Management Information Systems: Interconnected Business Units of Walmart

This article discusses the interconnected business units of Walmart and the role of data warehousing in Walmart's management information systems. It also covers the ethical, legal, and professional implications associated with information handling and security.

Management
Information Systems

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................3
Describe how the business units of Walmart are interconnected...........................................3
QUESTION 2...................................................................................................................................5
Different forms of data & the role or responsibility of data warehousing in Walmart..........5
QUESTION 3...................................................................................................................................8
Summary of key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with
information handling and security..........................................................................................8
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management Information systems (MIS)is the use of people, information technology
which is helpful to store, process the data so that the management of a company can use it to
make their daily decisions. The main aim of management information systems is that they take
the information from different sources and gains the insights from it which is useful for the
growth of a business(Vom Brocke and Mendling, 2018). The use of MIS is to help the top
management of a company to make the decisions which is useful for the completion of business
objectives and it cannot be done without the help of MIS. The Management Information systems
is the type of internal controls of a business which covers the people, documents which helps in
solving the business problems such as the cost of product and the strategy of a business. The
main aim of the MIS system is that it helps in providing the information to each level of
management or the departments which carries out the work on the basis of results which is given
out by the management information systems. Walmart is a retail corporation which works in
accordance with the hypermarkets, departmental stores, and the grocery stores. This was founded
in the year 1962 and is having its headquarters in Arkansas, U.S. This report will cover
information needs within different functional areas, comparison of information systems, legal
implications associated with information handling and security and ethical implications related
with information handling and security.
QUESTION 1
Describe how the business units of Walmart are interconnected
Walmart has made a very significant growth in which they make the turning of their retail
company towards the supermarket chain which is having around 11,500 stores which covers the
hypermarkets, supermarkets and the departmental stores. They gives the employment of around
lakhs of people and they customers they serve is of around millions. The company Walmart
makes the earning is billions and is considered to be the highest earning company in the world by
revenue in which it covers the capital of around 500 billion dollars.

The main aim of Walmart is to lead the market with the prices and to make the
investment in different things which is competitive and is delivering the product on the aim of
EDLP which is of every day low prices(Nurakun Kyzy, Ismailova and Dündar, 2018). The main
commitment of Walmart is to make the control on the expenses which they are paying off and
making the investment on the production of a production. Walmart uses the omnichannel in
which they help the customer in providing the products in a varied form and also in many
locations which is in US and the other markets outside the country.
Their are different business units of Walmart which are interconnected with one another-
 Walmart discount store- The Walmart discount store is the discount departmental store
which differs in the sizes that covers the 30,000 to 221,000 square feet of area. Many of
the stores of discount store offers the groceries, garden centre and general merchandise
items. For the Walmart the discount stores were the main and original concept which has
been changed into the super centres. In the year 1990, the Walmart opened its first Bud's
Discount city location is in Bentonville in which many of its locations were opened to for
the lease.
 Walmart supercenter- This is similar to that of hypermarkets which varies in the size of
69,000 to 260,000 square feet. The super centres provides the product of baked goods,
frozen foods, dairy products, fresh seafood and many others. But in some of the Walmart
supercenter they have a garden center, pharmacy, Tire and lube express and many other
things. In many of the Walmart supercenter they have decided to feature the Mcdonald's
Walmart
Walmart
discount store
Walmart
supercenter
Walmart
neighbourhoo
d market
Infrastructure

but after the year 2007 they have stopped featuring the Mcdonald's in which it was
replaced with the Subways(Nieves and Osorio, 2018). The Walmart supercenter usually
sells of around 120,000 items as compared with the 35 million products sold in Walmart
store in online.
 Walmart neighbourhood market- This market is considered to be in the size of fifth
after the Walmart supercenter. It is a supermarket chain which provided the groceries to
people and was opened in around ten years after the supercenter chain was started
operating its activities. In the year 2010 the main focus of the Walmart is on the smaller
type of grocery stores and its focuses on the three main categories of it in which the first
one is grocery which provides around 55 percent of revenue to company, the other is a
pharmacy business and the later is some fuel at stores. The prices at which the products
are being sold to the people is just as similar to what is being offered to the consumers in
Walmart large supercenter(Kim and Chi, 2019).
 Infrastructure- The infrastructure of a company is effective and efficient one so that all
the activities which has to be conducted on a daily basis can be done with great
productivity. The infrastructure is important so that there is proper allocation of the
resources in each of the outlet in which they operating their business. The infrastructure
of Walmart is similar to that of the other business in which it is operating its business.
The management of a company have made the plan in which it is beneficial for the
customers as this will help in satisfying the needs of consumers. The investment which is
made by Walmart on the products and also on the infrastructure is made in accordance as
to providing the varied range of products to the consumers which will be helpful in
increasing the demand of the products (Mirzaee and Ghaffari, 2018).
All the above mentioned divisional units which are working on different area and in offering
different type of products to consumers so in this case all the resources which are being used are
in every store and in every departmental unit. The similarity is that the units have to make the
connection with them about the products which they are offering and the prices which they have
set. This is important so that the other stores can work according to it and can be able to achieve
the objectives of a company. They also make use of the software which is helpful in keeping the
records of the things which is present in the store which involves the stock.

QUESTION 2
Different forms of data & the role or responsibility of data warehousing in Walmart
Walmart is one of the most famous retailing company which is having its presence
internationally and it serve its products and services at world wide level (Morean, Krishnan-Sarin
and O’Malley, 2018). It also offer development opportunities for employees in their
organisation. It is essential for them to manage their data effectively on regular basis for their
organisational growth. It is essential for them to manage their promotional activities well to
aware customers as much as possible. There are various sections in Walmart which consist of
management of effective information structures and they are explained below-
Executive support system- This is the form of information structure where companies
involve particular system to make strategies for their organisations by their main executives. This
system help Walmart to collect and manage information related to their day to day activities
which are essential for them to perform their daily functioning. In context of Walmart, they use
this system to analyse the status of their inventory management which further depend upon
current sales of company. This type of information is one of the most important information for
collecting data.
Decision support system- It is an computerized programme which is used in decision
making process of any company, it is used to make judgements and it further help the company
to analyse huge amount of data together and manage them in systematic manner to solve any
problem (Vysotska and et. al., 2019). In context of Walmart, they use this system to resolve their
problems which are occurring again and again in the business to mitigate it permanently.
Walmart allow their operations to collect internal data to make any decisions for organisational
benefit. This system help Walmart to make effective decisions in their manufacturing department
and manage their merchandise in proper way to earn higher satisfaction of their customers.
Evaluation of current IS at Walmart- In context of Walmart, they presently uses
CAMELS approach which involve capital adequacy, earnings of company, and various sensitive
factors. This system help to manage retailing data adequately. Walmart also uses API model
which is used to manage the big data in a systematic way. Walmart is the company which beliefs
to record and manage their data on regular basis. Hence, these systems will help them to manage
and record their data on timely basis. Walmart also use public cloud services to drive
infrastructural benefits to company (Trofimova and et. al., 2019).

Recommendations
 It is recommended to Walmart that they can use those information systems which will
help them to satisfy their employees and customers well with their daily operations and
control on each department. They can use those systems only which will help them to sort
and manage their data effectively so that when they need to find any particular data they
will not waste their time on searching the data.
 It is also recommended to Walmart that they must focus on both qualitative and
qualitative data to make any particular decision in their organisation. It will help them to
notice each factor of decision making process effectively and further help to analyse
which factor will impact worse upon company to make instant decision to mitigate the
obstacle (Almaiah, 2018).
 It is also recommended to Walmart to update their software on regular basis so that they
can use new features to manage their data collection and management activities. It is also recommended to Walmart to hand over such important responsibilities to
manage data to those employees only who have good skills and have good experience in
data handling activities because with the knowledge and experience of such employees
Walmart can achieve their organisational objective without facing much obstacles.
Technology strategy to enable big data strategy:
The organisational data can be managed effectively with the help of technological factor. In case
the technology used by company is advanced and updated then the data can be stored, used
and managed effectively and quickly. It is essential for the company to think out of the box
and introduce a new and unique way to manage their data effectively to gain competitive
advantage in market. Using unique procedure of data collection and management technique
also helps to motivate employees and enhance their skills (Marnewick, 2017)There are
various kind of technology available in market, it is essential for the company to analyse
which technological tool will help them best to meet their organisational objective. It is
essential for managers to focus on their long-term benefit for organisation by choosing
technologies for longer period of time.
Advantages & Disadvantages of the Information System-
It is not important that information system can only provide advantage to company but it can also
provide demerit for company in few sections which are discussed below-

Advantages of Information system- Enhance communication activities- with the use of higher technological factors for
conveying message, communication activities of companies get improved because while
using advanced technology messages, emails and many other form of content can be shared
easily from one employee to another (Almaiah, 2018). Creation of new jobs- Information system consist of handling and managing computerized
data effectively. Hence, this can be done by those employees only which have IT skills and
knowledge to handle computerized language easily. Hence, it help to create new jobs. Helps to make effective- Information system help companies to make effective decisions
for their organisation. It help to manage and sort data according to their importance. Hence,
this can be used by managers to use data whenever they require to make decisions for their
company.
Disadvantages of information system-
 Security issues- There are various kind of security issues which can be faced by
companies to use information system within their company. Hackers can use the personal
and confidential data of company and can leak it to their competitors. This can be provide
huge damage to company. Hence, it is essential for Walmart to use secure and protected
devices and software for keeping their data safe from third party threat.
 Implementation expenses- Information system require huge investment and consume
time by purchasing devices and installing software as well as paying for new jobs within
the company to handle computerized language (Marnewick, 2017). It also consume lot of
time to train employees to use such kind of software to enter data and use them well for
organisational benefit.
 Excessive dependant on technological devices- With the increase in use of information
system, most of the employees are excessively dependant upon their technology that they
are unable to put their own efforts and ideas to solve any issue or obstacle by them self
without using software. Hence, use of IS increasingly reduces the ability of employees to
innovate new ideas to solve their organisational issues by them self.

QUESTION 3
Summary of key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with
information handling and security
The General Data Protection Regulation is considered to be the most difficult and toughest
security and privacy law in the whole world. It is the European Union law which is made on data
protection and privacy in European Union and European Economic Area. Below is the summary
of the concerns which deals about the ethical, legal and professional implications-
 Ethical- Ethical practice is connected with the values in which it is important that the
employees in the company are behaving in a loyal manner and are making the use of data
which will be useful for the company and are not outsourcing it to another company. The
management of the company must work upon the practices that they have provided the
training to the IT staff as to how they have to work in the condition when the data has
been hacked but with this they must be given some ethical practices in which the
company operates(Avison, Davison, and Malaurent, 2018). The information which has to
be handled must be confidential so that the other competitors in the market cannot use it.
The employees who are being employed in the company must be good with their
intentions because at some point of time it has been seen that the company employs those
people who leak the information to the outside people with which the secrets and
strategies of a company is being used by the other(Pishdad-Bozorgi and et. al., 2018).
 Legal- The legal factor in the business will cover the rules and codes which is helpful in
providing the security and the information system which is used is not related with the
unauthorized access. It is obvious that Walmart is having their own legal standards and
policies which has to be undertaken by the employees so that they can meet the
objectives of a company without any obligations(Wu and Guo, 2021). When the
management of a company will be working on the use of standards and policies then with
that the issues related to the inefficiency in the work and the outcome will not be seen. It
is important for Walmart that the company is working on the legal rules and regulations.
 Professional- It is the rule of every company that their employees will behave
professionally within their organisation which means their organisational interest will put
forward then their personal interest within an organisation (Vallet, 2019). Hence, in
context of Walmart managers, if they share their organisational data to third party for

their personal benefit then it will be considered as unethical practices by them. Hence,
they must work according to their organisation and follow all professional rules and
regulations. The Walmart employees work together by ignoring personal issues to
achieve their organisational goal by handling their customers issue effectively which
further help them to gain high reputation in their served markets. This factor will help the
company to manage their information system in professional manner and help to enter
data on the basis of actual performance of employees in their organisation.
Summary of the report
MIS is the concept where companies collect, manage and control the data of their customers and
employees effectively. Maim aim of MIS is to collect data and arrange them in such a away
which will help the company to sort and find their data rapidly whenever they need. Walmart
company is taken in this report which states that their different kind of stores have different MIS
according to their aim and objectives. It is also analysed that there are different kind of data and
information system like executive support system which is used by senior authority of the
company to make plans and decisions for the organisational growth. Adopting high technological
information system is having advantages and disadvantages both. In context of advantage it
enhance the communication between employees and it create new jobs. On the other hand, it
gain disadvantage by having security issues and expensive devices to install. It is also
summarized that General Data Protection Regulation is consist of saving data by safe and secure
manner of customers and employees so that it can not be leaked for misuse. It should be ethical,
loyal and professional which means the data which is stored by employees should be ethical and
stored in such a way which does not involve discrimination. Hence, true data should be stored
and implemented truly.

CONCLUSION
From the above information it is concluded that managing data and information will help
companies to achieve their goal effectively and solve their most of the organisational issues
effectively. It is concluded that any company can use high technological factors and with
updated software to manage their IS activities effectively. There are various kind of advantages
and disadvantages of using Information System within a company like few of the advantages is
that it help companies to make effective decision for their organisational goal, enhance
communication activities and many others. On the other hand, it has disadvantage of having
security issues, high cost, consume time to train employees and few more. General Data
Protection and Regulation will help the company to keep the personal data of their employees
and customers secure and safe and restrict them to not share such information to third party.
Hence, companies rules and regulations for GDPR practices should be ethical, legal and
professional.

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