Essay on Real Time Business Intelligence at Continental Airlines

The purpose of data warehousing is to combine all of a company 's data and allows users to access the data directly, create reports, and obtain responses to

5. What special issues about data warehouse management (e.g., data capture and loading for the data warehouse (ETL processes) and query workload balancing) does this case suggest occur for real-time data warehousing? How has Continental addressed these issues?

This data is collected and organized in order to process orders and maintain good customer service. The logical view of data would allow a knowledge worker to arrange and access information based on the needs of the business separating it from the physical view of how information is arranged and stored. The ability to do this allows for an employee to create detailed reports in order to determine information such as customer information and their order numbers and dates. This is imperative for a company like Comcast who has over 27 million customers in order to have a system to keep important data to analyze. Using a data warehouse allows them to gather from several databases and then the company can use the information to determine for example how many units of voice products are sold to create the necessary business intelligence to make future decisions and remain

An enterprise data warehouse (EDW) makes information accessible to the applications utilized as a part of offices all through the association including engineering, human resources (HR), and strategic planning. Norfolk Southern assembled a TOP dashboard

The purpose of this memorandum is to address the profitability issues at Continental Airlines and to estimate the costs for 2009 to forecast the future outlook of the company. To address these issues, I used regression analysis to observe what effect the 11% reduction in flying capacity would have on the firm’s future operating costs. I also used the results from the regression analysis to verify the costs that, if reduced, would further comply with the implementation of cost-cutting initiatives and operational efficiencies that the company is striving for. Lastly, I consolidated the data to forecast Continental’s financial outlook for 2009, then provided insight

In sum, to close the gap in profitability, Continental’s strategy was geared toward slashing operating costs by cutting capacity and through aggressive identification and implementation of cost-cutting initiatives.

In this essay I will create a nine-component marketing plan on flying full-service business class with Delta opposed to flying with a discounted low-fare carrier like Southwest. As the economy struggles and air travel becomes more competitive it is not easy to establish the best niche market strategy for an airline. Teplensky defined (as cited in Parrish, Cassill, & Oxenham, 2006) niche market strategy as, "an emphasis on a particular need, geographic, demographic, or product segment" (p. 695). Therefore, it would be ideal for Delta to seek a more specific niche in air

A data warehouse is a large databased organized for reporting. It preserves history, integrates data from multiple sources, and is typically not updated in real time. The key components of data warehousing is the ability to access data of the operational systems, data staging area, data presentation area, and data access tools (HIMSS, 2009). The goal of the data warehouse platform is to improve the decision-making for clinical, financial, and operational purposes.

Gathering requirements from end users was an important step in resolving the issues that currently exist at Canadian Tire. “Gathering requirements for a data warehouse is not the same as defining the requirements for an operational system” (Ponniah, pg. 121). When you research and then develop any system, it is critical that the system produces exactly what the users need to perform their specific tasks. CTC did not have this production for their end users. These users typically do not understand the big picture workings of a data warehousing process. Therefore, the help of a business analyst is critical. From the results provided in the case study, we can agree that these requirements must be addressed:

United Airline’s marketing firm uses psychographic segmentation, which divides customers according to their lifestyle, as a way to successfully target specific customers.

We have analyzed the existing booking policy of TransAtlantic Airlines and identified potential cost saving.

The advantages for business travelers is that, they no longer need to worry about restrictions attached to reduced fares, forcing them to pay higher prices. They can now get the advantage of being able to book at short notice but guarantee that they will still receive the same 28% off full Coach with no restrictions with anytime fares. Furthermore, if they can book in advance they can pay even less.

Article, www.coppereye.com/data_warehousing, states the aspects of return on investment of data warehouse is "the architectures have typically placed a premium on storing large volumes of data, and being able to execute queries very rapidly against this data." Real-time, with current information, is what is available with all the new data warehouse technology. Also, the article states, "it is common practice that loading the data is done overnight, and in many cases taken much longer with the growing success of data warehouse projects." Another aspect is, "business owners are no longer willing to accept reporting on last week's or even yesterday's performance, but want immediate access to data and reports about what is happening in the business to make ever more time-critical decisions.":

Elimination of several services including in-flight meals, assigned seating and baggage transfer to connecting airlines results in costs savings; and

It is very important for every airliner to create value for their shareholders; ticket pricing is the main source that an airliner can make revenue from. Therefore, airliners should have strategies that help them to be sustainable in the industry. I think that my research is on a problem that most of the airliners are facing today. Especially domestic airliners and the airlines with limited destinations are making more losses due to improper pricing strategies. This research focusses on creating a value to the airliner that I will be working for. It also creates value to the shareholders and stakeholders of the company. As every business is based on the customer satisfaction, my research is achievable if I could make a good analysis of customers’ needs and wants.