Note: New Blog

To whom it may concern,

For some reason my old blog did a 180 on me and removed half my posts. Perhaps its something that I did... before this semester I did not know how to blog, and Im going to say that I still not 100% on the whole issue... Hey cut the kid a break, I dont even do the Myspace or Facebook!

Ive created this new blog and updated all my posts on it. If I am mising any, could someone point it out to me?

Thanks,

Nikos

Week 11 and 12

Group Presentations… Good work guys!

Week 10

New Product Development (NPD), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM)… anyone from a marketing or advertising stance would perceive that I am trying to explain Porters 5 forces!

Contacting suppliers to create products or services that are developed based on customer specification is the most common business practise. It is retail at its most simplistic level. The only way to create a profit and develop customer satisfaction is to ensure that all aspects of this development are operating successfully and in conjunction with one another.

Week 8

The need for customer data integration.

Customer data integration (CDI) is a concept that organisations should familiarise themselves with. Through the consolidation, interpretation and management of all aspects of customer information, including the sources of information, will ensure that any organisation will have constant access to the most current customer information.

In recent years, CDI has become a very popular trend with organisations, as they have begun to invest into analytical Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. Shifting to the need to understand customer behaviour is very important in regards to marketing, sales and customer service and therefore requires the most current customer information available. Without correct or relevant information, analytical (any) CRM application will become ineffective.

CDI can automate business processes through the removal of any manual functions and save costs through the streamlining of certain departmental information handling.

Oracle's Siebel CDI solution is divided into three different business aspects:

- Universal Application Network

- Data Quality

- Universal Customer Master

Week 6 and 7

Assignment consultation.


However, on the note on selecting an CRM.. There is no one application that is perfect for every single organisation. Diffrent organisations require diffrent information and have diffrent business processes. Also, finaicial constraints may imply that organisations may not always be able to select the CRM application that they may want.

Week 5

Comments on Decision tree

At first glance, the decision making process can be seen as straightforward. This is because people make hundreds of decisions everyday, and often the same routine can be used for most decisions. For example, decisions concerning whether or not to brush your teeth: ‘If you wish to have clean teeth then you brush, otherwise don’t’. However, the decision of whether or not to brush your teeth is seemingly small and insignificant in comparison to the other decisions that people make everyday e.g. the purchasing of homes, changing occupations, migration overseas etc. These larger and lifestyle effecting decisions have hundreds of different factors and issues that need to be investigated and interpreted before a decision is made. In some cases, decisions can take up to days, even weeks.

Decisions Trees is a simplistic method of looking at decision making. All potential avenues have been identified and the advantages and disadvantages have been mentioned. These avenues are usually numerically mentioned and then calculated statistically to produce the most influenctial or probable cause of action. Although, decision trees and even its associated CART methodology, can not always infer real-world or external circumstances into account, thus forcing models to constantly change.

Comments on neural network

To be completely honest, after further researching artificial neural networks, I find them to be infinitely complex. Yes, the theory is simple enough. Individual processing systems that are interconnected with value of their weight (wi) determining their strength. However, Supervised, unsupervised and reinforced learning is utterly complex and the many different algorithms used for training neural network models… If anyone can simplify it for me, I would be quite thankful!

Week 4

Data mining is an interesting concept isn’t it? Data mining techniques allows for organisation to thoroughly analyse large amounts of information and select specific and relevant information that can be used to further business acumen. Ilona mentioned a variety of different uses and advantages from the information that can be derived from data mining. For example, the range of current marketing campaign to simply identifying the best time in the day to contact a potential customer.

Week 3

Sorry for taking so long, Im new to this Blog thing, so bare with me.

Week 3

Ideally, all products should be excellent products. Consumers will have more faith in an organisation or retailer should their product both satisfy and compliment their needs. However, the idea of a perfect product is in the eye of the beholder.

Schwartz’s argument of choice and product variety does contain merit and logical validity. For instance, I work in a specialist audio and visual retail store and the majority of our customers are individuals whom have been customers for many years. Although we do not offer the mainstream store brand products, many customers whom have been happy with our products are more than happy to purchase or upgrade to a product from the same brand e.g. Individuals who have owned Loewe for 20 years will only purchase a Loewe, as they have been more than satisfied with the products quality and brand reputation. Through this perspective, choice is not required.

Choice is based on a number of factors, for example product satisfaction, personal experiences, warranty, expected product lifespan, growing technology, current broadcasting system, pricing etc. Consumers have a unique and individual perspective when identifying the ‘perfect’ product. CRM is crucial in this investigation. In order to create and advertise a ‘great’ product, we need to understand what constitutes as a ‘great’ product. Through excellent communication and feedback channels, organisations are able to gather more information on the different appeals and marketing aspects of any given product.

What good is CRM if the product is rubbish? Through managing excellent management of customer relationships an organisation can determine what is aspects of the product is rubbish and attempt to rectify these issues. Hence, CRM is the basis of creating or modifying a product to ensure that it will be acceptable and satisfactory to the consumer.