Business Intelligence at Canadian Tire The overall purpose of Business Intelligence systems and software is to manage and analyze data in a manner that would support effective decision making. The BI initiative could help Canadian Tire to manage and analyze its data in a way that would allow the company to consolidate and integrate some of its information systems. The information provided in the case indicates that CTC is operating and supporting many different operation systems, mainframes, hardware platforms, database management systems, production applications and desktop-based application and tools. Consolidating and integrating some of these systems would assist CTC not only in managing data more effectively, but also in cutting …show more content…
2). CTP managed a variety of gas bars, car washes, and Pit Stops. PartSource sold automotive parts to home mechanics as well as professionals. Mark’s Work Warehouse offered causal as well as work wear to men and woman (Haggerty & Meister, Pg. 2).
Each of these five components of Canadian Tire Corporation was originally operating under their own IT system in order to fulfill their own needs. CTR used the IBM AS/400 system and a point-of-sale system that networked back to the CTR data centre. IMB RS6000 was used at CTFS. Point-of-sale systems were also used at PartSource and CTP. Finally, Mark’s Work Wearhouse operated on a totally independent system (Haggerty & Meister, Pg. 3).
It is clear that Canadian Tire Corporation was a very complex organization with many facets. The five components of CTC; CTR, CTFS, CTP, PartSource, and Mark’s Work Wearhouse, all serve different industries and different target markets. Within each of these components, again, a wide variety of products are being sold to groups of people with different needs. The breadth of products and services offered by CTC had a huge effect on the implementation of the business intelligence initiative.
The IT department,