Management Information System - Assignment Example

Registration Number Program Management Information System Introduction Walmart is a 52 years old U S based global retail giant. In 1969 the organization became Walmart Stores, Inc. With its unparallel distribution network and supplier base the company is one of the most famous global brands. The organization has multinational presence across the world. The US based retail giant has presence in 11,088 locations. In 2013 revenue of the organization was US$ 476.294 billion. According to the list of fortune 500, the company is world’s largest company in the context of revenue. Sam Walton was the founder of the company. In 2013 operating loss of the company was US$ 26.872 billion. Due to its huge business operation numbers of employees are also high. Across the world the company has 2.2 million employees. The organization has head quarter in Arkansas, U S. Over the years the company has given significant focuses towards the developing markets. The company maintains high degree of public relationship. The global retail giant is a publicly listed company and the shares of the company are being traded in New York Stock Exchange. The company came up with IPO in 1972. Discussion Explain how Organization’s achieved business success through the use of information, information technology, and people. Over the years the American retail giant Walmart has used information and information technology in significant ways. Advanced information system and technology has helped the organization to manage their multinational business in suitable ways. As far as the inventory distribution management is concerned Walmart is the undisputed global leader (Copeland, Nicholas and Labuski 45-48). This kind of huge distribution network is significantly controlled by the advanced information technology. It has been observe that the company is using RFID technologies for the past several years. It has certainly boosted the supply chain success for the company. As far as the management information system is concerned the company has taken the assistance of information and information technology (Bryan and Berg 67-69). The global retail giant has given significant focus towards the IT. With the help of this the organization always monitors sales, inventories and merchandises across the world. All these information are significantly important for the purpose of the organizational success. Strategic decisions of the company are being taken on the basis of the organizational performance. In this aspect also Walmart uses MIS for the purpose of organizational success (Charles 89-92. Employee motivation and direction are also key factors for the organizational success. The global retail giant manages this success factor with the help of IT. Managers of the organization communicate their motivational speeches and operational directions with the help of internet only. In this way information technology helps the company to communicate messages to the employees across the world. In this process only important information and ideas are being shared among the organizational workforce. Once the important information and directions are shared properly then organizational success is an obvious thing. In 1983 the company introduced satellite communication system which has been significantly time and cost effective for Walmart. In 1991 the organization introduced retail link system which has helped almost 10000 suppliers of the company. Walmart utilizes its purchasing power very efficiently to control the behavior of the suppliers and also in bringing down the cost. Walmart gives priority to its customers and support its customers by providing timely delivery of the orders. The company respects each of its customers, employees, suppliers. Walmart is carrying out its operation with integrity and dealing fairly with its suppliers, stakeholders and associates. The company works as a team with its employees by supporting and extending help to its staff. Information required by the staff employees at a organization store The main objective and motive of Walmart is to increase sale. The price allocated by Walmart is very friendly to its customers. The grocery sector of the company is growing. Walmart cares and respects its employees. The company provides excellent service to its customers. The information that is provided to the staff by Walmart are passed or transferred by the staff to the customers. The staff pass the information to its customers through fax, email telephone etc. In a way the customer become aware of the new product and the offer that is provided by the store. The offers are sent by the staff to the employees on daily, weekly and monthly basis (Soderquist 38). Walmart also performs retention and loyalty programs both for its employees and the customers. The company provides offer to differentiate itself from its customers, fulfills the promises made to its staff and the customers. Walmart is very committed to its employees and customers. A staff or employee handbook is given to the staff to make them aware of the different rules and regulations and also about the varieties of products offered by the staff. Walmart maintains and establishes long term relationship with its customers. The loyalty program helps Walmart to increase their revenue and build a strong customer base in the market. Walmart establishes and tries to develop long term relationship by involving emotionally with its customers. The company is now formulating a new policy that is expected to provide Walmart with 50 to 100$ million to earn and increase sales. The main effort is given by the company staffs who are trying hard to conduct the end meet program. The program is conducted by the staff of Walmart to extend help to its customers in shopping and in driving team work sales and also providing customer services. The staff employees are provided guidance for arrangement of the products. As the display plays an important role to attract the customers in a retail store. The staff in the company is well trained to arrange the products according to the popularity of the brand and demand of the customers. The staff of Walmart mainly tries for cross selling so that the customer who visits the store for buying something but end up buying something else. The staff working at the company is trained to provide each and every order of different type to all of its customers at any time when the order is placed. Gain business intelligence through the implementation of a CRM Customers are the key drivers of success for any organization. To retain an old customer is always better and cheaper than to acquire a new customer. For retail companies like Walmart retaining customers is all the more important. In past times and for small retailers the customer and the retail outlet owner almost form personal relation as they know each other two well. But the company is the world’s largest retailer. In being the world’s largest retailer it faces a problem. The problem revolves around how to ensure customer loyalty? Since Walmart is so big in size and scale it is not possible for it to engage with each and every one of its customers personally. However it cannot neglect the issue or the importance of engaging with its customers just because it is difficult to do so. If it neglects customer relationship it runs a risk of losing its customers. The fear is more aggravated these days and the importance of maintaining good customer relations is more emphasized because of the presence of online retail giants like Amazon. The retail store now a day does not only have to compete with other brick and mortar stores but also with online stores. In this respect good CRM tools and practices becomes all the more important. However since the retailers cannot keep personal touch with all its customers the Retail giants have to rely on technology to achieve this. Walmart as a company tries to engage with its customers through social networking sites such as Face book, Twitter etc. But the problem is that when big retailers like to engage with its customers on social networking sites it seems to act like an entire brand. So the customers in general are not able to relate to their particular stores and so this strategy does not connect well with the customers. However recently Walmart has entered into a new partnership with Face book and has included a ‘my local Walmart’ function into their face book page. Through this function the retail giant will not post as entire brand but selective offers by each store will be posted. Thus each store will be able to connect with its customer and the customer will fell more related and connected. The company has also introduced a loyalty program based on their online platform. The new technology named “savings catcher” uses a different firm who compares the prices of items that Walmart sales with prices of the same item offered by its customers. If the competitors’ price is lower than offered by the company within a time period of 72 hours the difference amount is credited to the account of registered savings catcher users. The customers can redeem the points in the form of e-gift cards offered by Wall- mart. Thus Walmart is driving lot of success through CRM (Urbanski). Strategy for efficient use of IT metrics The advance of modern technology, advance of social media and IT infrastructure has meant a new group of customers who are tech savvy. To be successful these days companies have to invest a lot in the field of information technology. But before any investment a company and its finance officer must prove that its IT investment is worthwhile. Judging an IT investment means that the company has to take several factors into consideration namely the amount of investment required in the field and the duration of investment, the time when returns can be expected from the investment and the tangible and intangible benefits expected out of the investment. The problem with measuring IT investment is that it becomes too complex to measure all the associated variables. But if many variables are deliberately left over then it becomes too simple and thus not useful. One way to measure I.T. investment is by measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of I.T. investment. Walmart makes substantial amount of investment in the field of I.T. As a matter of fact, the company is quite ahead of its competitors in respect of the amount of investment in I.T. infrastructure. Walmart has been investing in I.T. since the time of David Glass. David Glass was operational wizard and knew the value of investment in I.T. sector (Brea-Solis, Casadesus-Masanell and Grifell-Tatje 15). Walmart did heavy investments in the field of information technology in order to connect all its important stakeholders that are vendors, suppliers and customers. The best thing about the company is that it knows too well how to get good returns from its investments and make its I.T. investments payoff. Walmart is doing everything right as long as I.T. investments are concerned and one of the key reasons it has been successful as a retailer is because it has invested well in the I.T. field. However going into the future Walmart can always try to better the experience its customers have on its website. It can achieve more efficiency in its I.T. matrices through ensuring better availability of the required information, speed of the website and better performance. Summary The role of MIS to add value and lend a hand in success of any organization is undeniable. The role of information technology is supremely felt for any organization. I.T. provides the much needed competitive advantage to the firm to help them compete successfully in this fiercely competitive world. The Report analyses the case of Walmart in this respect. Founded in 1969 Walmart is the largest retailer worldwide. One of the main factors contributing to the success of the company is its investments in the field of I.T. The company has not only invested large amount in I.T. and used it to their competitive advantage but also has used the investments effectively. The company has used customer information and engaged the customers with their unique loyalty program. It connects with its customers through social networking sites. It tries to connect and establish strong connection with each of its customers through mails, calls etc. The company uses information matrices well to judge its I.T. investments and can do more in this regard in the coming years to keep its success story intact. Works Cited Al Urbanski. Walmart to roll loyalty program nationwide. June 09 2014. Web. 26 November 2014. . Brea-Solís, Humberto. Ramon Casadesus-Masanell and Emili Grifell-Tatjé. Business model evaluation: Quantifying Walmart’s sources of advantage. November 6, 2012. Web. 26 November 2014. . Copeland, Nicholas and Christine Labuski. The world of Walmart: discounting the american dream. New York: Routledge. 2013. Print. Fishman, Charles. The Walmart effect: how the worlds most powerful company really works and how it is transforming the American economy. New York: Penguin. 2006. Print. Roberts, Bryan and Natalie Berg. Walmart: Key insights and practical lessons from the worlds largest retailer. New York: Kogan Page Publishers. 2012. Print. Soderquist, Don. The Walmart way: The inside story of the success of the worlds largest company.USA: Thomas Nelson Inc. 2005. Print.   Read More