Applying Green IT Strategies and Applications to Wal-Mart - Case Study Example

? Applying Green IT Strategies and Applications to a Wal-Mart Green IT Strategies and Applications [Pick the Hyper Star is a hypothetical Wal-Mart in the city of Atlantic in New Jersey State. It provides various products of grocery, fruits, electrical equipments and a lot of other items. You can find almost everything here from shoe laces to a laptop computer. It is quite popular among the people of Atlantic City and people like to spend most of their times shopping at Hyper Star. The fame of Hyper Star has lead Green IT to evaluate it in the light of environmental compliance and ecological balance. An audit was carried out taking into consideration various factors of carbon efficiency, waste management, resources distribution and IT advancement. It was found that plenty of room is available for improvement in controlling environmental hazards produced by the super store. Carbon footprints are obvious from the reports. After the audit, a Chief Green Officer has been appointed to take steps in transforming Hyper Star into a Green IT complex. He, along with his team, will carry out initial diagnosis and survey of hyper star in light of reports of audit. They will suggest the changes required for the transformation. After Green IT transformation, Hyper Star will be able to influence its partner super stores working in the state of New Jersey. It is required to use resources in an intelligent manner for overall benefit of the employees of Hyper Star and for enhanced environmental care. The issue is raising the efficiency in the manner to utilize minimum resources, minimum waste and maximum performance and results. The return on investment (ROI) by stake holders is beyond just reducing the environmental impact; its about optimizing the resources for the best efficiency. Preliminary Investigation by Green IT Team The higher authorities and stake holders of Hyper Star demanded the Peer review to be conducted by a Green IT team to analyze their store in the light of environmental compliance. An audit team was established comprising CGO, IT experts, managers of different section of Hyper Star and some members from stores inside Hyper Star. The audit was focused on four factors. Input in the form of economical factors Socio-cultural norms and attitude of employees Business Infrastructure Technical Development Following findings were published in their report. Carbon emissions are large enough to threaten the environment regarding global warming. Hyper star is doing an extensive business in New Jersey and can be quite helpful by creating network with Partner Organizations. The waste management is not proper. Plenty of items are being wasted without taking any care of them. The items for sale and complementary products for use by the employees are quite large in number. Considering IT items only, the store contains 200 laptops, 100 desktop machines, 250 Printer machines for tracking records of items purchases by customer, 10 membership card identification modules and 20 tag identification modules for recognizing prices on various items. All these things create significant amount of carbon emissions into the environment i.e. nearly 70 kilo tons of carbon in a month. The equipments used by the staff is aging and contributing more towards carbon emissions, Moreover, the computers which keep record of the items purchased has a huge database that itself is a big burden on environment in terms of carbon footprints. Proper tagging of items is not ensured leading towards use of papers and other small stickers by the staff to tag the prices. As a result, more stuff is produced contributing towards the ultimate waste. Scheduling the billing of each customer is not automated. People have to wait in line for their turn. Also cash counters are not enough to deal with a large number of customers. Reforms are required in this regard. A huge data server is required to be set up that keeps a centralized record of each and every activity in the store. Proper videos will have to be made to minimize the risk of items being theft. These videos will provide evidence into the statistics of number of customers in a particular shop at a certain time or average time taken for customers to wait for their turn at different stages of shopping. The data of clients who have taken memberships of Hyper Star has to be managed properly. Risk of leakage of personal information and privacy of customers shouldn’t be challenged in any case. Some entertainment sources like light music in the background and games for kids may be introduced to attract maximum number of customers at the store. There are some concerns of the PCs used for keeping backup of sensitive data of items and their prices. This storage is an excess unused data that contributes towards carbon emissions. Objectives of Green Business In the light of findings of the Green IT team, some goals and objectives are set to produce ecological balance of Hyper Star with the environment. The GET (Green Enterprise Transformation) framework has to be devised for the super store to reflect the changes required for the transformation. The transformation has to be carried out in four phases as shown in figure below. Figure 1: Steps of Green IT Transformation Following objectives could be proposed for meeting the requirements of transformation. Reduction in carbon emissions in all types of processes. Minimum IT appliances to reduce the carbon footprints. Reducing the energy consumption by all IT devices. Play an exemplary role in carbon emission and waste management for other departmental stores of New Jersey. Induce positive attitude towards making Hyper Star ‘Green’ across whole staff and customers. Introduce software applications for online data monitoring and manipulations instead of using papers or other material contributing towards the waste. Set the target for comprehensive transformation in GET frame. Figure 2: GET for Hyper Star SWOT Analysis of Hyper Star SWOT is the abbreviation for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This is a method for analyzing a given situation and then finding feasibility of transforming the situation. SWOT analysis will provide us the information about the strong points, areas of improvements, risks involved in various acts and chances available for transformation. We can understand the scope and coverage of the transformation under GET framework. Strengths Hyper Star is a renowned super store at Atlantic City and as a result the impact of transformations will be quite high. The support to Hyper Star in terms of resources by investors and take holders is enough to run their business satisfactorily. Hyper Star is also supported by Government of Atlantic to an extent in terms of finance and resources. Special funds have been allocated by Government to make this super store ‘Green’. Plenty of items for sale play a key role in enhancing popularity as a universal store for containing every item. Weaknesses The IT infrastructure is aging quite rapidly. The PCs, laptops and printers were bought 10 years ago and now they are becoming quite inefficient in terms of using power and other resources. The maintenance cost of this infrastructure is also high. The behavior of staff wasn’t motivated towards the green concept of the store. They were focusing on enhancing their profits regardless of the environmental factors. Carbon inefficient processes have been identified at large scales like mismanagement of dealing with customers, improper data record of items, improper tagging and misuse of the IT infrastructure. Technological innovations of cloud computing and data monitoring are not used at Hyper Star. The supply of items to the store is no properly coordinated with the IT team members of the Hyper Star who have to keep the record of all the purchased items. Innovative techniques to deal with customers to enhance their satisfaction are missing. Opportunities The CEO of Hyper Star is quite a motivated person to introduce positive change in his mega store so as to minimize the environmental hazards. The CGO, in collaboration with CEO of the store, will take steps for GET transformation. The government is pushing each organization to reduce environmental impact of their actions and operations. As a result, legislature is passed as mandatory for each organization to regulate the amount of carbon emissions. There is a wonderful opportunity for Hyper Star to upgrade its model and its IT infrastructure to provide an insight into carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Web services provided by Hyper Star are unique in helping the customers to search items online. Threats Uncertainty of focus may lead towards the delaying or pending the green transformation. The policies made by the higher authorities of Hyper Star have many factors in mind. They consider both social and technical factors while making policies. Hence the focus of attention could change from time to time depending upon the requirements. There is a threat of change in legislations and rules regarding making organizations ‘green’. This fact introduces uncertainties into transforming the mega store into Green IT complex. The privacy of customers as well as their membership information has to be protected against the threat of getting corrupted as a result of IT transformation. The proposed solutions may not be applicable to an extent due to unreliability of the aging IT equipments. Drivers for Environmentally Responsible Business Strategy After analyzing the model of Hyper Star in the light of SWOT, we have input in terms of the factors that affect the ecological balance. The management has to understand the key drivers for producing the transformation under the GET framework and take steps accordingly to make the changes happen positively in the favor of environment and the staff of the mega store. Two factors could be identified as the drivers that could be responsible for transformation in the future. Social and Cultural Norms It is expected from such a renowned store to be environmentally friendly to great deal. It sets the example for all the departmental stores at Atlantic City so it should lead in terms of having ecological balance and utilizing resources in intelligent manner without harming the environment. People expect Hyper Star to minimize carbon emissions as much as possible. Positive Results in the Long Run The most important factor affecting the Green enterprise transformation of Hyper Star is the bright prospect of the change. The availability of resources will aid in improving the efficiency further and Hyper Star will be able to lead the departmental stores in ecological balance. Steps in Developing Hyper Star’s ERBS The objectives for GET framework have been identified clearly and now it is the time to plan the transformation. We have to take into consideration various factors, drivers, metrics and risks that may hinder the progress of Green transformation. The steps for developing ERBS for Hyper star are mentioned as follows. First, identify the factors contributing towards transformation and then drive them accordingly. Strategies for transformation are proposed by the CGO of the IT team based on the drivers of the scenario as well as objectives of the organization. Policies are made at departmental level at various stores inside Hyper Star. These policies include the ways of eliminating the risks of carbon emission, keeping the data record efficiently and consuming minimum power and other resources. After planning is complete, its time for utilizing the resources provided by Green IT team for transformation. GET framework will be proceeded with the collaboration of CGO, HR of the IT team and the local staff of the stores. Transformation plans focusing on the factors under consideration for meeting environmental friendly scenario, are proposed. Steps for Green IT transformation The user devices like monitors, laptops, printers, handheld devices have been recycled and upgraded. The level of customer satisfaction is enhanced and modern approach towards reforming the customers’ requirements is implemented. The design of data centre is made more flexible to store and utilize the records of the items for sale in the stores. The data monitoring is being performed regularly by the CEO of Hyper Star and observes any anomaly in the trend. The IT systems supporting the business of Hype Star is upgraded to include modern tools like cloud computing and online data storage. The wastes in terms of unused products, expired products and electrical items are handed over to the bio-waste treatment plants. The staff is trained to understand the importance of going ‘green’ in the business. GET Framework Project The project of transformation is proposed theoretically by estimating the resources, manpower and time required to incur the transformation. This paper work allows us to get a big picture of the practical work to be carried out in future. Two years plan has been proposed with the resources of value $1.5 Million has been estimated to meet the requirements of the changes in the model and performance of Hyper Star in the favor of environment. The plan could be divided into six quarters, each of 4 months. First Quarter This step is focused into initial diagnosis and identification of the factors that play a key role in Green IT transformation of Hyper Star. This analysis will involve CGO as well as staff of the stores. CGO will lead the strategic plan for the Hyper Star and recommend changes at the abstract level. He will make a plan considering various factors including return on investment metrics. Second Quarter The next step to diagnosis and identification is enactment. This step will involve the HR of the IT team, other IT experts, CGO of IT team, CEO of Hyper Star and the staff of stores. Process dimensions are evaluated for the transformation. The processes are redesigned to reduce the carbon contents. An investigation is carried out to check whether the carbon contents are actually minimized. Third Quarter This period is targeted towards social reforms into the behavior of the staff of the Hyper Star. They need to realize the importance of becoming ‘green’. They should learn to minimize the wastes, use the resources intelligently and understand IT infrastructure issues. They need to deal with customers politely and guide regarding items and their prices. Central database should be there to provide the location of items. Fourth Quarter This phase is considered as review phase in which the performance of Hyper Star is analyzed in terms of the metrics defined previously for transformation. An audit is carried out to delve into the statistics of carbon emission from newly bought laptops, desktop PCs and printers. The emissions are also recorded for recycled items. Quality of service, satisfaction of customers and compliance with legislature are also performance measures to be satisfied. Fifth Quarter This step focuses on spreading the influence from one mega store to others in Atlantic City and to the whole state of New Jersey. However, this step is conditional with the fact that results of transformation are positive in the light of desired goals and objectives. Sixth Quarter In this phase of project, previously carried out audits are utilized again as a feedback of transformation. Economic Results After going through all the phases of the project, it is more than likely that the transformation will be playing a huge rule in building the economy of the Hyper Store in the right direction. It is possible that the return on investment may be low in the initial period due to spending a huge amount of budget in resources allocation. But in the long run, this investment will pay the staff and officials of the store great rewards and profits. The expected profile of growth of return per year is shown in the figure below. The figure shows that progress with ERBS is not significant at the starting phase of transformation. Later, ERBS supported Green IT Hyper Star makes progress by leaps and bounds. It is just the matter of the time before conditions start going in your favor. As the efficiency is maximized by minimizing the waste, the income per year is guaranteed to increase. Figure 3: ROI for Hyper Star Green IT Technological Advancements at Hyper Star The technical progress in Hyper Star related to the usage of PCs, data centers, laptops, waste products and expired items etc. Following technical changes have been observed from Green IT transformation. The servers have been renewed to emit low amount of carbons. These servers keep the record of the customers entering and leaving the mega store. The cameras used to monitor the people in the Hyper Star have been made quite efficient in terms of carbon footprints. The backup of the important data has been kept in environmentally friendly manner. All the billing process is automated now without any intervention from the staff. The billing process is also made transparent to enhance customer satisfaction. Papers have been kept to the minimum and are just used for printing the bills. The format of the bills is adjusted to require as fewer pages as possible. Collaboration with other departmental stores of Atlantic City has increased leading towards coordinated environmental protection. IT experts still continuously monitor the emissions of carbon from various devices. It has been noticed that emissions have been quite reduced now. Necessary changes have been made in the devices used by the staff for calculating bills, weighing the products etc to reduce carbon footprints. Communication network has been established both at local level as well as with other departmental stores leading towards a global network of IT infrastructure. There could be devices like metal detectors for security purposes that may not directly relate to IT but they indeed play a part in emitting carbon to atmosphere. Such devices have been replaced with new efficient ones that release quite a low amount of carbon. Electronic wastes are now provided to the bio waste so that they can be utilized in effective manner. Building Sustainable Network The next step towards achieving ecological balance is certainly the sustainability in the realm of business. Hyper Star, after going through the transformation, has set eyes on the ultimate goal of sustainability. The stores are using a network approach to reduce carbon emissions and environmental hazards in order to increase the profitability. It is desirous from the view point of Stake Holders that environmental effects of IT devices used at Hyper Star should be minimized aiding in increasing return on investment. Another concern for officials of Hyper Star would be the running out of the energy used for various purposes at store. They need to develop renewable energy sources to last their IT devices for a considerably longer period of time. Hyper Star is also supporting other departmental stores at Atlantic City for making them ‘Green’. It is showing up as the leader of the Green IT chain in the state of New Jersey. Applying Mobile Technologies at Hyper Star The biggest advantage that mobile devices incur into the business of Hyper Star is the communication facility that reduces the chances of carbon emission due to other devices like Computers and laptops. Mobiles are being used for both work and social networking at Hyper Stars. The application of mobiles at various levels in Hyper Star is discussed as follows. Higher Officials CEO, HR and other higher officials use mobiles to communicate with each other and publish Ads for various items in their stores. They can plan their meetings on mobile through teleconferencing as a novel approach towards eliminating the distances. They can also deal with customers’ applications and suggestions regarding betterment of their stores and items for sale. Staff The people working in the stores for selling various items can use mobile to their advantage. They can extend valuable information to their higher officials, track the usage of certain products or talk to customers remotely if required. Customers The customers can also use mobiles to ask prices of various things from people of staff. They don’t need to come to the store for asking the price. They can plan their budget prior to leaving from home and plan to purchase most cost effective items at the mega store. \ Lessons Learnt From Implementing Green IT Transformation The reduction in carbon emission takes a radical change in the social, economical and technical aspects of a business. These rules are universal independent of any organization. The people expect to see the popular departmental stores as ‘Green’. They expect that environmental hazards need to be account for at high levels in business. Telecommunication in business has played an effective role in reducing the carbon footprints. Changes in the process result in significant carbon emissions’ reduction a compared to recycling the waste products,. Training of the staff to learn the importance of ecological balance plays a huge role in eliminating environmental hazards incurred by IT devices. IT systems that aid technical and business processes should be designed in a manner so as to reduce the carbon emissions throughout their life. The risks associated with the GET should be properly grasped before starting the implementation of proposed steps. Threats may always be there in the path of all four steps of transformation. Planning the transformation in the light of diagnosis and the available results has aided quite a lot in achieving the desired results. The driving factors for change need to be properly understood for inducing any transformation into the model. The metric of return on investment should be monitored closely right throughout the transformation process to have an idea about the economical situation. Transformation is a slow process and proceeds sequentially in the light of facts and figures. Conclusion In this case study, we implemented the Green IT transformation procedures and applications to the business model of a Wal-Mart, Hyper Star. The process of transformation began with the diagnosis of the emissions of carbon in the atmosphere and the identification of the issues to be resolved. Then audit was carried out to delve into the performances of IT devices in terms of carbon emission and other environmental impacts. The key factors, that affect the transformation, are identified and resources are allocated to meet the desired goals and objectives. Slowly and steadily, Hyper Star went through the transformation procedure in the period of two years during which it faced the downfall in return on investment. However, it was able to recover from the initial loss to make progress by leaps and bounds later. The performance was monitored closely after the transformation and it was found that carbon emissions have now been reduced significantly. Changing the process of various things in an organization leaves a greater impact as compared to focusing recycling the waste. References Unhelkar, B. (2013). Green IT Strategies And Applications. CRC Press. Read More