Business Driven Technology 6th Edition by Paige Baltzan

Exercise 28

Second Life BI
The virtual world of Second Life could become the first point of contact between companies and customers and could transform the whole customer experience. Since it began hosting the likes of Adidas, Dell, Reuters, and Toyota, Second Life has become technology's equivalent of India or China-everyone needs an office and a strategy involving it to keep their shareholders happy. But beyond opening a shiny new building in the virtual world, what can such companies do with their virtual real estate
Like many other big brands, PA Consulting has its own offices in Second Life and has learned that simply having an office to answer customer queries is not enough. Real people, albeit behind avatars, must be staffing the offices-in the same way having a website is not enough if there is not a call center to back it up when a would-be customer wants to speak to a human being. The consultants believe call centers could one day ask customers to follow up a phone call with them by moving the query into a virtual world.
Unlike many corporate areas in the virtual world, the National Basketball Association incorporates capabilities designed to keep fans coming back, including real-time 3-D diagrams of games as they are being played.
You are the executive director of BI at StormPeak, an advanced AI company that develops robots. You are in charge of overseeing the first virtual site being built in Second Life. Create a BI strategy for gathering information in a virtual world. Here are a few questions to get you started:
How will gathering BI for a business be different in a virtual world
How can BI help a business become more efficient in a virtual world
How will supporting BI in Second Life differ from supporting BI in a traditional company
What BI security issues might you encounter in Second Life
What BI ethical issues might you encounter in Second Life