Question

How does the Business Intelligence Software at SYSCO case align with the BI perspective?

Answer 1

The problem statement refer to the concise description of the issues that needs to be addressed. It identifies the issues or gap between the current and desired type of the organization, and thus requires to be stated in order for the management to look for change. The main idea of the problem statement is to answer the 5 w’s that include the answering who, what, where and why, to allow the organization resolve the problem, by stating it in clearly in 2 to 3 lines.

In recent period, the problems statement  are widely used by the firms to allow the management execute the improvement process or identify the loopholes that are effecting the overall performance or profitability of the company. Moreover, the problem statement allow the management to trim down the symptoms of the problem an organization is facing and look on to the real problem that is causing the damage to any specific aspect of the company.



Basically, developing a problem statement is an extensive process and requires the proper brain storming of the teams in order to identify the underlying loopholes or inefficiencies within the organization. Also, it offers the specific insights to the management in understanding and looking at the factors that have been hidden from the management sight, effecting the performance slowly and gradually.

Apart from this, while developing the problem statement, it is important for the     Problem statement to be clear and concise. Such is due to the fact, that it allows the management, stakeholder to quickly understand the finding and also look on the main problem, rather getting entangled in the symptoms of the problem. The conciseness of the problem statement is the key, as it allows the reader to quickly understand the issue.

Moreover, clarity of the Business Intelligence Software At Sysco problem statement is important to maintain, in order to avoid the misunderstanding between the shareholders and stakeholders. The clear problem statement is developed by stating the factors and the operations getting effected and its overall impact on the organization specific the areas, such as Profitability, sales or brand equity. Also, the purpose of the problem statement is to describe the external environment and its effect on the overall organization in short and long-term. Moreover it also delineates the impact of such changing factors on the users, and other stakeholders.

Many times, under the case analysis, the purpose of the problem statement is to improvise the current state of the organization through pursuing innovation or other changes. hence ins uh cases, the direct problem is no the ultimate organization factors but the process implementation that is needed to e in lace, in order to bring change , avoiding the upcoming risk and hence sustaining the competitive edge in the market (Spradlin, 2012).

Furthermore, the establishment of the problem statement, allows the organization and the management teams to work in a specified direction. Such is important in order to allow the organization move in a specified direction, reducing the chances of deviating From the actual path. Also, it offers the benchmark to match the desired condition of the organization, hence putting the efforts of the team in the right direction.

Yet, it is important to note that, the good problem statement does not delineates the solution or the symptoms of the problem, but it clearly states the gap that lies within the organization. Moreover, it is also determined, that a clear problem statement is half of the solution, hence it is important To state the problem correctly.

In addition, the problem statement is a group process, and hence requires a detail understanding of the issues the organization may be facing, by all members in the team. This will allow the team to develop a better solution plan addressing all the factors and considering all the risk associated with it.

Perhaps, stating the Business Intelligence Software At Sysco problem statement is not just writing the fact, it’s more about the factors that are effecting or may affect the organization in long term, therefore, while developing the problem statement, the factors such as human resource skills innovation, technology, change resistance are considered, that have a direct effect on the organization or is hidden cause of the problem. It is important to note, that the problem statement can cover tangible or intangible issue but it needs to have a clear relationship with the organization end goal.

In addition, while stating the problem statement, the aim of the management is to see the mission and vision of the company and then analyze the current state of the organization, such also allow the right identification of the problem and the lead to the development of concrete problem statement.

All in all, the problem statement gives a direction to the organization in understanding the right solution path and also development of the solution sets in order to overcome the current issues that are deteriorating the organizational performance or productivity. Perhaps, while writ the problem statement, it is important to consider the small factors that are often overlooked such as the intangible factors that effects the productivity of the organization in the long-term.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco SWOT analysis
The acronym Business Intelligence Software At Sysco SWOT stands for strength, weakness, threats and opportunities. It is a useful tool that is widely used for strategic planning and management in many organizations. It is effectively used in building strategies for the organization to maintain its competitiveness in the market. It is simple yet powerful tool that help the organization in identifying its existing resources, capabilities, deficiencies, the existing opportunities and threats prevailing in the market.

It is a strategic planning framework that is commonly used to evaluate the organization, a plan, business or any other project. It helps in determine the organizational and environmental factors that could affect the decision to be made. It is carried out to analyze the position of an organization in in the market compare to its competitors and the major factors that are affecting the competitiveness before crafting any business strategy.

SWOT analysis mainly have two dimensions internal and external dimensions. Internal dimension includes all the factors that could affect the organization which is the strength and the weakness while the external factor includes the environmental factors that is the opportunities and the threats.

Components of Business Intelligence Software At Sysco SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a process that include four areas that are further divided into two dimensions i.e. internal and external factors. In SWOT analysis the strong and weak aspect of an organization is determined by evaluating the elements within the environment while the opportunities and threats of an organization are determined by examining the element outside the environment. In this way SWOT allows the comparison of organization’s resources and capabilities with the competitive environment in which it is operating.

Structure of Business Intelligence Software At Sysco SWOT analysis
In order to carry out the analysis it is important to understand each element of SWOT i.e. strength, weakness, opportunities and threats.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Strength
Strength is a characteristic that adds value to something by making it more special, unique and advantageous when compared. In this element of SWOT the abilities and the key properties of organization are discussed that gives an organization an advantage over other organizations by making it more competitive. It defines the characteristics and situations of an organization which makes it more effective and efficient when compare with its competitors.

It defines the areas in which the organization hold a command or is good at doing it and that provides the organization and important capability. It can be a skill, a resource, image, market leadership, relation with buyer or supplier or any other advantage relative to its competitors that fulfill the needs of the market by providing the organization with a comparative advantage.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Weakness
Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Weakness refer to the situation in which the existing capabilities and the resources the company holds are weaker or not sufficient compared to others organizations in the market. In other words it means the aspects in which the organization is less efficient and needs to improve in order to align with the market trends. As these aspects negatively affect the overall performance of the organization by making it weaker compared to its competitors.

These are the factors that an organization lacks and does poorly in comparison to the organizations operating in the same market at the same level. It is a deficiency or limitation of resources, capabilities, skills that majorly affect the organizations effective performance. Management capabilities, Facilities, financial resources, marketing skills and the weak brand image can be the sources of weakness.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Opportunities
Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Opportunity is an advantage and the driving force for an organization. It is the convenient time or situation that is present in the environment and will help the organization in achieving its goals. It is a factor that contribute positively towards the growth of the organization. It is a condition existing in the external environment that allow the organization to take an advantage of the organizational strengths, and help in overcoming the weaknesses and to neutralize the threats present in the environment.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Threats
Threats are the factors that prevent the organization from the actualization of an activity. It is an unfavorable situation that exist in the environment making it difficult for the organization to achieve its defined goals. It is a situation that arises as a result of the changes that took place in the immediate or distant environment, preventing the organization from maintaining its existence and superiority in the growing competition and are disadvantageous for the organization.

All the environmental factors are consider as a threat to an organization that could affect the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization.


Limitations of Business Intelligence Software At Sysco SWOT analysis
However there are certain limitation attached with it. The SWOT analysis is only a one stage of the business planning process and do not provide the organization with an in-depth analysis or research that could lead to a firm decisions. Apart from this it only cover the issues that are definite and doesn’t priorities them. In addition to this it does not provide any solution or alternatives decisions. As a framework, SWOT does processes a value but it doesn’t provide the organization with any specific direction on how the key aspects can be identified.  It significantly rely on the capabilities of the manager that how effectively it can prioritize and determine the most important element. Another limitation associated with Business Intelligence Software At Sysco SWOT analysis is that it provide equal weight to each factor regardless of their impact or relevancy.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Porter’s Five Forces
Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Porter five forces reflects the competitive environment of an industry. It is a strategic tool that is used to avoid or minimize the risk of losing the competitive edge that the organization has and to ensure the profitability of the products in the long run. The company holds its vision closely as it allows them to orientate its innovation in terms of choices regarding the investment and strategies. Within the industry the businesses profitability is dependent upon the following forces:

Competitive rivalry
Threats of new entrants
Threats of substitute
Bargaining power of suppliers
Bargaining power of customers
Structure of porter’s five forces analysis
Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Competitive rivalry
The competition among the firms help in identifying the lucrativeness of an industry where companies are competing hard in order to maintain their power within the industry. The Business Intelligence Software At Sysco competition is moreover on basis of diversity, the development within the sector and the barriers related to entrance in the market. The competitive rivalry is the analysis of the brands and the product, its strengths and weakness along with the strategies, competitors and the share in the market.

Threat of new Business Intelligence Software At Sysco entrants
It is in the favor of the companies that exist in the market to create barriers for the new entrants to prevent them from entering into the industry. The organizations could be the new companies or the companies that are planning to diversify itself in the market. The barriers can be both industrial and legal. Apart from this the size and the reputation of the companies that are already operating in the market also play an important. Furthermore the cost related to the entry, access to raw materials, barriers related to culture and technical standards also play a major role and can affect the decision of the new entrants in the market.

Threat of substitute products
The Business Intelligence Software At Sysco substitute products are an alternatives that are available in the market at comparatively better prices. Such products prevail due to the technological and innovative advancement. Due to which the products being produced by the companies that are already existing in the market and is using the same technology are than replaced by the other company’s products that are comparatively better in terms of price and quality and are being produced from sectors with significant profits. The substitute products are dangerous as the companies are under constant threat of being replaced.

High threat of substitute leads to low profitability as it limits the industry profits by placing a price ceiling due to the fear of being substituted by other product. Apart from this it also affect the growth potentials of the industry as a whole but reducing the profitability margins. 

Bargaining power of suppliers Business Intelligence Software At Sysco
Powerful suppliers possess more power to capture significant value for themselves by demanding high prices while limiting the quality and the quantity of the product or services or by transferring the cost on the participant of the industry. Many condition imposed by the suppliers generally include the increase in price while compromising the quality and quantity.

A bargaining power of a supplier in the market is strong if:

It is more concentrated than the industry it is selling to.
It is not heavily relying on the industry for its profits
If the participants in the industry have to incur high cost for switching suppliers or the firms are located adjacent to the suppliers manufacturing facilities.
The product being offered by the suppliers are highly differentiated.
And when there is no close substitute available for the products being supplied by the suppliers.
Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Bargaining power of customers
The buyers having strong bargaining power can highly influence the profitability of the suppliers operating in the market by imposing condition that are not much favorable for the suppliers in terms of price, quality or service. Therefore choosing clients often become crucial for the organizations as to avoid the situation of being highly depended on the buyers. The level of interest and concentration of buyers toward the product gives them more or less power.

Powerful buyers could flip the side of the powerful supplies by forcing the prices to move downwards and by demanding high quality and services by creating a competition between the participants in the industry on the basis of price and quantity. Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Customer are deemed strong if they contain negotiating leverage specifically if the industry is sensitive to price, the buyers can pressure suppliers for further price reductions.

The customer are assumed to have strong buying power in case:

If the number of buyer are limited or each of the buyer purchases large quantity relative to the size of the suppliers.
The products in the industry are standardized or are undifferentiated.
The cost of switching is comparatively low.
Limitations of Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Porter’s five forces
Though the model from a strategic point of view is an important tool but there are certain limitation associated with the application of the porter five forces model. The framework use a classic perfect market and relatively a static structure of market i.e. it only incorporates the aspects of the present day and only incorporate the events that took place within the short term period. Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Apart from the model only provide the overview of the environment and does not define the industry clearly.  As it can be difficult to group the companies having similar business lines and to call it an industry. Therefore Porter framework due to its limitation is too inert to be depending upon outside the short term to medium, term objectives.  It emphasizes more on external factors and ignore the specific factors that are more specially related with the firm. The model doesn’t incorporate new business model and the changing dynamics of the market and the impact of globalization. Moreover it does not consider non-market forces.

Business Intelligence Software At Sysco PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE analysis is one the significant and widely used tool or framework mostly by organizationswith the intent of considering the market environment before commencing the process of marketing. In fact, the analysis of the environment needs to feed all planning aspects as well as it should be continuous. The internal environment of an organization includes internal customers or staff, wages, office technology and finance etc. whereas the micro environment includesthe external customers of an organization, distributors or agents, competitors and suppliers. Additionally, the macro environment includes legal and political factors, sociocultural forces, economic forces and technological factors.

PESTLE Analysis
PESTLE Analysis

For the purpose of maximizing the benefits of such analysis, it is important that it should be used on regular basis so that an organization would be able to identify the trends. The effect of the particular external factors or forces might have extreme consequences for the specific department or divisions, also the analysis better helps companies in clarifying the needed or required changes, thus identifying the potential options (Norton, 2008).

The factors or forces are discussed below;

Political forces:
These are the Business Intelligence Software At Sysco forces that tends to be altered by the influence of government on the infrastructure of country. The political factors may involves environment regulations, employment laws, tariffs, tax policy, trade restrictions, political stability and reforms. It is noteworthy, that the charities needs to be included where a government are not willing services and goods to be provided.

Economic factors:
The Business Intelligence Software At Sysco economic factors or forces involves interest rates, inflation, and growth of economy, cost of living, working hours, wage rate and exchange rates. Combining these factors, it last greater and inevitable impact on organization.

Social factors:
The culture or social influence on certain businesses vary from country to country. It is significant to consider these factors. The social factors includes safety and health consciousness, various demographics, population growth rates and cultural aspects.

Technological factors:
Notably, Business Intelligence Software At Sysco technology is one of the most important way of being competitive in the highly competitive market arena. Not only this, it drives globalization, the factors includes environmental and ecological aspects, and available services as well as products. An organization should innovate and be compatible with the technologies.

Legal factors:
The Business Intelligence Software At Sysco legal factors involves the certain laws and regulations which might effect on the business operations of an organization. It also includes impending and current legislation that tends to impact on the industry in areas including competition, employment, safety and health. An organization should consider the influence of the national and international laws where the organization would originate the business operations.

Environmental factors:
The environmental factors include all those factor lasting impact or influence, the surrounding environment most likely determine environmental factors. The factors involves awareness of the seasonal or climate change or terrain variation. The analysis of the environment including internal and external elements is vital for organization since it impacts on the performance of an organization.

Limitations of Business Intelligence Software At Sysco PESTLE:
The limitations are discussed below;

The external factors are dynamic and can be change at a rapid pace. Overtime, the changes might be occur in less than one day, therefore the companies should make it tricky in order to predict how and why these forces might influence the future or present of the certain project.
There are many occasions, in which the environmental changes have an adverse influence on the project that might not be noted in the initial stages of project, indicating that the uncertainty sis still there even after the pestle analysis have carried out. This in turn might defeating the prime reason of the pestle analysis.
The usual or common procedure for pestle analysis is presenting a simple list of the environmental factors affecting the project. Until& unless, the organization critically examine the attributing factors, the analysis’s findings does not seem to be of greater value or consideration.
The analysis is supposed to be insufficient for the strategic planning objective, since it likely scans the externa environmental, whereas avoiding the competitive scenarios and internal environment. Nonetheless, the analysis needs to be conjunction with other frameworks such as S-W-O-T analysis in order to get a more realistic picture.
Business Intelligence Software At Sysco Conclusion
To conclude, PESTLE analysis is considered as an effective tool of planning and it offers viable and effective technique foranalyzing and scanning the operating environment of an organization. The effectiveness of the analysis highly depends on the accuracy of the collected data, updates to accommodation changes in timely manner and other tools trimming down the PESTLE limitation to some extent.