
Content Writer, Project
Planner
Determination of Project Scope 1 day
Tue 15-05-
18
Tue 15-05-
18
Project Planner
Determine Project Goals and
Objectives
1 day
Wed 16-
05-18
Wed 16-
05-18
Project Planner
Scheduling 1 day
Thu 17-05-
18
Thu 17-05-
18
Project Planner
Budgeting 1 day Fri 18-05- Fri 18-05- Finance Manager

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18 18
Analyse Project Benefits 2 days
Mon 21-
05-18
Tue 22-05-
18
Finance Manager
Risk Analysis and Addressing 5 days
Wed 23-
05-18
Tue 29-05-
18
Project Planner
Project Plan Document Ready 2 days
Wed 30-
05-18
Thu 31-05-
18
Content Writer
Project Plan Approved 0 days
Thu 31-05-
18
Thu 31-05-
18
Project Leader
Project Execution Phase 18 days
Fri 01-06-
18
Tue 26-06-
18
Hire Project Sponsor 5 days
Fri 01-06-
18
Thu 07-06-
18
Finance Manager
Hire Technical Experts and
Developers
5 days
Fri 08-06-
18
Thu 14-06-
18
Project Leader
Hire Additional Technical
Workers
2 days
Fri 15-06-
18
Mon 18-
06-18
Project Leader
Form Project Team 1 day
Tue 19-06-
18
Tue 19-06-
18
Project Planner

11INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Procure Budget for Project 2 days
Wed 20-
06-18
Thu 21-06-
18
Finance Manager
Allocate budget among teams 1 day
Fri 22-06-
18
Fri 22-06-
18
Sponsor
Procure Project Resources 2 days
Mon 25-
06-18
Tue 26-06-
18
Procurement Manager
Project Development Phase 64 days
Wed 27-
06-18
Mon 24-
09-18
Initiation of Development 1 day
Wed 27-
06-18
Wed 27-
06-18
Finances and Budget
Manager
Technical upgrade 10 days
Thu 28-06-
18
Wed 11-
07-18
Finances and Budget
Manager, Computer
Peripherals[1],
Computers[1], Internet
Connection
Hardwares[1]
Software upgrade 15 days
Thu 12-07-
18
Wed 01-
08-18
Finances and Budget
Manager, Anti Virus[1],
Software Development
Platform[1]

12INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Implementation of SAP BI 10 days
Thu 02-08-
18
Wed 15-
08-18
Finances and Budget
Manager, SAP
Software[1]
Subscribe to Cloud 2 days
Thu 16-08-
18
Fri 17-08-
18
Finances and Budget
Manager, Cloud
Subscription[1]
Develop Internal Database
Server
10 days
Mon 20-
08-18
Fri 31-08-
18
Finances and Budget
Manager, Central
Server[1]
Develop business portal 5 days
Mon 03-
09-18
Fri 07-09-
18
Finances and Budget
Manager, Anti
Virus[1],Business
Portal[1]
Testing and Analysis 5 days
Mon 10-
09-18
Fri 14-09-
18
Technical Expert
Training Sessions 5 days
Mon 17-
09-18
Fri 21-09-
18
Finances and Budget
Manager
Final Handover 1 day
Mon 24-
09-18
Mon 24-
09-18
Finances and Budget
Manager, Technical
Expert

13INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
Project Closing Phase 9 days
Tue 25-09-
18
Fri 05-10-
18
Documentation of Entire Project 4 days
Tue 25-09-
18
Fri 28-09-
18
Content Writer
Review and Appraisal 4 days
Mon 01-
10-18
Thu 04-10-
18
Project Leader, Sponsor
Stakeholder Signoff 1 day
Fri 05-10-
18
Fri 05-10-
18
Content Writer, Finance
Manager, Procurement
Manager, Project
Planner, Project
Supervisor, Finances
and Budget Manager,
Sponsor, Technical
Expert
Project Manager Signoff 0 days
Fri 05-10-
18
Fri 05-10-
18
Project Leader
The work breakdown structure for the project is shown in the following diagram.

14INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
SAP for Al Nahdee
Project Discussion Phase
Meeting,
Discussion, Plan
Requirment
Identification
Selection of BI Tools
as Possible Solutions
Select SAP BI for
the proposed
system
Second Meeting
regarding Project
Project Authorized
Project Planning Phase
Initial Planning for
Project
Hire Consultancy for
Planning and
Implementation
Discussions
regarding project
plan
Testing for
feasibility
Analysis of Cost
Benefit
Go Ahead
Actual planning of
project
Preparation of
Project Charter
Determination of
Project Scope
Determine Project
Goals and
Objectives
Scheduling
Budgeting
Analyse Project
Benefits
Risk Analysis and
Addressing
Project Plan
Document Ready
Project Plan
Approved
Project Execution Phase
Hire Project
Sponsor
Hire Technical
Experts and
Developers
Hire Additional
Technical Workers
Form Project Team
Procure Budget for
Project
Allocate budget
among teams
Procure Project
Resources
Project Development
Phase
Initiation of
Development
Technical upgrade
Software upgrade
Implementation of
SAP BI
Subscribe to Cloud
Develop Internal
Database Server
Develop business
portal
Testing and Analysis
Training Sessions
Final Handover
Project Closing Phase
Documentation of
Entire Project
Review and
Appraisal
Stakeholder Signoff
Project Manager
Signoff
Figure 1: Work Breakdown Structure for the Project
(Source: Created by Author)
References
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Computer Systems, 37, 512-534.
Fan, S., Lau, R. Y., & Zhao, J. L. (2015). Demystifying big data analytics for business
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15INTELLIGENT SUPPORT AND BUSINESS SYSTEMS
George, J., Kumar, V., & Kumar, S. (2015). Data Warehouse Design Considerations for a
Healthcare Business Intelligence System. In World Congress on Engineering.
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Relentlessly practical tools for data warehousing and business intelligence remastered
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700-710.
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Richards, G., Yeoh, W., Chong, A. Y. L., & Popovič, A. (2017). Business intelligence
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Wixom, B., Ariyachandra, T., Douglas, D. E., Goul, M., Gupta, B., Iyer, L. S., ... & Turetken, O.
(2014). The current state of business intelligence in academia: The arrival of big
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