Company Profile Of Aramark S & E Essay

Decision making and communication are at the center of business success and efficient business analytics would only be effective through the use of proper information systems and that are up to date with current trends as well as optimizing on the available channels.

The goals have been set and data analytics best practices need to be monitored. The experienced gained in this phase will shape the next course of action based on external and internal issues. As the data is formulated, it will identify the strengths and the weaknesses, threats and opportunities for improvements. Because the internal and external issues will continue

Aramark Food Service (ARAMARK) is a well-respected organization that is known to be one of the top leader's internationally by providing management services, food and a host of other things. Aramark products such as food service and refreshments, uniforms and work apparel lodging and guest accommodations, clinical technology, and clean room services come from its global headquarter which is based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Some of their other customers are sports stadiums, arenas, state and national parks and correctional facilities.

Accenture a pioneer in the industry is competing on analytics and positioning itself on the top globally. This company is rising on analytics for its distinctive capabilities, viz., Global Experience, Focus on Results, Validated Leadership Assessment, Extensive Industry and Client Experience, Commitment to Innovation and Proprietary Research and Distinctive Approaches to Learning and Development.

In today’s companies, the analytics software plays the important role and guides the future activities to a great extent.

The National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes use analytics to help determine when to hold special promotions to attract more fans to a game, and to determine the price of seating for select games. They implemented a similar software to that used by insurance companies and large corporations to identify potential fraudsters and business trends (Hartley, 2013). In the past the Hurricanes decisions to hold promotions and ticket pricing was more of a gut instinct than anything else. The team started to track purchases made my individual fans and then applied algorithms which gave the organization information about their fans (Hartley, 2013). This is just one example of how sports teams are using analytics to improve the business side of the sport.

Stage 3, Analytical Aspirations – A conscientious effort has been made to integrate analytics into multiple departments and their application is in support of the company’s distinctive capabilities

Businesses today have access to significantly more data than any other time in history; however, most businesses are not capturing or using the data effectively. A report by the Aberdeen Group, “The Executive’s Guide to Effective Analytics,” indicates that “44 percent of executives are dissatisfied with the analytic capabilities available to them today, and that they often make critical decisions based on inaccurate or inadequate data” (Forbes, 2014). Luckily, CEO’s are beginning to recognize the need for analytics and more and more businesses are making a shift towards a data-driven business culture.

In the New Science of Winning book, (Davenport & Harris, 2007, p.7) analytics is defined as “the extensive use of data, statistical and quantitative analysis, explanatory and predictive models, and fact-based management to drive decisions and actions.” [1]. To be successful in today’s competition, my current employer, DLL Financial Solutions Partner (DLL), is competing on analytics and fully aligned its core strategies to be supported by extensive statistical and computer based decisions. DLL is a global financial services company with operation in 36 countries, and its main focus is in the commercial equipment finance sector. In the following paragraph, I will explain DLL’s position in the industry and its ability to successfully compete on analytics with regards to its core business functions.

In an uber globalized market of today, companies are faced with challenges in each and every step of their business. Our analytics and research services are geared towards giving those companies that extra edge over the competition. We process and analyze terabytes of data and break down all the fuzz and chatter around it to give our customers meaningful insights about their competition and the market they are engaged in.

The second pillar - enterprise-wide analytics - at ARI in my opinion is a work in progress. Analytics is managed by the new product development team; the team is responsible for deploying the new and latest technologies to our customers. Today, the data is centrally located in multiple Oracle databases with multiple universes used for reporting. Power users can develop reports accessing transactional tables instead of the universes. The end result can be getting different results in a report. This is not because the data is different but how users are requesting and interpreting the data. I refer to this pillar as a work in progress because we are currently working on a strategic multi-year project to build a warehouse to support reporting and analytics. One of the success factors of the project is to build a ‘single source of the truth’ for reporting. This new warehouse will have the business rules defined in the data – not an easy task requiring time and resources from the business areas. In my opinion, ARI does not have a formal business intelligence competency center (BICC) (Thomas H. Davenport, 2007, p. 29) but has taken the steps to create one. The warehouse project team includes resources from Information Technology and the different lines of business with key responsibilities to define the business rules for the data and take ownership of the data. A key improvement in this area would be to dedicate Information Technology resources to the project.

The upward trajectory of analytics in the recent years is proof of the overwhelming support for the notion that the application of science to the selection, management and alignment of people brings about tremendous return. (Bersin) (Kapoor)

The company I am with is beginning to use analytics more and more. We are on step 1 of the five step process, so we still have a lot to learn and set goals on. We have just started using them so that we can compete with the “top dogs” of the bank data processors. I believe that if we didn’t use analytics one of the big competitors would come in and try to buy out the company. We are looking into ways to help use analytics so that we can strengthen our position in the service and show that we can handle any size community bank. We have created a Business Intelligence department to look into ways that we can improve products, forecast what a bank may buy when signing a contract, and to see how to pitch our regulatory compliance products to other companies to help them with their compliance.

The first pillar of analytics is when analytics supports a strategic, distinctive capability (Davenport). Over 20 lines of businesses are housed underneath Aramark’s umbrella and each line is given a tool that specifically caters to their function. For example, the finance department within Aramark relies upon the use of the Oracle database to store important data such as sales and expenses. Out of its three competitors, what sets Aramark apart is its focus on the bottom line. From a high-level point of view, finance can assess where gaps are happening within the organization and help manage the growing expense line.

Distinctive Capability - ABC has a demonstrated capability to use analytics to create a competitive advantage from an investment management standpoint. Millions of data points must be continuously analyzed to ensure passive stock and bond investments, totaling in the trillions of dollars, are efficiently managed for performance and risk. On the client side the diverse business structures and the prior focus on efficient operations has to date limited ABC’s ability to build out a world class data analytics capability comparable to the one that exists on the investment side of their business.