Data Driven Decisions for Business [CW11(S)] Summative Assessment Brief | BPP University

General Assessment Guidance

• Your summative assessment for this module is made up of this 2500 submission which accounts for 100% of the marks
• Please note late submissions will not be marked.
• You are required to submit all elements of your assessment via Turnitin online access. Only submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.
• For coursework, the submission word limit is 2500 words. You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 2500 words but not more. Word Count guidelines can be found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.
• Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognised in the marking process.
• A total of 100 marks are available for this module assessment, and you are required to achieve minimum 50% to pass this module.
•  You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.
  You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the VLE. You can use the following link to access this information: http://bpp.libguides.com/Home/StudySupport 
• BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders. You are advised to read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and MOPP which are available on VLE in the Academic registry section.
• You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not marked.

Assessment Brief

2.1. Assessment learning outcomes

This assessment is designed to gauge your understanding, skills and application of common data analysis techniques used in business and other organisations today. As such you need to demonstrate your attainment in these areas according to the four Module Learning Outcomes (LOs):

• LO1: Critically evaluate the evolving use of data in solving business problems, presenting logical arguments based on evidence
• LO2: Explore how data analytics can be used within a business context
•  LO3: Critically appraise the presentation of data within a business environment
• LO4: Critically evaluate different business analytical techniques as part of planning a data analytics initiative.

2.2. Scenario

You have recently been employed by EuroElectro International Ltd. as a data analyst.
EuroElectro International Ltd. is a multi-national online retailer of electrical and electronic products offering a large selection of brands in the UK and over Europe.

EuroElectro International Ltd. uses sophisticated online technologies to offer clients products and services via an online platform. They have partnered with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to use cloud applications and cloud storage for their services. The company also partnered with DHL for the delivery of products. These two partnerships have allowed the company to provide an outstanding customer service during the delivery, installation of products and after-sale services (e.g. collect and recycle).

As EuroElectro International Ltd. grows, it continues to increase its data analytic roles within the organisation to strengthen its strategic and operational decision-making capabilities. The recruitment strategy is to employ young professionals with strategic and data analytics skills willing to provide EuroElectro International Ltd. top management with strong evidence-based foundation for their business decisions. They like recruits to have a broad management experience combined with strong academic background. Your MSc degree at BPP University was a key element in their decision to recruit you.

As part of your first assignment at EuroElectro International Ltd., you have joined the Marketing department as data analyst. Your manager, the Marketing Director, requested you to complete a number of tasks to ensure that you have a grounded knowledge and understanding of data analytics and its application in decision-making. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your capability and give your employer the confidence to let you run your own project in the future.

The Marketing team is analysing different digital marketing strategies to enhance its online presence in the market. Since the UK left the European Community in January 2020, the company has faced growing difficulties to manage its business in the EU from the UK, so the management has announced it has plans to launch in 2025 a dedicated ecommerce website for the European market. This approach of having separate websites for the UK and EU will help to build scale and ensure that the business model and customer proposition are working as well on the European mainland as they have in the UK. In particular, the company is taking some important learnings from the local UK website to apply to the EU website so that it will provide the platform for further expansion in Europe as well as the basis for developing effective client engagement strategies. As in most growth strategy development process, the first step is to understand where the company stands now (where we are). So, you have been given the responsibility to analyse EuroElectro International Ltd. current business performance (where the company stands now).

EuroElectro International Ltd. wants to physically set up the new website in a European country which represents a significant opportunity with a major domestic electric and electronic market from where it could reach all other European countries. So, your job will be to analyse the performance between 2021 and 2023 of three of the best European markets for EuroElectro International Ltd.: Germany, France and Italy. EuroElectro International Ltd. has experienced strong competition in Europe from other online as well as high-street retailers such as Fnac-Darty in France, UniEuro in Italy, Ceconomy in Germany and Coolblue in Netherlands. So, the performance of these three subsidiaries is a good indication of the current European market performance of the company.

2.3.  Case study challenges

The Marketing Director is interested in identifying the best country to start developing the new website. For this purpose, he wants you to:
Perform an analysis of the revenue and sales volume of the three markets to identify the best country to set up the new European ecommerce website.

As part of the analysis, the Marketing Director wants to develop the marketing plan to support the launch in 2025 of the new EU website. Her objective is to improve the overall sales performance of the European business through a strong marketing plan. In order to do so, she wants to focus the promotion efforts on the high-performance as well as the low-performance electric and electronic products. This approach would allow the company to keep pushing the sales of the top products and, at the same time, dealing with the issues related to the weak products (low sales).

EuroElectro International Ltd. current offer is made up of the following electric and electronic product categories:

• TV and entertainment (TV, gaming, audio, etc)
• Mobile devices (phones, headphones, smart watches, etc)
• Computers & home office (laptops, printers, etc)
• Kitchen appliances (dishwasher, laundry, fridges, etc)
•  Small appliances (hairdryers, irons, coffee machines, etc)
• Floorcare appliances (vacuum, steam cleaners, etc)

In this respect, she wants you to:

Perform an analysis of the services categories offered by EuroElectro to identify the LOWEST performing category and the HIGHEST performing category.

Since its foundation as an online business, EuroElectro International Ltd. has used digital platforms to promote its business such as ecommerce websites and comparison portals. However, since social media has become so dominant in the online world, the company feels it doesn’t exploit entirely the spectrum of opportunities this new and powerful digital channel offers. So, in January 2023 the company hired SocialWeb, a UK-based social media marketing agency specialised in B2C social media marketing. The idea was to quickly have access to a dedicated specialised team of social media experts with knowledge of the different algorithms that social media platforms operate on and how to take advantage of them to ensure that the company’s content has high levels of engagement.

The Marketing Director is keen to understand if SocialWeb has produced good results or if she needs to consider changing agency. So, she wants you to address the question:

Did the hiring of SocialWeb increase the revenue and overall performance of EuroElectro in these three markets?

The responses to the issues detailed above should be included in a summary MS Word report that you save and submitted.

2.4. Report Sections

Because this is your first project within EuroElectro International Ltd., the management team has given you additional details regarding the structure and content that it is expected to be seen in your report. This is set out in Section 3 – Report Structure.

The set of data is available (see module dataset spreadsheet file). Since the data comes directly from the countries, quality issues are present which will require your attention!

You have five Sections to complete for your summative report.

Section 1 (LO4): Introduction and project plan

Summarise what you are going to present in the report. Then justify your plan for delivering the research project to the management of EuroElectro International Ltd., making sure you also clearly refer to a data analytics implementation framework as part of your plan. Finally, explain how data analytics can add value and help to drive business performance improvements to EuroElectro International Ltd.

Section 2 (LO2):

a)  Data quality issues and remedies

Proceed with preparing the dataset for the analysis. Discuss initially the general issues encountered in collecting, reviewing and cleansing data and then detail the specific data quality issues you found in the project dataset and how these issues will be addressed.

b) Data analysis and commentary

Using only tables, set out and explain the results of your numeric data analysis and supporting commentary. Start by including a summary of exploratory data analysis of the dataset. Then create tables where you can analyse the overall revenue and volume performance of EuroElectro International Ltd. as well as its performance by country and by electric and electronic category. To answer the Section, you should perform your analysis using at least 3 tables (see guidelines for further details).

Section 3 (LO3): Data charting and commentary

Use your data charting and interpretation skills to develop graphical presentations of the data together with bullet-points setting out the key findings and inferences from the analysis. Create charts where you can compare and analyse revenue and volume trends over time by country and by electric and electronic category, in particular where you can see evidence of any performance change due to the hiring of SocialWeb agency in 2023. To answer this Section, you should perform your analysis using at least 3 charts (see guidelines for further details).

Section 4 (LO1): Conclusions and recommendations

Based on your analysis and findings in Sections 3 and 4 set-out your conclusions and recommendations to EuroElectro International Ltd.’s top management. As part of your conclusions, include answers to the three project objectives raised by the Marketing Director.

Report Structure and References

In addition, marks will be awarded for the overall professionalism of your report and the adoption of academic standards.