more precisely to smaller groups of people, increasingits chances of identifying the people who were mostlikely to respond to its mailings. More targetedmarketing helped the Zoo cut $40,000 from its annualmarketing budget. With IBM analytics, managementcan now instantly identify which beer is selling best,on what day, and at what time to make sure inventorymeets demand. Previously, it took 7 to 14 days to getthis information, which required hiring part-time staffto sift through register tapes. The Zoo's ability to makebetter decisions about operations has led to dramaticimprovements in sales. Six months after deploying itsbusiness intelligence solution, the Zoo achieved a 30.7percent increase in food sales and a 5.9 percentincrease in retail sales compared to the same period ayear earlier. Other zoos across the country have takennote of the Cincinnati Zo0's success, including thePoint Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington. PointDefiance's online ticket sales increased by 700 percentin 2013, but management had no idea how or why theincrease had occurred.Questions:1- What management, organization, and technologyfactors were behind the Cincinnati Zoo losingopportunities to increase revenue?2- How did the Cincinnati Zoo benefit from businessintelligence? How did it enhance operationalperformance and decision making? What role wasplayed by predictive analytics? Founded in 1873, the Cincinnati Zoo & BotanicalGarden is one of the world's top-rated zoologicalinstitutions, and the second oldest zoo in the UnitedStates. It is also one of the nation's most popularattractions, a Top 10 Zagat-rated Zoo, and a ParentsMagazine Top Zoo for Children. The Zoo's 71-acresite is home to more than 500 animal and 3,000 plantspecies.performance, the Zoo's senior management teamembarked on a comprehensive review of its operations.The review found that management had limitedknowledge and understanding of what was actuallyhappening in the Zoo on a day to-day basis, other thanhow many people visited every day and the Zoo's totalrevenue. Who is coming to the Zoo? How often dothey come? What do they do and what do they buy?Management had no idea. Each of the Zoo's fourincome streams-admissions, membership, retail, andfood servicehad different point-of-sale platforms,and the food service business, which brings in $4million a year, still relied on manual cash registers.Management had to sift through paper receipts just tounderstand daily sales totals. The Zoo needed tochange its information systems to focus more onanalytics and data management. On rainy days,attendance falls off sharply, often leaving the Zoooverstaffed and overstocked. If the weather isToincreaserevenueandimproveunusually hot, sales of certain items such as ice creamand bottled water are likely to rise, and the Zoo mayrun out of these items. The Zoo now feeds weatherforecast data from the U.S. National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration (NOAA) Web site into itsbusiness intelligence system. By comparing currentforecasts to historic attendance and sales data duringsimilar weather conditions, the Zoo is able to makemore accurate decisions about labor scheduling andinventory planning. As visitors scan their membershipcards at the Zoo's entrance, exit, attractions,restaurants, and stores, or use the Zoo's LoyaltyRewards card, the Zoo's system captures these dataand analyzes them to determine usage and spendingpatterns down to the individual customer level. Thisinformation helps the Zoo segment visitors based ontheir spending and visitation behaviors and use thisinformation to target marketing and promotionsspecifically for each customer segment. The Zoo usedits customer information to devise a direct mailmarketing campaign in which this type of visitorwould be offered a discount for some of the Zoo'srestaurants and gift shops. Loyal customers are alsorewarded with targeted marketing and recognitionprograms. Instead of sending a special offer to itsentire mailing list, the Zoo is able to tailor campaignsmore precisely to smaller groups of people, increasing

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A management system is a system that includes the policies, procedures, and processes to ensure the…