Management Information Systems in Walmart: Interconnected Business Units, Data Forms, and Big Data Solutions

This article discusses the interconnected business units of Walmart, the different forms of data used, and big data solutions for the company. It also explores the ethical, legal, and professional implications associated with information handling and security in Walmart.

Management
Information Systems

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
Describe how the different business units of Walmart are interconnected............................1
Organisation chart to represent the dependence of each of the business units to each other. 2
Data flow diagrams to represent the direction of data flows within the organisation............3
Reasons behind choosing structure of organizational chart...................................................4
Reasons behind choosing structure of data flow diagrams....................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
Describe the different forms of data in Walmart....................................................................5
Role of data warehousing in Walmart....................................................................................6
Evaluate the current Information Systems.............................................................................6
Recommendations to the board of directors about big data solutions....................................7
Description of the proposed solution with advantages and disadvantages of the system in
response to Amazon’s strategy...............................................................................................7
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................8
Key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with information
handling and security in Walmart...........................................................................................8
References:.....................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The following discussion is based on the case study of Walmart and Amazon. Walmart is
the leading international retail company headquartered in the United States. Currently Walmart
operates over 4700 retail stores on a global basis. It has revenue of more than 510 billion US
dollars. Talking about Amazon, Amazon has formulated the fresh forward looking plan which is
called the Amazon go convenience stores. It is a plan where customers can comfortably choose
any items and walk out of the store without checking on a cashier. Similarly Walmart is also
currently looking for the contrary plan and implementation of such innovative ideas in order to
improve The E-Commerce strategies within the organization.
Task 1
Describe how the different business units of Walmart are interconnected
Walmart has different business units which are interrelated to each other. There are various
departments in Walmart interconnected and each business unit functioning depends on the other
on a collaborative basis. For example departments like human resource and sales department are
interrelated with the marketing and financial department which are also interconnected with the
information technology and operations department. All these are the business units which
collaboratively work in order to achieve the goals and objectives of Walmart. Such a relationship
between the marketing and sales department is to formulate the advertising strategies which are
implemented by the sales people and other distribution techniques which are formulated by the
marketing people. Relationships between the human resource department and other business
units are such that if the human resource will not be able to hire the expertise and good people in
the job profile than any other department will not be able to function properly. The financial
department is also related with the marketing department in order to showcase the budgets and
other investments so that the other department can spend the funds accordingly. Moreover the
information technology business unit administers the technical equipment in the organization so
that big data can be managed with better analysis and interpretation of the information. This is
how all the departments of the Walmart are interconnected to each other so that they can work
collaboratively and take care of the employee management and fund management along with the
technical management and other operational activities in the organization (Ali and Hingst, 2018).
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Organisation chart to represent the dependence of each of the business units to each other
The below representation of the organizational chart illustrates the different business units
of Walmart and their interrelationships among different departments. Walmart uses the
hierarchical structure of business. It has different levels in which the President and chief
executive officer is at the top level along with all the stores of Walmart. At the second level of
hierarchical structure, the president and chief executive officer of Walmart United States and
Walmart international along with the Sam's club and global E-Commerce and Technology is
placed. All these are the different business domains which have different departments such as
human resource and marketing along with the sales and operations and many more. All these are
interconnected with each other in which the further classifications are also done in the form of
planning and policy along with the general service and geographic information which is followed
by the national geographic data monitoring. This is the hierarchical structure of Walmart in
which separate departments and business units are demonstrated (Alsharari, 2021).
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Data flow diagrams to represent the direction of data flows within the organisation
The below representation of the data flow diagram of Walmart is illustrated which directs
the information flow within the organization. There are several departments which are involved
in the process of entire data flow which includes the warehousing and shopping card along with
the customers and location which is also followed by the shopping list and the search items.
Walmart has a website which consists of all such components with the help of which the entire
information flow takes place from one business unit to another. Walmart contains internal
departments which manage all the components for the strategic execution of operations so that
customers can be assisted and comfortable to order online without any complexity
(Balakrishnan, Mishra and Bhatt, 2018).
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Reasons behind choosing structure of organizational chart
The reason behind choosing the hierarchical structure by Walmart is such that the
hierarchical structure helps in showing the clarity in the lines of authorities and proper reporting
within all departments of the business in an effective and efficient manner. It also supports the
clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of employees which helps in the decision
making and accountability for actions at the different levels of Management. Hierarchical
organizational structure has supported employee development in the form of clear career path
and development prospects which encourages the employees and motivates them for retention in
the organization. Moreover the structure has provided the opportunity to specialize and develop
the expertise in different departments of the organization which has also assisted in the close
supervision of leaders and managers with the help of a narrow span of managerial control.
Additionally hierarchical organizational structure has helped in maintaining the diversity and
culture management among the different departments and also the entire organization (Garcia
and Red, 2020).
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Reasons behind choosing structure of data flow diagrams
The reason behind choosing the online structure of data flow by Walmart is such that it
helps the company in understanding the entire functioning and limits of the information systems
in the form of graphical representation. This is because it is easy and comfortable to understand
to visualize the contents in Walmart. The data flow structure used by Walmart demonstrates the
detailed and well explained diagram of assorted information system components. It is basically
used as the portion of the entire system in the form of a documentation file. This is a diagram
which is not only understood by the technical people but also the other people can also read out
the data flow information with the help of data flow structure diagram chosen by Walmart
without any complications and also provides the convenience to figure out the entire data flow
within the organization (Gökalp, Gökalp and Çoban, 2020).
Task 2
Describe the different forms of data in Walmart
Walmart uses different forms of data so that they can analyze and interpret for strategic
decision making in order to have future considerations in an accurate manner. There are a total
200 sources of data which is used by Walmart and it includes the data such as the Telecom and
social data along with the economic and social media data which is also followed by the Nielsen
and meteorological data. Transactional data is also used by Walmart in the form of local event
data bases which is majorly used by the organization in its basic functioning. There are other
different types of data which are used by Walmart in the form of qualitative and quantitative
data. Such qualitative data includes the ordinal and nominal data which is basically the record of
the customers and the purchasing power along with the provision of grades such as low or
medium or high. Quantitative data includes the continuous and discrete data which represents the
numbers for example the number of customers and employees along with the suppliers.
Continuous data represents the rate of recovery and the performance measurement in the form of
numbers. These are all the forms of data which are used by Walmart in its regular operations and
functioning so that the administration of big data can be managed in its day-to-day working
within the organization (Lacity and Van Hoek, 2021).
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Role of data warehousing in Walmart
Walmart uses the data warehousing which helps the organization to perform their essential
and basic functioning in the company in an effective and efficient manner. Data warehousing in
Walmart contributes to the business sponsorship because it records the data and analyzes it about
the business sponsorship and the companies so that the decision making can be done about the
inclusion and exclusion of the organizations. Walmart also uses the system sponsorship in which
the data warehousing plays the important role by providing the responsibility to the person so
that the different requirements of system analysis can be done with the help of data warehousing
in which the previous data is code for better examination of the information. Moreover, the data
warehousing facility is in coordination as it is responsible for the interpretation of the current and
the previous data in order to have easy future considerations as per the needs and requirements of
the Walmart. Data warehousing supports the training and development of employees so that the
proper documentation of their education can be conducted by having good coordination among
the team. Data warehousing helps in the management of entire information and the framework of
data in the form of repository administration and the examination of the requirements of the
business which is also followed by the data modeling. Moreover, data warehousing is
accountable for the infrastructure tools and methodology selection and its modification along
with the warehousing tables and physical development of the transformation programs of
Walmart. It also helps in the physical access and the safety and security of the cross
environmental connectivity of the information systems in order to create the complex queries for
the users of data warehouses. It also supports the integration and data loading of the testing
component so that the query execution can be done in an accurate manner. Data warehousing
also facilitates Walmart in terms of production support for databases and users (Lin, 2019).
Evaluate the current Information Systems
There are several information systems used by Walmart which performs different activities
and helps in the good customer interaction and employee management which ultimately helps in
the strategic functioning and gaining of productivity within the company. The most important
information system used by Walmart is the customer relationship management information
system. This information system helps Walmart in the management of customers and their long-
term relationships along with the loyalty towards the company. This is software which records
the large amount of data and analyzes the same so that the target customers can be emphasized as
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per the needs and demands of the products rendered by the Walmart. Walmart also uses the
supply chain management information system in order to perform the electronic data interchange
which is used in the distribution center of Walmart. Supply chain management helps Walmart in
monitoring the whole process of the products which are being supplied from the supplier till it
reaches to the customers and after sales services also. It also facilitates the data interchange
electronically which is done in the secure manner by Walmart and it is also controlled and
evaluated by the distribution center. Another information system used by Walmart is the radio
frequency identification system which is also used in the supply chain management and it
improves the supplier’s efficiency and also controls the out of stock merchandise. It also makes
sure that the goals and objectives of Walmart are aligned with the supply chain management
strategy (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2019).
Recommendations to the board of directors about big data solutions
It is recommended to the board of directors of Walmart that the big data solution is such
that the company must use the Apache Hadoop software in order to manage and administer its
big data. This is because it supports getting the complete view of the information in an
innovative manner. It also assists in the increment of revenue and also boosts the morale of the
employee and their productivity by detecting fraud from any cyber crime. Apache Hadoop is
reliable when it comes to the data access because it helps in the local data processing in a
scalable manner. Moreover it also performs the centralized management of cache and the
snapshot of the filesystem. It also includes the native components and programming framework
along with the extended attributes and memory storage support. All these are the benefits and
features of Apache Hadoop which is recommended to Walmart in the form of a big Data
solution. There were already five ways in which Walmart has used the big Data solution within
the organization. Such as in the form of the efficient pharmacies and to improve the store
checkout along with the supply chain management and product assortment which is followed by
the personalization of shopping experience by the customers. All these ways are also provided by
the Apache Hadoop but in a more improved and enhanced manner (Peeroo, 2019).
Description of the proposed solution with advantages and disadvantages of the system in
response to Amazon’s strategy
Apache Hadoop is recommended to Walmart which is the proposed solution. Benefits of the
Apache Hadoop are such that it is similar to Amazon's strategy of Amazon go stores. But Apache
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Hadoop is more quick in-service and rapid responsive in nature which helps in the quick
customer servicing without any delays. Disadvantages are such that it only allows the batch
processing which is low in the cyclic data flow and less efficient in iterative processing. It is also
less effective in the encryption and network levels along with the difficulty in maintenance. But
this is the proposed solution in response to the Amazon strategy in Walmart which can support
the organization in gaining the competitive advantage (Pham, 2018).
Task 3
Key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with information
handling and security in Walmart
Code of conduct published by Walmart in February 2021 which consists of the key
concerns about the ethical and legal issues along with the professional implications associated
with information handling and security in organization. This is a code of conduct which applies
to the entire organization and its subsidiaries containing the board of directors and other officers.
Code of conduct published by Walmart fulfills expectations in terms of ethical decision-making
and conflicts along with the protection of organizational property and restrictive use of private
information which is also followed by the compliance issues and other foundational ethics.
Walmart's code of conduct that provides the clarification about the consequences and the
integrity in action. Walmart has also released the new version of compliance policies in 2020 and
2021 with other 20 ethics. It also covers the policies regarding financial services and
discrimination along with the harassment and trade compliance. Walmart also has the code of
conduct associated with the suppliers which includes the safety and consumer protection in terms
of food and product along with the sanctions compliance. It also contains fair competition and
conflicts of interest. There is also the key concern code of conduct which focuses on the culture
integrity and establishing the proper standards of using the data access and confidential
information within the organization. Code of conduct mainly focuses on the protection of data
and confidentiality of the information so that the important data can only be accessed by the
authorized and authenticated person. Analysis and interpretation of data are also done by
following the rules of the code of conduct established by Walmart. Moreover the investigation of
the ethics and compliance violations are also covered in the code of conduct of Walmart which
monitors the compliance issues and regulatory authorities in regards with the big data
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management and its protection in the highly secured information systems and servers (Phillips
and Rozworski, 2019).
There are various ethical and legal issues along with the professional issues while handling
the information and security in Walmart. These issues involved intellectual property and
personal privacy along with cyber security and cyber crime. Malware and ransomware are the
top issues which impact the technical equipment in the organization until the sum amount of
money is not paid to the hacker. Hackers have a motive to attack in order to perform the data
breach which is the major issue that the organization faces which means the leak of the personal
information those results in the great loss to the company and also result in the shutting down of
the organization. These are the cyber crimes which are done with the intention of stealing the
money from the organization which also includes the loss of big data and the recovery is also not
possible because of the control of the hacker on the organizational information system. One of
the major issues is the insider threats which contain the strategies of zero trust access by Walmart
in order to protect its data. There are some employees who are against the company and try to
commit the cybercrime so that they can take revenge or steal the money from the company.
Issues like the distributed denial of service attack hinder the important functioning of the
company and the computing systems which also results in the delay in the operations which
leads to the major losses to the company. Cloud credits are the issues where the organization
records all their important data on the internet with full security but some of the hackers break
that security and access the data which ultimately results in the breaching and losses of data.
Phishing attacks issues are the attacks in which the attacker attends to trick the user so that they
can reveal all their personal information with their credit card data. It is also the form of social
engineering in which the emails and phone calls are the sources of reaching to the clients. These
are the issues which can be resolved by establishing the proper and an appropriate security
culture in the Walmart by installing the protective devices so that the information systems can be
safeguarded along with the big data management. Antivirus software is highly important because
it detects and removes any virus in the computer system therefore it is essential to install in the
information systems in order to control the physical and network access to the data. Password
management is the most important which supports the organization in being fully secured in
terms of the data and information systems. This is because a strong password helps in the
restrictive access to the unauthorized and unauthenticated person. It is highly important for
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Walmart to regularly update the computing devices and all the information systems so that
security can be maintained and the organization can be free from any cyber vulnerabilities
(Rainer and Prince, 2021).
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References:
Books and Journals
Ali, O. and Hingst, R., 2018. Improving the retailer industry performance through RFID
technology: a case study of Wal-Mart and Metro Group. In Cases on Quality Initiatives
for Organizational Longevity (pp. 196-220). IGI Global.
Alsharari, N.M., 2021. Management Accounting Practices and E-Business Model in the US
Walmart Corporation. In 21st Century Approaches to Management and Accounting
Research. IntechOpen.
Balakrishnan, U.R., Mishra, G. and Bhatt, N., 2018. Strategies for Improving Cyber Resilience
of Data-Intensive Business Information Systems. In Handbook of e-Business
Security (pp. 285-312). Auerbach Publications.
Garcia, G.J.V. and Red, E.R., 2020. INFORMATION SYSTEMS UTILIZATION OF AN
ORGANIZATION: THE CASE OF WALMART INC.
Gökalp, E., Gökalp, M.O. and Çoban, S., 2020. Blockchain-based supply chain management:
understanding the determinants of adoption in the context of organizations. Information
Systems Management, pp.1-22.
Lacity, M. and Van Hoek, R., 2021. Requiem for reconciliations: DL Freight, a blockchain-
enabled solution by Walmart Canada and DLT Labs.
Lin, R., 2019. The importance of successful inventory management to enterprises: A case study
of Wal-Mart. In 2019 International Conference on Management, Finance and Social
Sciences Research (MFSSR 2019). London: Francis Academic Press.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2019. Managing and using information
systems: A strategic approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Peeroo, S., 2019. Customer-initiated conversations on Facebook pages of Tesco and Walmart.
In Information Systems Design and Intelligent Applications (pp. 43-51). Springer,
Singapore.
Pham, H., 2018. The impact of Blockchain Technology on the improvement of Food Supply
Chain Management: Transparency and Traceability: A case study of Walmart and Atria.
Phillips, L. and Rozworski, M., 2019. The People's Republic of Wal-Mart: How the World's
Biggest Corporations Are Laying the Foundation for Socialism. Verso.
Rainer, R.K. and Prince, B., 2021. Introduction to information systems. John Wiley & Sons.
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