Wal-Mart’s Information Technology System
Executive Summary
The paper is centered on Wal-Mart Inc. Company and will analyze the information system that it uses to achieve its objectives as an e-commerce company. The company is one of the biggest retailing corporations providing services such as Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart money transfer, Store Pickup, Wal-Mart money card, etc. the company’s vision is to enable people to save money so that they live better, with a vision to be set an example in the retail industry by minding employees and consumers.
Wal-Mart’s Organizational Profile
It is a multinational retail corporation based in the United States, operating a chain of markets, the discount market, and grocery stores. Wal-Mart Inc. Company was founded in 1962but incorporated in 1969. . As of July 2020, the company has over 11,496 clubs and stores located in 27 countries. Within these countries, the company operates under various names, with over 2.2 million employees globally.
Its organizational structure determines the business activities of Wal-Mart. In recent times, these activities mainly include retail-industry, encompassing operations in the market of e-commerce. Wal-Mart’s corporate system also performs limited imposition on the way the firm addresses its challenges. Its structure assists in facilitating its strategic implementation and attracting a significant share of the retail market. The firm’s organizational culture identifies and helps in the determination of people’s responses to the workplace. Human resource resilience, to an extent, relies on the mindset that is backed through corporate culture. Cultural characteristics assist the retail business in adapting to changes and emerging problems in the global market. Wal-Mart Inc.’s long history of success and continuous growth at the worldwide level denotes that its organizational culture and structure are fundamental in fostering and bringing success and competitive advantage. Wal-Mart Inc.’s organizational structure closely works with the corporate culture to maintain its essential competitive advantage against other firm competitors, such as Target and Amazon.com.
Organizational Structures of Wal-Mart Inc.
The firm has a functional organizational structure that is hierarchical, with two features, which include hierarchy and definition based on function. The hierarchy feature appertains to the upstanding lines or command chain and authority through the organization’s structure. For instance, except for the Chief Executive Officer, each employee has a superior director. Mandates and directives are emanating from the firm’s top-level management. They are put into practice by managers in the middle level, down to the company’s employees in-store and file-level (low level).
Conversely, the function-based definition characteristic of Wal-Mart Inc.’s corporate structure envelops groups of employees who fulfill specific roles within the firm; for instance, the firm has a department strictly handling human resources issues. Besides, it has a department for information technology function and another on marketing. These are some of the many function-based departments within the organizational and corporate structure of Wal-Mart Inc. Company.
Competitive Strategies
This refers to the ability to stay ahead of a current or potential competitor, which is, in most cases, done through evaluation of weaknesses and strengths of competitors and visioning where you can fill in the gaps or improve. Firms create a competitive edge through producing attributes, allowing them to outperform their competitors. Competitive strategies also incorporate actions to sustain the competitive pressures of the market, which is fundamental in attracting customers and strengthening a company’s market position. For Wal-Mart, the application of its generic strategy has formed an essential basis for the company’s competitive strategy. This has enabled the company to strive and succeed in achieving competitive advantage, which primarily bases on low cost and low prices of selling for goods offered to buyers and customers in the global retail market. The company’s generic competitive strategy is the basic approach to favorable and effective competition against competitors in the industry. Wal-Mart maintains a competitive advantage through various tactics and strategies as ……….. Implies. The most fundamental generic design used in business depends on cost minimization, enabling the company to adjust its prices on sales accordingly. Analysis of the company using SWOT depicts that minimizing the selling price is a strength that allows the business to be competitive against other firms operating in the international retail market. Wal-Mart Inc. competitors include Amazon.com Inc., Home Depot, eBay Inc., Costco Wholesale, and Amazon’s subsidiary that is Whole Food Market, companies that influence its strategic management and realization of its competitive objectives and strategies………
Wal-Mart Inc. utilizes its intensive plans of action to grow the business and minimize its competitive forces’ impacts. Considering the retail markets saturated nature, the company witnesses strong competitive rivalry muscles, but …………points that with the company’s multinational operations, it utilizes its intensive growth and generic strategies in counteracting the adverse effects of competition, particularly in the e-commerce sector.
The company’s generic strategy for competitive advantage is cost leadership. Cost leadership is defined by…… as the competitive strategy focusing on the achievement of low cost. Wal-Mart is a low-cost producer of services in retail and related business outputs; hence, it can compete based on selling low prices. Such prices are essential strategic goals used as a pricing strategy by Wal-Mart. ….states that low prices form key points of selling in the retail business, and to this effect, the company engages in several approaches in maintaining low cost and prices. For instance, automation and technologies relate, human resource minimization of spending. Through these strategies, Wal-Mart achieves low operation cost.
Cost leadership also involves low differentiation of products. Considering low prices as a selling point, the company’s retail services are common and differentiated poorly from services related to retail from other firms in the same industry like Amazon.com Inc. ….also notes that this competitive strategy also involves a low market segmentation level, for instance, it offers its retail services to every consumer in all portions of its targeted markets. It also aligns with the corporate mission and vision of Wal-Mart Inc., which strives for leadership in the worldwide retail market industry. Success in implementing its competitive strategy depends on the efficiency of the process, approach to management, and intensive growth strategies, among others, that help in cost reduction. With the maintenance of low cost as a strategic objective, Wal-Mart Retail Corporation is notorious for importing large-scale goods at low cost, especially from Asian county of China.
Technology involved
The IT infrastructure of Wal-Mart Inc.
….. points that companies’ capability to adapt to changes makes them successful as the industry demands. Wal-Mart Company has a Retail Link System, which operates as the company’s extranet and is used in connecting suppliers with buyers. The company has aggressively committed itself to return investments that are measurable and uses its massive warehouse, over 175 terabytes of data in serving its management and stores, and as a mechanism for checking in the measurement of new technology to the company.
The company carries out its own test processes and systems at high-profile stores, and upon success, it rolls them out to its locations worldwide. The company classifies its IT projects and systems until they are unveiled, which has been fundamental in fostering its achievements. Most of Wal-Mart’s IT solutions are developed in-house. In rare cases, it uses systems that are “out of the box,” which has given the company a competitive advantage that is more sustained over its main industry rivals such as Ammazon.com Inc. By using systems that are tailor-made in maximization of efficiency. …..
The company is well known for its innovative nature in terms of utilizing the latest information and technologies to maximize its profitability. Information structures and systems play a key role in Wal-Mart’s achievement of goals. The spirit of innovation has been witnessed in the industry as it channels towards implementing RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The RFID technology allows the company’s operations to operate effectively by sending real-time information to networks. ….through this, the company can keep in touch with retailers and manufacturers, hence enabling the company to stay competitive in the retail industry where inventories are properly managed.
RFID technology lowers the cost of labor and allows the company management to make better choices in accordance with accurate data. It has fostered network management and reduced cost to increase profitability via maintenance of information and control of inventory levels, incorporation of transactional systems of processing, and IS management. Wal-Mart uses a supply management system that connects the whole supply chain to its enterprise using the RFID system. This helps purchasing firms, suppliers, logistic companies, and distributors in sharing IS about production, orders, inventory levels, and product delivery. ……
Business intelligence, database system, and data center of Wal-Mart Inc.
The company has created and advanced one of the biggest private cloud around the world, where it processes 2.5 petabytes of data per hour and is based in a Data café in Arkansas…….. Wal-Mart Inc. caters to numerous customers globally; therefore, in ensuring product affordability, the company developed its cloud system that assists in customer analysis, analyzing competition, market data, and security. The corporation has full control of its IT infrastructure. Many initiate appropriate security measures at their discretion; its transactional database is estimated to contain over 2.5 petabytes of data for customers. To cut down time data processing, the company uses Data Café, which simplifies and saves time by processing to 25 to 30 minutes from 2 or 3 weeks when allocated a large number of clean and accurate data……
Internet, telecommunications, and extranet
……states that Wal-Mart Inc. came up with the world’s largest integrated satellite network of communication, providing a one-way video and a two-way voice transmission from the company’s headquarters to several company stores. The primary objective is to connect each of the company’s stores via voice and video conferencing from the top management, allowing the executives to be updated on their stores. Therefore improves the operation control and compliances with the procedures of Wal-Mart. According to s…..it is for this reason that the company performance has significantly improved, further adding that in any case, the management has queries or message to a store, they can relay it with ease, rather than going to the physical location, which may damage management and work efficiency.
The corporation uses its satellite sin upward, horizontal, and downward formal communication.
Horizontal communication permits each store sin conversing its own improvement to other stores in driving the corporation’s success in operation, downward communication is vital in providing information and management, and upward communication, on the other hand, is where employees give their response and overview on issues related to management.
As many world companies strive to achieve sustainability, environmental responsibility, which are parts of Corporate Social Responsibility, Wal-Mart Inc. corporation has achieved this through the initiation of a cloud-based irrigation system that has enabled the company to monitor the movement of data and in real-time tracking, and controlling instructions related to watering……… the system also provides information specific to weather, vital for influencing watering instructions, for example, rainy weather signifies that turning on the system is required.
…….implies that retailers use cloud-based instruments in engaging customers because various companies initiate strategies to improve their sales. In 2012, Wal-Mart Inc. hosted a contest dubbed “Get on Shelf” where consumers had the chance to pitch a product invention of their choosing, and the winner voted by the public were invited to market their product on the e-Commerce website of Wal-Mart.
Analysis of Existing Systems
Mobile and Electronic Commerce, and enterprise system
Wal-Mart Inc. online shopping platform uses an internal cloud network, which has taken a huge portion of the industry. The company, according to ……., aims at superseding Amazon.com’s use of big data powered by clouds in driving digital sales. An essential step towards this objective has been the company’s acquisition/ purchase of an online shopping site named Jet.com.
The corporation’s labs have also partnered with Salsify in developing a product content management platform for the company’s suppliers. Through the partnership, they have integrated the platform with Wal-Mart Inc.’s API, which has allowed suppliers to push their services and products online, where such products and services are uploaded to Wal-Mart’s website in seconds………. This empowers suppliers to merchandise their products to the industry and makes it convenient for customers to access the products using smartphones in their homes’ comfort.
……..indicates that Wal-Mart’s supply chain management has been fundamental to its growth. The corporation considers three significant factors: procurement and distribution, inventory management, and logistics. The company has gotten rid of middleman to offer low prices in the transaction with suppliers, procurement included. The trucking system has been successful through the delivery of outbound and inbound trailers sans intermediate storage. Besides, the private trucking system has delivered to stores and replenishes stock inventory in a short time frame, hence lowering expenses………. The inventory management system can detect low stock products and notify the distribution centers and stores for replenishment.
Decision Support and Information Systems
Most businesses give back to local communities through charity and donation of goods as alluded by………Wal-Mart has succeeded in doing so through Global Governance Digital Solutions that has developed Global Donation Management Systems that operate by scanning and validating products slated for donation and authenticates its compliance with policies involved. The company, according to……. Has also launched an initiative known as Chemical Intensive Product Initiative to identify toxic chemicals integrated into various Wal-Mart’s products. Through the partnership with The WERCS, they have developed a software capable of screening chemicals named GreenWERCS Chemical Screening Tool.
Kosmix, a social media platform focusing on e-commerce, currently operates as the company developed Wal-Mart Lab in 2011. Kosmix has come up with a system capable of searching and analyzing social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, among others, to acquiring personal insights. Wal-Mart Labs has also developed a Social Genome publicly known as Wal-Mart Shopycat, where data is collected and real-time from social media platforms. Shopycat does semantic analysis, analyzes phrases, sentences, words, and paragraphs with independent meanings, capable of comprehending trends and common products. Furthermore, it can perform trend predictions in specific geographical locations of the company’s stores. Hence the company has marketed it as a solution for finding gifts. …………
Specialized Information System and knowledge management
Wal-Mart esteems food safety promotion to its partners to efficiently serve its customers. It uses an amalgamation of computer-based and web-based learning that is realized in teaching how to handle food. …….the Company uses a 3-Dimension animated technology in teaching or example; chicken preparation was first taught using 3-D technology. The integration of RFID tags to the company’s products and the system has improved inventory management, e.g., sold products and replenishment of stock. The system can also identify the true location and product numbers sans manual search and count of the products. RFIDS system is also capable of containing the product manufacture and expiry and date; Wal-Mart also uses it due to its capability to store more data compare to usual barcodes………
Wal-Mart Company also uses a Knowledge Management System in knowledge incorporation to incorporate libraries, forums for discussion, professional training, and mentorship programs. Through this management system, the company has cut operational costs and fostered value growth for shareholders………. Employee skills have also been enhanced through a variety of knowledge available in KMS; the company’s HRM has led business operations and personnel in a more organized framework.
Wal-Mart Inc.’s Neighborhood Market, which has its location in New York, has successfully integrated artificial intelligence into its retail experience through IRL (Intelligence Retail Lab). The store has camera sensor installations capable of detecting product movement and current stock in line…….. Several information installations, touch screen equipment, and device have also been installed to aid customers. The store also has processors, enabling retailers to view through windows made of glasses and process at a higher rate………
Solutions and suggestions for Wal-Mart
This paper recommends that Wal-Mart Inc. to protect its advances in technology as it can be susceptible to being copied by its competitors like eBay and Amazon.com Inc. If the company partners or engages in a joint venture, it should take precautions as it is unnecessary to give foreign partners the entire IT and IS the firm uses, especially in logistics.
The company should continue investing in innovation and finding ways of improving its operations. This would ensure sufficiency and offer lower prices in the market. This paper has analyzed the cost leadership strategy and how the company utilizes it. As a suggestion for realizing the same, the company should maintain low prices as a way of keeping shares in the market.
Conclusion
To sum up, the mission and vision of Wal-Mart is the provision of quality products, which are also economical to consumers, and making a long-lasting impression, both of which has made the company achieve a lot since it was founded through using various information systems. Noticeable technologies used by the company include Knowledge Management System. Wal-Mart Lab, RFID system, and SCM are used in the management of inventory, delivery, and stocking, among others. The firm stores data in its massive data warehouse where petabytes of data are processed. The company has also successfully integrated many technology and systems, which has improved operations and processes of decision making. Wal-Mart’s objective to be sustainable in the environment has led to an integration in monitoring through integrated IS using the GreenWERCS Chemical Screening Tool. This paper has also provided recommendations and suggestions for further improvements to the company’s information system and technology.
Work Cited