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Friday, February 19, 2010

A question of Business Intelligence

If you have ever read anything on Walmart's Business Intelligence system then you know it's the engine that powers much of the decision making for their stores.  It can reroute truck already en route, or suggest that a certain item should be on an end cap to maximize sales.  It can prompt the cashier to ask for ID when a purchase of alcohol is made.  Living close to the meth capital of the world it can also determine if the customer is purchasing more than 2 boxes of psuedoephedrine.

But what can this system really do?  Would it really catch the trend if a shopper were to purchase the following:

12 ga shotgun shells
trash bags
bleach
rope
a crowbar
a gas can
a hunting knife
a 6' x 9' rug

Perhaps the BI system would send a message to the POS terminal that the card can't be processed while it dials 911.
Probably not...   I doubt even the cashier would catch it either.  If you want try it and post the results to YouTube you could be the next YouTube star. Just another what if in this world of technology we live in.