Lego Case Study Essay Example for Free

Lego Case Study Essay In this case , LEGO needs a flexible and robust IT infrastructure with business intelligence capabilities that could help management perform better forecasting and planning. So they chose to implement SAPs Supply Chain Management (SCM) , Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Enterprise Resoures Planning (ERP) modules. In the ERP module includes the Human Capital Management (HCM) application for personnel administration and development. These features such as â€Å"Talent Manager† as well those for handling employee administration, reporting, and travel and time management. These advanced features allow LEGO’s HR personnel to select the best candidates, schedule their training, and create a stimulus plan to retain them. b. Discussion of why the issue/problem is important for Information Systems discipline? IT infrastructure combine with business intelligence capabilities that could help management perform better forecasting and planning. Depth integration of data mining and information systems, able to establish a new business intelligence system to increase profits and reduce costs. In this case , SAPs ERP-HCM module effectively help LEGO’s manager to select the best candidates. It is also possible to include performance measurements and get a real-time insight into HR trends. So LEGO’s manager able to track employee’s leadership potential, develop their careers, and forecast the recruiting of new employees with certain skills. In life, the data is ubiquitous, and how do we treat and use of data? Data analysis must incorporate with information, less of data analysis, probability of failure for decision-making will climbing. Data analysis is the basis of the Decision Sciences, data analysis tells just a trend, predict a phenomenon. These trends and phenomena will change over time, no one can grasp the long-lasting. Data analysis to grasp the trend, can tell you at different times with different variables can produce different views, and the mode how will correct. This reminds me of a movie, â€Å"Moneyball†, the film based on Michael Lewis’s excellent book about the business of baseball, the basic idea is: Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane turned the baseball industry on its head by using objectivity nd data to help pick a baseball team, instead of subjectivity and gut. It was controversial and not perfect, but he did a pretty good job at it. He broke the conventional method, using historical data and data mining method to build the evaluation model, using low cost to purchase those underrated players. Creating a team has the ability to against the famous New York Yankees. Rely on intuition to make decisions has passed, Now the most important thing is effectively to use data analysis, combining with other disciplines, especially with the combination of information systems. . Identification of who are the key stakeholders and how they are impacted by the issue/problem. LEGO’s CEO and head of HR personnel, they can do this by ERP-HCM to predict and pick the talent they need, and handling employee administration, reporting, and travel and time management. SAP’s business suite supports databases from different vendors, so that abroad managers enable to have direct access to the database system from the company’s various locations. d. What is required for the successful continuation of the new method? SAPsbusiness suite is based on a flexible three-tier client-server architecture. In the first tier, a client interface submits user’s requests. The application servers receive and process clients‘ requests. In turn, these application servers send the processed requests to the database system. Therefore, the link between each layer is necessary. Compatibility between the different databases is also an indispensable factor. Most importantly, data analysis must incorporate with information system. e. Can you think of any other alternatives? SAS Business Intelligence also offers an integrated, robust and flexible presentation layer for the full breadth of SAS Analytics capabilities, including statistics, predictive analytics, data and text mining, forecasting, and optimization – all integrated within the business context for better, faster decision making. OSI Consulting also provide infrastructure strategy and planning services evaluate and prioritize IT optimization options and define a road map of activities that can reduce costs and improve utilization using time-tested methods and best-practice analysis. 2. Answer all the Questions at the end of the case correctly (50) f. Explain the role of the database in SAPsthree-tier system. The third tier database system, This tier keeps data neutral and independent from application servers or business logic. Giving data its own tier also improves scalability and performance. Database plays the role of the terminal server, can be used to store or access data. g. Explain why distributed architectures are flexible. The distributed architectures enables authorized personnel to have direct access to the database system from the company’s various locations. A distributed database is a database that is under the control of a central database management system in which storage devices are not all attached to a common CPU. It may be stored in multiple computers located in the same physical location, or may be dispersed over a network of interconnected computers. Collections of data can be distributed across multiple physical locations. A distributed database can reside on network servers on the Internet, on corporate intranets or extranets, or on other company networks. Replication and distribution of databases improve database performance at end-user worksites. . Identify some of the business intelligence features included in SAPsbusiness software suite. The SCM module includes essential features such as supply chain monitoring and analysis as well as forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization. The PLM module enables managers to optimize development processes and systems. The ERP module includes, among other applications, the Human Capital Management (HCM) application for personnel administration and development. These features such as â€Å"Talent Manager† as well those for handling employee administration, reporting, and travel and time management. These advanced features allow LEGO’s HR personnel to select the best candidates, schedule their training, and create a stimulus plan to retain them. It is also possible to include performance measurements and get a real-time insight into HR trends. LEGO’s manager able to track employee’s leadership potential, develop their careers, and forecast the recruiting of new employees with certain skills. i. What are the main advantages and disadvantages of having multiple databases in a distributed architecture? Explain. The primary advantage of distributed database systems is the ability to share and access data in a reliable and efficient manner. Advantages: Improved scalability Unlike a single-database system, in which the amount of data that can be stored depends on the limitations of one database, a distributed-database system is easily scalable and, therefore, set up for growth. As more sites or regions become part of the Teamcenter Enterprise network, you can expand the database topology to include new databases. With multiple databases, Teamcenter Enterprise data is divided into logical pieces, so that users usually work only with the data that is most applicable to them. Improved performance The majority of database inserts, queries, updates, and deletions are on user data; therefore, a distributed-database environment separates user data from centralized or shared data and stores it locally. Local user databases reduce network traffic and eliminate network bottlenecks on most transactions. Local user databases also distribute the user load in terms of system resources, such as memory. In addition, a distributed-database environment separates the user data from the data related to operational or background processing, which also reduces the amount of local system resources used. Increased availability Because user databases are independent, if one database is unavailable, other databases can continue to work. In a distributed-database environment, selected classes are replicated in other databases when they are created, deleted, or updated. This replication increases availability. By separating data, administrators have more flexibility in determining the frequency and types of backups needed for different types of data. This also increases availability. Disadvantages: Degradation of performance on a small network One user action can cause activity in several databases, some of which may be remote. The additional overhead of these transactions can be a performance penalty when the total amount of data in the network is small. Users also see slower performance when accessing user data that is not local. Increased use of database space The schema of all databases must be the same, that is, every table must exist in every database. Therefore, database space is used for tables that may never be accessed. When the number of tables is very large, the amount of space used this way can be significant. Administrators must use database storage parameters to size tables and reduce database space consumption.