Harnessing Information Management, Data, and Infrastructure in Walmart - Case Study Example

Harnessing Information Management, the Data, and Infrastructure in Wal-Mart Harnessing Information Management, the Data, and Infrastructure in Wal-Mart Importance of Information Management in Wal-Mart Wal-Mart uses information management to manage the millions of customers that purchase goods online and at physical stores (Lundberg, 2002). The retail giant generates at least 1 million per transaction in all its global outlets. The databases are fed with information equal to the number of customers in every transaction. The information for each customer must be quantified and translated appropriately to help Wal-Mart track trends, tastes and preferences. Analysis of customers has helped the retailing company to know the economic value of each segment of clientele. Additionally, the vast of information that can be fed and digested each day is growing with advanced digital technology. Wal-Mart has used information management as an avenue for unlocking new economic value (Soderquist, 2005). The value does lie with the trends, tastes, and preferences of customers. The duty of the retail giant is to stay ahead of competition. Having stayed in the retail business and setting the pace in the industry, the abundance of data sources from computers, sensors, and mobile phones should provide substantial opportunities. Despite eliciting data security and privacy problems, Wal-Mart has used trends to come up with projects in relation to green technology and sustainability. The supply chain management of Wal-Mart has benefited from optimal information management. According to Westerman (2001), the process includes purchasing, operations, distribution, and integration but they have been revamped to facilitate improving the quality of products and any complement services. Information related to customers is used for demand planning in the supply chain. The effectiveness of inventory management is based forecast information from various warehouses interconnected remotely. Wal-Mart achieves maximum efficiencies in supply chain integration due to the flow of information from supply chain network (Prabhu, 2011). Information technology has highly contributed towards the management of warehouses and all manufacturing plants that store customers and information about suppliers. Fundamental Impact of Enterprise Architecture on Information Management in Wal-Mart The enterprise architecture of Wal-Mart entails hardware and software systems, applications and flow of data and they are interrelated in the entire enterprise (Soderquist, 2005). Wal-Mart had changed over time from the time for coming in the retail industry before in the retail industry welcomed computers. Wal-Mart’s enterprise architecture is relatively new in the retail industry. Wal-Mart has implemented compliance standards and the regulatory requirements in the retail industry due to flexible enterprise architecture. The company approaches one project a time to make the process of documenting to the set standards easily. Wal-Mart has been concerned with the issues of developers guided by the regulations in place (Prabhu, 2011). The ability of the retail operations in all supply chains to accommodate the changes in the industry has kept the maneuvers of Wal-Mart afloat. Information management has welcomed centralized information structures that are managed from Arkansas (Lundberg, 2002). The data is backed up and maintained to keep track of every transaction that takes place in all warehouses and points-of-sale. Authorization of credit or debit card utilized in the transaction takes place at the headquarters. The efficient centralized structures confirm the information within seconds and saves cashiers and customers time. Wal-Mart can spot developers from one place and use the information collected to change the way transaction takes place. IT structure has influenced the management of supplier network of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has developed a digital supplier network that manages daily sales date from data warehouses and outlets. The structure dubbed RetailLink was initiated in 1991 to enable the retail company calculates its return on investment (Prabhu, 2011). Suppliers now have information that can help them make shipment, place orders and make returns on the products they have sent at Wal-Mart warehouses. Impact of IT Structure on the Effectiveness or Efficiency of Information Management The face of retailing operations has changed in Wal-Mart due to the effectiveness brought about by IT architecture. The profound impact has been felt more in the field of information management that is concerned with supplier and customer data. Soderquist (2005) notes that the introduction of RFID tags has been the driving force for Wal-Mart operations. Not only does the company handled the pressure from the transactions but also from the data warehousing that is responsible for the coordination of vital supplier and customer information. The need to drive and make insights, for example from trends in the retail industry has created a watertight information management system but with the help of IT structures in place. The strategic decisions made in the information management dockets have been based on the IT architecture installed in the supply chain network of Wal-Mart (Prabhu, 2011). Wal-Mart focuses on the technology that can help align its business structures and management integrals such key performance indicators in the company. The effectiveness of managing information such as capital and operating expenses has been a key factor in the consideration of information management as a product of IT architecture. Wal-Mart effectiveness in information management has been noted in key sectors that involved customers, suppliers, and workforce. IT architecture has given the company a strategic value. Wal-Mart is concerned with unveiling strategies that favor the customers more than the arch rivals in the retail industry. While management of information from the business industry and suppliers has played a vital role in giving Wal-mart a competitive edge, IT architecture has brought profound impact (Anderson.ucla.edu, 2015). The company places huge value on market differentiation, product segmentation, pricing, cost, and overall competition in the retail marker. Wal-Mart has managed to influence data related to suppliers and the buying power of the customers. Effective information management has placed Wal-Mart everywhere in the world. The presence of information technology has played a key role in the production process. The products can match the needs of the customers and reach them in virtually every part of the globe. Data Storage Space Methods Regarding Database, Data Warehouse and/or Data Mart of Wal-Mart Wal-Mart struggles with the issues of database management and accommodating the numbers in the warehouses. A company that manages at least 4PB from more than 4000 stores around the world deserves proper data storage methods (Westerman, 2001). The requirements for data storage methods include systems that can handle vast amounts of data and structures that can be scaled as per the existing growth. Additionally, the input and output operations per second are key in helping Wal-Mart deliver data to the analytic tools in place. Wal-Mart can use hyperscale computing environments that have been utilized by Google, Apple, and Facebook. Wal-Mart can install commodity servers and direct-attached storage structures (Lundberg, 2002). The method helps to reduce redundancy level in all the computing and storage units. The entire system is immune to malfunction caused by a single component. An outage of a single component can be replaced immediately. The retail giant can purchase environments that mimic NoSQL, Cassandra, and Hadoop (Prabhu, 2011). Wal-Mart can also use object storage to handle the high number of files. The storage method assigns a unique identification to each file and indexes it as per location and data contained in it. Object storage has a high scalability because it can store large number of files. Wal-Mart can use object storage method to change the way it handles data analytics (Lundberg, 2002). However, the technology is less mature than the hyperscale computing environments. Optimal Data Storage Method Wal-Mart should use hyperscale computing environments that have been utilized by other big data companies in the world. The need for data analytics and management of the vast amount of information from supplier and customer network should be met by systems that can handle a large capacity. Wal-Mart should install a data storage system that offers low latency for the data analytics work (Anderson.ucla.edu, 2015). Extracting business value from the big data and attaining successful information management is critical for Wal-Mart. References Anderson.ucla.edu,. (2015). Data Mining: What is Data Mining?. Retrieved from http://www.anderson.ucla.edu/faculty/jason.frand/teacher/technologies/palace/datamining.htm Lundberg, A. (2002). Wal-Mart: IT Inside the Worlds Biggest Company. CIO. Retrieved from http://www.cio.com/article/2440726/it-organization/wal-mart--it-inside-the-world-s-biggest-company.html Prabhu, C. (2011). Data warehousing. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Soderquist, D. (2005). The Wal-Mart way. Nashville: T. Nelson. Westerman, P. (2001). Data warehousing. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann. Read More