Case Study report on Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

Introduction of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            Today’s business world is much based on knowledge economy, and 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 presented the criticality of knowledge management for companies and their effective performance (Greene, 2019). Moreover, since the companies are digitally transforming, 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 (Riddle, 2017).

            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. One of the recent developments has revealed that Woolworths has decided to use big data analytics to improve its performance and efficiency. 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.

Case Setting of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

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.  In addition to this, the company is also looking for to provide a personalized experience to its customers by giving different offers. This is actually an approach to how they are planning to bring optimization in their whole value chain process. For this reason, 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. The system defines as once the entire data has 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. The company had kept this process in secrecy in past days and kept making it confidential on 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 far, and why now they are becoming more open about it. The reason might be 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, the company has integrated data analytics with a purpose to manage their complete data, get the knowledge, and ready to take off from this position. Thus, the company has revealed the facts eventually with a purpose to give a strong message to its competitors like Coles. The company has also revealed that it has been using Google cloud platform as well as services of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is a technology partner of Google, and how they are getting so many benefits from these two platforms. It is important to mention here that such integration of IT infrastructure can take years, but Woolworths, somehow, was able to do it in the duration of only four to five months. Ever since then, the company has been experiencing great efficiency in their business processes. An example like at the time when they made any query on Google cloud platform, the query was resolved within only 2.3 seconds, whereas in past days, 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). Thus, the use of Google data analytics has really supported Woolworths in making productivity without time-consuming which, in this context, would surely deliver huge benefit to the company.

Organizational Analytics of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            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).

GCP’s Effect on Business of Woolworths of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            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). 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).

            Working along with Google and also TCS has really supported Woolworths to manage in standing up the innovative data infrastructure within a quick timeframe. As one of the most innovative retailers in Australia and New Zealand, Woolworths surely have always searched for methods for the company to apply the latest technology in order to provide more convenient shopping experience to all of its customers, no matter they would do in-store shopping or online shop from home. In fact, this innovative method seems not only stop reaching customers. Instead, the general employees of the company also have gratified with the intuitive technology from Google GCP which allows them to perform work further effective and efficiently. This innovative technology has also granted the entire employees of Woolworths with access to the proper application along with the valid information from any location by using any type of device. Thus, we can say that shifting to a cloud-based suite of devices is, indeed, the main part of its strategy to apply the suitable technology to encourage better collaboration, productivity, as well as effectiveness. We can make a conclusion that, from the organizational analytic point, Google GCP has really delivered many benefits for Woolworths, especially in the contexts of the reliable network, flexible storage, and also powerful computing as well (Dickinson, 2019).

Analysis of Innovation & Capabilities of Google Cloud Platform of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            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. 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)

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Google Cloud Platform of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            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 the 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)

Recommendation of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            Even if there are some obvious advantages that have been delivered by the use of Google GCP in the system of Woolworths, but the company should not satisfied at this point. In fact, the company still needs to take some further steps to maintain and, at the same time, also make sure that all of those advantages gained will be endured in the long-term instead only as short-term advantages. The fact that there are many business people interested in establishing retail companies, and thus, they would give tough market competition. Hence, Woolworths should able to optimize the use of Google GCP in supporting the company to provide better service for its customers.

For this, there are some recommendations below that Woolworths could take regarding this matter.

            It is recommended to the Woolworths 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 which will allow Woolworth to standout in the market.

            Another recommendation for Woolworths is that, the company needs also to put the focus on the daily business practices which performed by all of its employees. The company has to make sure that the entire employees are performing the innovation of latest technology which is Google GCP that has applied in the company. The reason is due to if the company would not concern and put the focus on the daily practices, then some of the employees who still unable to understand properly about this latest technology might not able to perform in the company. For this reason, the next recommendation for Woolworths would be in giving proper guidance by conducting some training or courses for all of the employees to learn and understand properly about the new system. By giving proper training, the company also would able to make sure that all of its employees would able to adjust with the system in Google GCP and apply them daily to serve the customers.

            The next thing that Woolworths should do is monitoring the implementation of this latest innovative technology in serving the customers. This is aligned with the weakness mentioned above that Google is considered in way behind its competitors, and for this, they have to work more on their Google 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. In fact, we have also mentioned that Google GCP is also not considered to be a primary option by companies, rather they use it as a secondary cloud service provider. For this reason, it is fair to say that Woolworths needs to frequently make some revision to monitor the application of Google GCP in their business.

            One thing that Woolworths needs to keep in mind is that, Google has a quite bad reputation regarding its algorithms procedures of shutting down or else locking out the user accounts which appears to be a regular error done by Google. Even though Google would surely establish policy or make any statement around this error, but still, it totally depends on how the company would analyze this error appearance. Hence, the company should make a proper plan on how to use the Google GCP and how to tackle up in case if there would be any errors occur during the implementation (Compton, 2018 ).

Reflection of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

            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 tough retail market competition with its competitors such as Coles.

            In addition to this, working along with Google and also TCS has really supported Woolworths to manage in standing up the innovative data infrastructure within a quick timeframe. For this reason, it is really a great strategy made by the company which has listed as one of the most innovative retailers in Australia and New Zealand. The used of Google GCP has supported Woolworths as a retail company that always examining for proper methods and also applying apply the latest technology in order to provide more convenient shopping experience to all of its customers, no matter they would do their shopping in store shopping or online shop from their home. As we have acknowledged the retail business has opened up its access and prospect which make many business persons interested to take part in it.

            This case study of Woolworths has taught me some knowledge regarding the Google GCP and that how retail companies need the proper understanding of management along with big data analytics, since they would not able to maintain such a huge amount of data without it. From this point, Google GCP has come up as a perfect solution for numbers of retail companies and also has been giving many valuable benefits for them as well. Hence, in my opinion, it is quite important to learn on the Google GCP since it would really benefit for the future, even if I might not have a retail company, but it would support any type of company in this digital world of business.

References of Woolworths Using Big Data Analytics and Knowledge Management

Compton, D. (2018 , July 12). Google Cloud Platform - The Good, Bad, and Ugly (It's Mostly Good). Retrieved from https://www.deps.co/blog/google-cloud-platform-good-bad-ugly/

Crozier, R. (2019). How Woolworths uses Google to power its massive analytics uplift. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.itnews.com.au/news/woolworths-uses-google-to-power-massive-data-analytics-uplift-523639

Dickinson, E. (2019). How Woolworths harnessed its data on Google Cloud with Tata. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.arnnet.com.au/article/659898/how-woolworths-harnessed-its-data-google-cloud-tata/

Ekambaram, A., Sørensen, A. Ø., Bull-Berg, H., & Olsson, N. O. (2018). The role of big data and knowledge management in improving projects and project-based organizations. Procedia Computer Science, 138, 851-858.

Google. (2019). Big data analytics. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://cloud.google.com/solutions/big-data/

Google.com. (2019). SERIOUSLY POWERFUL DATA & ANALYTICS SERVICES. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://cloud.google.com/why-google-cloud/big-data/

Greene, J. (2019). What Is Knowledge Management, and Why Is It Important? Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.askspoke.com/blog/knowledge-management/knowledge-management-importance/

Pascoe, M. (2017). Woolies is playing smart. Coles is not, and it shows. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/why-coles-is-in-the-dog-house-it-thinks-i-have-a-cat-20171102-gzd8w3.html

Preimesberger, C. (2019). At a High Level: AWS vs. Google Cloud Platform. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.eweek.com/cloud/aws-vs-google-cloud-platform

Riddle, C. (2017). The importance of big data and analytics in the era of digital transformation. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.itproportal.com/features/the-importance-of-big-data-and-analytics-in-the-era-of-digital-transformation/

Wilder, C. (2016). Three Things You Need To Know About The Google Cloud Platform. Retrieved October 15, 2019, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2016/03/21/three-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-google-cloud-platform/#36bc2ccf7aef