258. Part Two Information Technology Infrastructure Improving Decision Making: Searching Online Databases for Overseas Business Resources Software skills: Online databases Business skills: Researching services for overseas operations 69 This project develops skills in searching web-enabled databases with information about products and services in faraway locations. Your company, Caledonian ofland, and manufactures office furniture of various types. You are considering opening a facility to manufacture and sell your products in Australia, You would like to contact organizations that offer many services necessary for you to open your Australian office and manufacturing facility, including lawyers, accountants, importexport experts, and tele- communications equipment and support firms. Access the following online databases to locate companies that you would like to meet with during your upcoming trip: Australian Business Register, AustraliaTrade Now (australiatradenow.com), and the Nationwide Business Directory of Austzalia (Wwww.nationwide.com. au). If necessary, use search engines such as Yahoo! and Google. ‘urniture, is located in Cumbernauld, ‘+ List the companies you would contact on your trip to determine whe: these and any other finctions you think are vital to establishing your of jer they can help you with ‘© Rate the databases you used for accuracy of name, completeness, ease of use, and general helpfulness, Collaboration and Teamwork Project Identi ing Entities and Attributes in an Online Database 6410 With your team of three or four other students, select an online database to explore, such as AOL. Music, iGo, ‘com, or the Intemet Movie Database, Explore one of those websites to see what information it provides, ‘Then list the entities and attributes that the company running the website must keep track of in its databases. Diagram the relationship between the to brainstorm, onganize, mntities you have identified, If possible ind develop a presentation of your findings for the class jogle Does and Google eae eee kei CoN ‘The Lego Group, headquartered in Billund, Den- mark, is one of the largest toy manufacturers in the ‘world. Lego’s main products have been the bricks and figures that children have played with for gen- erations, The Danish company has experienced sustained growth since its founding in 1932, and for ‘most of its history its major manufacturing facilities ‘were located in Denmark. In 2003, Lego was facing tough competition from imitators and manufacturers of electronic toys, In an effort to reduce costs, the group decided to initiate a ‘gradual restructuring process that continues today. In 2006, the company announced that a large part of its production would be outsourced to the elec- tronics manufacturing service company Flextronics, which has plants in Mexico, Hungary, and the Czech ‘Republic, The decision to outsource production came as a direct consequence of an analysis of Lego's total supply chain. Tb reduce labor costs, manually inten- sive processes were outsourced, keeping only the highly skilled workers in Billund. Lego's workforce ‘was gradually reduced from 8,300 employees in 2003 to approximately 4,200 in 2010. Additionally, produc- tion had to be relocated to places closer toils natural@ Chapter 6 Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management 259 markets. As a consequence of all these changes, Lego transformed itself from a manufacturing firm to a market-oriented company that is capable of reacting fast to changing global demand. Lego's restructuring process, coupled with double- digit sales growth in the past few years, has led to the company's expansion abroad and made its work- force more international. 'These changes presented supply chain and human resources (HR) challenges to the company. The supply chain had to be reen- gineered to simplify production without reducing quality. Improved logistics planning allowed Lego to work more closely with retailers, suppliers, and the new outsourcing companies, At the same me, the HR department needed to play a more strategic role inside the company. HR was now responsible for implementing effective policies aimed at retaining and recruiting the most qualified employees from a diversity of cultural backgrounds. ‘Adapting company operations to these changes required a flexible and robust IT infrastructure with business intelligence capabilities that could help management perform better forecasting and plan- ning. As part of the solution, Lego chose to move to SAP business suite software. SAP AG, a German company that specializes in enterprise software solu- tions, is one of the leading software companies in the ‘world. SAP's software products include a variety of applications designed to elficiently support all of a company’s essential functions and operations. Lego chose to implement SAP's Supply Chain Management (SCM), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), and Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) modules. ‘The SCM module includes essential features such as supply chain monitoring and analysis as well as forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization. ‘The PLM module enables managers to optimize development processes and systems. The ERP mod- ule includes, among other applications, the Human Capital Management (FCM) application for person- nel administration and development, SAP's business suite is based on a flexible three- tier client-server architecture that can easily be adapted to the new service-oriented architecture (SOA) available in the latest versions of the software, In the first tier, a client interface—a browser-type ‘graphical user interface (CUI) running on a laptop, desktop, or mobile device—submits users’ requests to the application servers, The applications servers (the second tier in the system) receive and process clients’ requests. In turn, these application servers send the processed requests to the database system (the third tier), which consists of one or more rela- tional databases. SAP's business suite supports data- ‘bases from different vendors, including those offered bby Oracle, Microsoft, MySQL, and others, The rela- tional databases contain tables that store data on Lego's products, daily operations, the supply chain, and thousands of employees. Managers can easily use the SAP query tool to obtain reports from the databases because it does not require any techni- cal skill. Additionally, the distributed architecture enables authorized personnel to have direct access to the database system from the company's various locations, including those in Europe, North America, and Asia SAP's ERP-HCM module includes advanced fea- tures such as “Talent Manager” as well as those for handling employee administration, reporting, and travel and time management. ‘These features allow Logo's IIR personnel to select the best candidates, schedule their training, and create a stimulus plan to retain them, It is also possible to include perfor- ‘mance measurements and get real-time insight into HR trends. Using these advanced features, together with tools from other software vendors, Lego's man- agers are able to track employees’ leadership poten- tial, develop their careers, and forecast the recruiting of new employees with certain skills. ‘The investments that The Lego Group has made in information systems and business re-design have paid off handsomely. In 2014 the Group increased sales by 13 percent to €3.8 billion against €3.3 billion the year before. Operating profit increased 15 per- cent to €1.26 billion. Fulltime employees increased to 11,755 as the company expanded production in Asia, In 2015, sales surged by 25 percent. Reflecting its growing emphasis on developing 4 global company and its substantial investment in slobal information systems both in the supply chain and the distribution chain, The Lego Group in 2014 showed strong, long-term growth in all regions, In Europe, America, and Asia, sales growth has been in the double digits for over five years despite the fact that the Global Great Recession (2008 to 2013) led to flat sales of toys worldwide. In the Asian region,CASE STUDY QUESTIONS