Introduction of Woolworths Using Big Data
Analytics and Knowledge Management
Today’s business world is very much
based on knowledge economy, and any modern business organization cannot survive
and compete without the essence of knowledge management. It is important to
know why knowledge management is so important for companies. A report revealed
that poor practices of knowledge management and sharing of companies listed in
Fortune 500 had cost them around $31.5b on an annual basis. It has been
observed that 74% of companies believe that if they have good knowledge
management policies in place, then their productivity can be increased from 10%
to 40%. These two facts are good enough to show the criticality of knowledge
management for companies and their effective performance (Greene, 2019).
Moreover, it is a fact that companies are digitally transforming, so they have
to manage big amounts of data, and they can only do it with the help of big
data analytics. The companies are generating a huge amount of data on a daily
basis, and if this data is analyzed properly, it can provide great insights
about the business, which means that businesses can harness their current
efficiency and performance. The companies can use this data to derive their
future strategy with an immediate effect (Riddle, 2017).
Looking at the basics of knowledge
management and big data analytics, it can be said that their importance is
increasing with the passage of time, and if companies want to stay ahead in the
competition, then they will have to consider these two critical elements so
that they can get competitive advantages.
Woolworths and Google Cloud for Data
Analytics
Woolworths is one of the giants in
Australian supermarket and grocery business, and they have realized the fact
that they are generating a big volume of data, so they should use big data
analytics and cloud platforms so that they can manage this data effectively to
get useful insights for their future business. They are considering to use data
analytics so that they can localize their shipments in the area of its stores,
and they are also looking to provide a personalized experience to their
customers by giving different offers. This is how they are looking to bring
optimization in their whole value chain process. The company has developed an
IT infrastructure, where they have developed a data lake based on Hadoop so
that all data can be brought together in one place. Once data is gathered at
one place at Hadoop, then it is sent to cloud platform of Google so that data
can be extracted with the help of cloud-based services as well as machine
learning, and then they get key insights for their business. Earlier the
company had kept this process in secrecy that how they are using data analytics
for better insights (Crozier, 2019)
It is interesting to know that
Woolworths has kept its data analytics journey secret so for, but now they are
becoming more open about it because they certainly feel that there are at a
point where they will experience major improvements as well as changes in their
overall business. Now, they have integrated data analytics to manage their data
and knowledge and ready to take off from this position, so they have revealed
the facts to give a strong message to its competitors like Coles. The company
has also revealed that using Google cloud platform as well as services of Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS), which is a technology partner of Google, they are
getting so many benefits. It is important to mention here that such integration
of IT infrastructure can take years, but Woolworths was able to do it in the
space of four to five months. The company had experienced great efficiency in
their processes like when they made any query on Google cloud platform, the
query was resolved within 2.3 seconds, whereas earlier it could have taken more
than an hour. It is just one example to show the effectiveness and heedfulness
of using Google data analytics (Crozier, 2019). The modern and digitally
transformed companies have to realize that without the essence of knowledge
management and big data analytics, they cannot maintain such a huge amount of
data. They need to understand that huge volume of data can have so much
important information regarding their business and customers, and if it is
analyzed properly, it can provide great insights to plan future roadmap. That’s
why many companies have realized this fact and using big data analytics so that
they are able to manage their knowledge and come up with great information to
plan their future strategies. One of the recent developments has revealed that
Woolworths has decided to use big data analytics to improve its performance and
efficiency.
Main Features of Google Cloud
Platform for Big Data Analytics
A company may have a huge amount of
data in its possession, but it cannot get any benefit until this data is
transformed into useful insights, and it cannot be done without the help of big
data analytics. The data analytics services provided by Google cloud platform
are so powerful and useful that companies can take countless benefits from
these services. It has been mentioned earlier that query can take seconds in
these big data analytics platform, which used to take hours. For this purpose,
Google has introduced the BigQuery service, which is faster than ever before. The
applications used in Google data analytics are rich in context, so when
companies are looking to find their future roadmap, these applications can use
context to suggest future courses of action. There was a time when data was
held in the hands of few people in the organizations, but it is not the case
anymore with Google data analytics because now information is available on a
cloud platform, and any authorized person can access this data from anywhere.
The other major feature of the Google cloud platform is its machine learning.
The people of an organization can get easy access to different services such as
deep learning systems. So, these are some of the main features held by Google
data analytics (Google.com, 2019). In this case study report, it will be
elaborated on what kind of tools are being used by Woolworths to integrate big
data analytics and how they are proving for them. The case study will also talk
about different benefits of KM and BDA to explain how these tools can be so
crucial to business success on a long term basis. Google have been developing
from past few decades by using innovative technology and the innovation is
mainly in the machine learning that takes the predictive analytics in the
industry leading services. The services are ultimately accelerated in terms of
data preparation for the machine learning process. The use of cloud dataprep in
the machine learning is adding benefits to the companies (Ekambaram, Sørensen, Bull-Berg, & Olsson, 2018). The use of BigQuery
ML for the building of machine learning models are different on the basis of
size of data sets. The BigQuery method mostly simple SQL. The train custom
google API process provide leverages for the machine learning models. The
models are machine learning are based on Cloud AutoML, TensorFlow Models, and
Cloud machine learning engine models and other big datasets are BigQuery and
Cloud Storage. The GCP model offers more scalable, secure, and reliable
infrastructure. There is no matter of workload as the models can be used to
operate and build mission critical data analytics solutions. The reliability of
services and approaches are greater than 99%. The service level objective (SLO)
work for the data analytic products (Ekambaram, Sørensen, Bull-Berg, & Olsson, 2018). The tools and
technologies that support the compliance are mainly used for access management
and fine-grained identity under the working process of cloud identity access
management (IAM). The secure business and management process of companies is
based on the cloud data loss prevention that improve redacting sensitive data
and classification process. In case of google cloud, the data discovery and
meta data management process is carried out for redacting sensitive data. The
Google Cloud AI solutions can deliver personalized customer experience to the
customers and users and these services increase the sales with lowing the cost
of services. In WoolWorth, the powerful AI models work with the customer
support services and the technology is used to train the customers (Preimesberger, 2019).
Innovation & Capabilities of
Google Cloud Platform
The Google cloud platform equipped
with data analytics is coming up with a variety of innovations, which are
beneficial for companies in so many ways. This platform has allowed companies
to reimage like what can be done with the help of big data analytics. The
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is efficient in so many ways that it not only
provided great insights into the data, but it also accelerates the whole
process to get fast results in a minimum period of time. It is important to
mention here that, with the help of GCP, companies can focus on big data
analytics without getting worried about their infrastructure. It has been made
possible because GCP is actually managed with the serverless approach, so
companies don’t want to worry about managing any servers or infrastructure,
rather they can just focus on data analytics. Moreover, a company may have data
in gigabytes to solve a query, and it may take hours to do so, but it is not
the case anymore because the BigQuery platform of GCP can do it in seconds.
This is how companies can get quick results to make things better for their
customers (Google, 2019)
The major Capability of GCP is its
ability to get more benefits from open source as well as existing tools being
used by the companies. There are various famous open source tools, which are
used by companies, and if these tools are easily integrated with GCP, then it
can save a lot of time as well as costs for a company, because they will not
have to look for new tools to comply with GCP, rather existing ones will be
adjusted. There are various business intelligence tools, which are used by
different companies to keep things on the right track, such as Qlik, Data
Studio, and Tableau. The other major capability of GCP is its foundation based
on artificial intelligence (AI). Google has vast experience in machine learning
and artificial intelligence, which is spread over two decades so that companies
are able to get benefits from predictive analytics with better results. It is
important for companies to understand that their data can be vulnerable to
various outside threats, so if they want to get their data on a cloud platform
with complete security, then they don’t have to worry if they are using GCP.
Strengths and Weaknesses of the Google
Cloud Platform
It is important to understand that
every technology has always an area of improvement, and if companies are
interested in taking things to the next level, then they will have to analyze
pros and cons of big data analytics tool so that they can work on weaknesses to
turn them into strengths for the future. It is a fact that GCP developed by
Google is considered to be the most powerful, fastest, as well as the highest
quality cloud platform, which is providing so many benefits to its users. The
companies are taking so many benefits. But it is important to look at both
strengths and weaknesses of GCP so that companies like Woolworths must know the
worth of using this particular platform. Keeping both pros and cons in view can
always be useful to integrate a platform with its relevant features (Ekambaram,
Sørensen, Bull-Berg, & Olsson, 2018)
Strengths of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics
and Knowledge Management
It is important to mention that GCP
was developed in 2008, and it was written with the help of Python, Java, and
C++. There are different categories of this platform, and each category has its
own importance. The great thing about GCP is that it comes with a variety of
options with regards to networking. GCP has been developed with great features
that users can rely on it in so many ways. The engineering expertise used by
GCP is state of the art. The application container of Google is exemplary, and
it provides so many benefits to its clients. There are various features of GCP,
which are state of the art and advanced, and each one has great pros to get
useful insights from data. One such feature is its machine learning, which is
equipped with latest standards. The other computing offers, such as analytics,
along with big data are also great for users to keep their process simple and
useful. GCP is proved beneficial in providing data load balancing as well as
various other scales out options for companies. Google has vast experience in
this field, so they are very well aware what is needed by the fast data
centers, and that’s why they are able to provide such fast services to
companies, who use GCP (Preimesberger, 2019)
It is important to realize the fact
that Google has been dealing with data for so long, and then they came up with
their cloud platform, which has boosted its business in so many ways. Knowledge
management and big data analytics have become the heart of the DNA of Google.
The entry into the cloud market was not an aggressive one by Google; rather, it
was a defensive approach to counter with competitors. Google is competing with
major cloud platforms such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, so it was important for
them to come up with some better solutions for its users. So, this defensive
entry was turned into a great aggressive strategy for Google, where they are
well and truly competing with other famous cloud platforms. The earlier journey
was not an easy one to gain credibility in the business of the cloud platform,
but Google did t with their great business approach and mindset. The
organizations which are information intensive such as mobility, retail, as well
as IoT sectors will continue to use GCP as a great tool for their knowledge
management and big data analytics. If Google continues by focusing on its
strengths, it will get more business in the future (Wilder, 2016)
Weaknesses of Woolworths Using Big Data
Analytics and Knowledge Management
It is always critical to look at the
weakest part of a business so that it can be measured by other companies
whether they should go for certain services or not. The biggest weakness of GCP
is its lower market share as compared to its competitors. The market share of
GCP is just 8%, whereas a 16% market share is obtained by Azure, and a 33%
market share is obtained by AWS. This shows that Google is way behind its
competitors, and they have to work more on their GCP so that they can convince
more companies to use their cloud services with data analytics. They need to
provide more services with new features and offers. Moreover, the global data
centers of Google are also less in numbers as compared to their competitors.
GCP is also not considered to be a primary option by companies, rather they use
it as a secondary cloud service provider, and Google will have to intensify its
strategy to get GCP as a primary option for companies all around the world
(Preimesberger, 2019)
GCP’s Effect on Business of
Woolworths
There are so many big data analytics
platforms available in the market, but Woolworths has relied on Google for its
reliable name in the technology business. They adopted GCP for big data
analytics, and it just took five months for the company to make this major
overhaul in their IT infrastructure. Google’s GCP is run with the help of the
Tata Consultancy Service (TCS).
Conclusion & Recommendatio
of Woolworths Using Big
Data Analytics and Knowledge Management
The services offered by GCP are
based on reliable, scalable as well as secure infrastructure. The approach used
by Google is multilayered security, which makes sure that companies can get
reliability as well as redundancy. The company has integrated Cloud Identity
Access Management (IAM) system in its cloud platform, which is secure for
access management and identity. The companies can create a data lake with GCP,
where a large amount of data can be stored, analyzed as well as processed for
different analytics purposes (Google, 2019)
After
analyzing different aspects of knowledge management and big data analytics, it
can be said that both things are essential for modern business companies,
especially which ones are digitally transforming. They need the essence of big
data analytics to get better insights from available data to target customers
with personalized offers. Woolworths has understood the importance of big data
analytics, so they have opted for GCP as their data analytics tool, and they
are already getting so many benefits, which are helping them to stay ahead in
the competition with Coles (Paschek, Mocan, Dufour, & Draghici, 2017).
The company has observed so many
benefits and improvements in their data analytics process by using GCP, which
is going to be more useful for the future as well (Dickinson, 2019). The other
great thing for Woolworths is that they are staying ahead in the competition
with competitors like Coles by using GCP. Their data analytics is allowing them
to send offers to customers, who are personalized based on previous data of
purchase. So, customers are targeted with better insights, whereas Coles has
not been able to do so (Pascoe, 2017)
It is recommended to the Woolworth Corporation
to focus on the data analytics because it is the need of the 21st
century. The completion in the local & international markets has increased
up to lot of extents and in order to sustain in the long run it is highly
important that Woolworth should differentiate itself from the rest of the organizations.
Big Data Analytics tools such as GCP can help the organization to get better
insights into the market, and through this the organization has the opportunity
to create such strategies w2hich will allow Woolworth to standout in the
market.
Woolworth cooperation is recommended
to use big data and knowledge management that is strongly focused on helping
customers. The customer-based knowledge management is a systematic process that
collect, share, preserve, and utilize the customer data. Woolworth is
recommended to use systematic process to access the customer data and maintain
enduring relationship of the data. Traditionally the knowledge management
technologies are limited, and organizations deploy big data analytics solutions
(Paschek, Mocan, Dufour, & Draghici, 2017). The effective
knowledge management is an important strategy that Woolworth corporation use to
collect data from different sources. The massive amount of data collected by
big data analytics reveal insights of user preferences and attitudes. The
company is recommended to use integrated strategy of data management and the
practical implications provide thinking and strategic insights and it have
greater influence on the world’s leading organizations. The selection of
appropriate process is essential to enhance the knowledge management and it
provide strategic direction for the development of company. The reciprocal
connections are designed between the collaboration platform and knowledge
management. The use of knowledge management can help the company to consider
additional values for the big data (Paschek, Mocan, Dufour, & Draghici, 2017).
Reflection of Woolworths Using Big
Data Analytics and Knowledge Management
The main concern of the present
report was to analyze the impact of big data and knowledge management as a
foundation of artificial intelligence system of Woolworth corporation. The
analysis of present work represents the mandatory framework condition for the
special view of bid data. The core components of the research describe
theoretical support to the practical process of big data management (Ekambaram, Sørensen, Bull-Berg, & Olsson, 2018). The report depicts
advantages and disadvantages of big data management and artificial intelligence
in digital companies. The findings of the present work also recommend
development and implementation of big data analytics in Woolworth corporation.
The model of artificial intelligence knowledge can be used to have intelligence
decisions in the company. The results approach combined use of big data and
internal knowledge for the improved decision-making process (Paschek, Mocan, Dufour, & Draghici, 2017). In addition, all
the results define level of quality of content as well as reluctance of
knowledge base and ability. The biggest advantage is to settle the level of
quality of content, reluctance to usage of knowledge base and process to deal
with the customers. The biggest challenges identified in the research of
artificial intelligence are linked with algorithm and technology. The use of AI
in the Woolworth can provide more insights to make better business decisions
and the prepackaged solutions of google can be used to model and build
services. The services govern and secure the data of companies by using google
cloud as an industry leading tools and technologies that support the compliance
of services (Ekambaram, Sørensen, Bull-Berg, & Olsson, 2018). The important
outcome of research is capability of Woolworth corporation to deal with the
knowledge. The management of data, selection, collection, transfer of
knowledge, and enrichments are the main tasks for processing of data flow.
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