Big Data Supply Chain: Walmart Business Analysis Report

This report provides an executive summary of the impact of big data on supply chain management, focusing on Walmart as a case study. It explores how Walmart leverages big data for improved planning, data management, and business operations. The report delves into the nature of big data, its characteristics (velocity, variability, variety), and the benefits of its processing, including cost reduction, improved customer service, and fraud detection. It examines Walmart's internal and external analysis, including strengths, weaknesses, and the company's approach to data collection, storage, and action. The report highlights the use of Hadoop-based technologies and real-time data analysis, providing recommendations for effective data management and concluding with the importance of strategic decision-making based on data insights. The report also covers the organizational analysis, Walmart's business model, and the macro-environment in which Walmart operates, with a focus on the role of stakeholders and the impact of environmental factors.

Running Head: BIG DATA SUPPLY CHAIN 1
Big Data Supply Chain
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Executive summary
Big data is here. The results of this project explain on how planning can be achieved by
adopting a Big, reliable data in the various working environment. Most of the IT managers have
developed a report that outlines various companies that are involved with big data. The reports
are derived from different companies generating a total of 300 terabytes on a weekly basis with
mixed verticals. There are also ways in which these managers have gone to the extent of
managing the wide variety of information sources by producing both the structured and semi
structured data.
The report has developed different challenges and remedies for a productive big data
implementation. However, security is a major issue that calls out the very clear task that is
problematic when it comes to problems with third party providers. But with big data analytics,
many firms are faced with different issues both in data management and infrastructure when
dealing with business operation.
Introduction
Data is defined as quantities, symbol or features that are performed by the computer
machines that can also be stored, transmitted by either in electrical signals and recorded on the
mechanical or electric signal. Big data, therefore, is either a data but with big storage. It’s used in
the description of data collection that is majorly very big and expanding at a very high rate.
However, this type of data is normally very huge and complex that no any other traditional tool
can operate efficiently. Big data examples are social media impact which is around 500++

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terabytes to store data before being used into the system (Azarmi, 2014). However, Big data can
be categorized into either structured, unstructured and finally semi structured.
Big data can be grouped based on different type of characteristics;
Velocity
This refers to the speed in which generated data operates. It describes how fast the
information is produced by the demands in establishing the real strength of any data.
Variability
This shows how data is consistent with how many times the data operates to the
effect on how the data can be handled more efficiently.
Variety
This describes the nature and sources of data regarding structures and semi
structures (Caro, 2015). It contains some of the unstructured data containing a given issues based
on storage and data analysis.
Benefits of Big Data Processing
The importance of big data is not based on how much data is produced but what amount
of data can be placed in practice (Belloc, 2016). You can produce data from different sources in
finding out answers for cost reductions, time and ways of obtaining new product for decision
making. Many tasks can be achieved by using this technique. Some of detecting any fraudulent
acts, establishing ways in risk reduction, establishing the causes of any business failure and
generating sale issues on customers buying trend.

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Business can only develop with a good source of data (Chorafas, 2001). Therefore,
processing this gives multiple benefits to the world such as-Businesses benefits from the use of
intelligence while implementing decisions in access to different social sites thus enabling the
company to improve their strategies in business. In additions, improved customer services can be
improved whereby a traditional system is replaced with new technologies from Big data for
improvement of natural language (Davenport, 2013). Also, big data can also be used in the
creation of areas for storing new big data before deciding what to be transferred to the data
warehouse.
A more complex type of prescriptive modeling can also help firms in predicting any
business opportunities and implementing decisions that target marketing companies thus
avoiding the collapse of business tools (Federal Data Science and Advanced Analytics in
Agricultural Science, 2017). The Big data tool can ingest different types of data both in
structured and semi structured like the web server or some phone mobile application log. It
comprises both the text files, emails, text messages and documents for data management. Also,
big data tools help in the provision of a framework to enhance the use of data mining system to
analyze information by the introduction of patterns. This will enhance performance in business
activity by adapting analytical models to correspond with the business operational application.
Big data application in wall-mart stores is doing a lot with Big data. The presentation of
big data is characterized by the increased variety volume and velocity. The complimentary

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documents explain the details of a strategic IT plan similar to the firm in identifying all the gaps
in the allocation of its materials (Shirin Hijaz Matwankar & Dr. Shubhash K. Shinde, 2016). At
this report, the evolution of big data, challenges for most companies are technologically related.
The most effective implementation to be adopted relates to cultural challenges, organization
alignments that result from the ignorance to adapt the new change.
Organizational analysis
The company is doing big data business has helped a lot in the improvement of
technology. The total output for every business locality. The report is based on the usage and
management of IT sections according to the improved ideas from big data.
Nature of business
From our humble beginning as being the small retailer in Rogers, Ark, the Wal-Mart
business has expanded into various parts of the US and different countries internationally. But
with new big data innovations, the business is creating a place to enable the potential customers
to shop anywhere online. We are establishing new branches to accommodate more communities
in job market around the globe. Everyday low price (EDLP) is one of the best strategies used by
our firm to focus on price determinants for the benefits of our clients. From our grocery and
entertainment in support of goods the company produces goods and crafts that our customers
appreciate.
Internal analysis
Wal-Mart is a powerful retail brand.

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Strength and weakness
This company has a good reputation regarding currency, convenience and different items
in the store. The original dream of Walton’s is to conduct a productive business of large discount
with many departments. The greatest kind of strength adopted by the company includes an
understanding of low prices, market conditions, the distribution channel and competence in
current data technology. Also, low prices and both this technique have helped this company a lot.
The greatest Wal-Mart strengths come as a result of the expansion of his prosperity. It has the
core competence that promoted the use of new technology system in support of its international
logistics.
But in contrast with strengths that makes Wal-Mart successful, there is also weakness in
conducting out various duties. Unfortunately, the company has a poor public image that
sometimes viewed as being unfriendly to the community. Also, rumors on how employees are
treated are also a major thread for the company. Some of the people say that the company tends
to pollute the environment and congestion within the place of work. Despite this entire rumor,
the Wal-Mart has this problem of inflexibility mostly in dealing with customers around.
However, the marketing activities in Walmart establish a marketing Sandra piccolo
whereby is one of the growing industry in the US. This technique has helped it in attempting
ways on how to deal with their external competitors around the market (Srinivasa & Bhatnagar,
2012). But effective stakeholders contribute a lot in the market both direct and indirect for the
benefit of business. The engagement of stakeholders in business field has generated a good
communication in effective settings. The suppliers, on the other hand, can be traced by the video
from Wal-Mart explains the benefits with the company supply trucks. The evidence attributes for

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the effective relationship with suppliers on how the company survives. The community has
evidence in Walmart explains the importance of financial benefits.
With the current macro-Environment, The external environment influences the decisions
that managers possess in orders to improve the continuity of the company. Sometimes, managers
have a little impact when it comes to environmental issues. But there is a new trend that
introduces market trends known as green retailing. The concept to reduce this kind of waste is by
the act of retailers increasing the level of customer expectation. The industry and strategic group
explain the existence of competitors together with those in the market. It’s important to
understand that big data helps a lot in real time fraud detection, social media analysis,
optimizations of call center and display of web for the need of business technological
advancement. It has also improved all the analytical issues within the business environment.
Data collection and storage
Wal-Mart is the biggest retail store; it has various data operating within the system.
Therefore it has to maintain the flow of vital information into the system by establishing the data
café. This and hub where the art focuses on handling information by putting in a working
environment in solving different issues. The company has employed over 200 streams both in
external and internal data. This comprises of 40 pet bytes where the data can be analyzed. The
company is beneath the business access of concentrating majorly on data within the business
field. It has heavily invested in data management (Uğurlu & Sevim, 2015). It can, therefore, track,
gather by using social data in improving their productivity within the market.

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Normally, the largest social network ever used in the marketing industry happened in the
year 2012. This has given lots of lips service necessary for social data storage in arriving at
crucial business decisions. The retailer has also invented a program known as product content
collection system to promote vendors in delivering their products catalogs to Wal-Mart. Also, the
company has implemented a technique in conjunction with product information through the
Global Data Synchronization network, the product content collection system. However, to
improve such technique, it’s necessary to ensure that once the customer enters the job market,
data can be collected by importing, put in a good cloud storage and customers can use it for their
benefits.
Data action
When it comes to Wal-Mart, having big data suggest that the company has impressed the
conduct of business in many ways. Being one of the leading markets, it has Hadoop-based
technologies in regulating the use of big data systems (McNeill, 2013). The real time data
analysis has enabled the company in driving direction on decisions from different people by
improving the level of the supply chain. But in these days, accessing big data has become easier
than before. This is due to reduced cost of storage and how to process this data has become
easier. Wal-Mart Company collects its information majorly on web traffic, mobile apps and other
different sources.
At, the root storage of big data requires some measure to help improve the performance.
A larger amount of data in the system needs input/output operations per second to deliver data to
delivering tool. The data can either be stored in re-size, e-handbook or e-zine. This is made up of
direct –attached storage, but redundancy happens when the system suffers an outage of any

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component. IDC’S storage solutions explain on how the big data can be stored based on the look
of big software and hardware in the market. Attention is given to new software like NoSQL
database. The impact of storage is also studied on architecture, storage media, capacity and
perspective of revenue across the center in Wal-Mart business center.
Recommendation and Conclusion
Some of the organization doesn't concentrate on the data management in their system.
But the only required knowledge is being confident in business decisions. You have to possess a
strategy to help in the management of big data as shown in Wal-Mart business. The final step
one has to make includes researching the technologies that help in deciding the most appropriate
big data analytics. The data obtained on different social media platforms on data management is
an attractive source of information and therefore needs to be tackled with care.
Data in action
Big data can be described by the volume, variety, velocity, variability, and veracity. The
volume contains the quantity of and the data stored. Variety looks at the type of data while
velocity is the speed which the data is generated. On the other hand, variability is the irregular
process that involves managing of the data. Veracity includes the quality of which quality of
data varies.
Industry influencers, academicians, and other stakeholders certainly concur on the fact
that, big data has become a big game changer to organizations in the society today. First and
foremost it should be noted that modern industries have embraced technology globally. The 21st
century has been witnessed with industries investing big for the future. However, the goals of

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organizations differ on big data projects depending on their goals and resources. Big data is
essential in industries making the market efficient by ensuring cost reduction. Furthermore, big
data technology is important in the banking industry. For instance, the banking industry is faced
with many challenges which include: credit risk, card fraud, customer data transformation and
general IT problems. The employment of the big data in the banking and security has been vital
to monitor financial market activity. Financial institutions are using network analytics to curb
illegal training activity. On the other hand, retail traders and major banks use big data trade
analytics to monitor payment. This has provided customer driven promotions which are an
important relationship management. In the manufacturing industry; it has enhanced product
research which is essential for budgeting and product preference. Healthcare industries are
considered to be using big data analytical capabilities to improve surgical and ultrasound
facilities.
Big data analytics, therefore, is a trending practice that companies and organization have
considered adopting. Big data analytics are software products which are fundamental in an
application running on big data computing platforms. The most commonly used software is
Hadoop and NoSQL data bases. Hadoop helps organizations make decisions that have been
categorically rather than a small sampling of data. Additionally, advanced data analysis can be
carried out to avoid the operational expense of outsourcing. Government agencies collect vast
amounts of data in public fields and cyber security. It should be noted that Hadoop not only
ensures security to the public but makes a collection of data simple. Telecom companies often
process millions of calls every second. The rapid pace of telecommunication requires efficient

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storage of Apache Hadoop. When it comes to manufacturing systems Hadoop ensures quality
provision of products. Organizations can design their products with the help of big data (Srinivasa
& Bhatnagar, 2012). To begin with, health and life sciences deal with a high population of health
cases. With the busy health institutions. Big data technology can be used globally to provide
devices to patients who are miles away. For example, a Doctor is based in India can send
medical information to a fellow doctor in Africa. In the business sector, big data can be found
used to ease storage of large data and monitoring of the business for several years.
Recommendation systems in business are used to prevent business risk and customers
interactions. More often than not in the contemporary society, today business stakeholders have
engaged in online transactions and marketing which has proven to be vital with the current
changes in technology. Moreover, Recommendation systems can provide an opportunity for the
customer's preference of certain products. For instance, with the online websites of products
buyers can go through the specifications of their choice. Another important factor of the
recommendation system is that the user can distinguish between qualities of the certain site
depending on the services that they offer. This is usually in the case games, music and streaming
live sites. It is no doubt that YouTube has proven to be the widely used sight due to the reliability
and the quality of their services (Chorafas, 2001). A user will never opt to use another site because
YouTube provides a proper recommendation system that can be used at any place any time. In
the world today, smart phones are widely used to the advancement in technology. With this
effect, mobile phone companies have ensured that their data is available on search engines,
websites, and emails. Samsung phones are used widely in the globe yet their company is situated
in Asia. The success of the massive sale is the suggestion of products for customers to buy via
their email. They have not only used several media houses to market their phones but also

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ensuring that their mobile phones image are available to all continents. Recommendation
systems have also been effective in the Car manufacturing industry. Toyota cars are quite
common because they came up with terms and conditions that are friendly to the buyer. For
example, they have given a friendly warranty and have also recommended Vehicles that belong
to the middle and elite class in the society. They are several car manufacturers in the world
today, but Toyota is the most preferable. Goods that are sold abroad have also been a key factor
in the recommendation systems. Buyers who ship their goods and services online have been able
to cost share with the manufacturer. It should be noted that the manufacturer attracts plenty of
customers and also spends less when exporting their products. Word of mouth through friends
has proven to an effective way of recommendation. For instance, a friend can tell a friend who
spreads the message to another third party. This is usually in the services provided by transport,
bar, salons and the health sector. Organizational transformation refers to activities that improve
the day-to-day running of the business systems. This is usually accompanied with the aim of
improving the quality and provision of services by the organization. Transformation occurs by
redesigning, re-energizing and redefining. For effectiveness of the organization, transformation
teamwork is required by colleagues and the senior management. It should be noted that
transformation has the fundamental root which is human values.
Risk management, therefore, refers to a process of identifying, assessing, and controlling
potential threats to an organization. It is simply an organization preparedness in and after a
threat. The main types of business risk include reputational risk, financial risk, operational risk,
compliance risk and strategic risk. Reputational risk refers to the name of a business being
damaged due to a certain situation. A reputational risk can easily lead to loss of customers.
Therefore it is the mandate of an organization to stand firm in such scenarios. Financial risk