Management Information Systems: A Case Study of Walmart

This report provides an overview of Walmart's different business units, including Walmart U.S., Walmart International, Sam's Club, Walmart Neighbourhood Market, Walmart Discount Store, Walmart Super Centres, and its use of technology. It also discusses the role of data warehousing in Walmart and the company's compliance with GDPR data protection regulations. The report highlights the advantages and disadvantages of information systems and provides recommendations for Walmart's technology strategy.

Management
information system

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................3
Different interconnected business units and their dependence of the Walmart..........................3
Different forms of data & the role or responsibility of data warehousing in Walmart.................5
Information about Code of Conduct and the new GDPR Data protection of Walmart.................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management information system is the overall internal control of an organisation covering
an application of documents, technology, peoples and procedure by the management accountable
to solve the business problems related to the product costing, services and a business wide
strategy. It is systematic organisation and the presentation of an information that is required by
organisational management to take better decision for the business. MIS describe different
functions of the activities that include technical process through the evaluation of customers and
employee's relationship, it also involve the interpersonal bonding. The organisation chosen in this
report is Walmart that is a global company and established in 1962. it offer a wide range of the
products and services to their customers in form of convenience shop, hypermarket, super market
and other etc. This report will include the different business units of the respective organisation,
data structure of the warehousing and code of conducts that are related to the legislations , use of
GDPR data protection for the legal, ethical and professional implications (Becker and et. al.,
2021).(Chen and et. al.,2020).
MAIN BODY
Different interconnected business units and their dependence of the Walmart
Walmart is an international company and it offer goods or services in the word through
superstores, hypermarkets, supermarkets and the convenience shop. Walmart spread its around
10566 outlets across the world and having more than annual net income of approximately $13.70
billion. Today, it is this company achieve its heights with the collaborative efforts of
approximately 2300000 workers in its outlets and the head office. There are its different business
units which are given below:
 Walmart U.S.- This is the largest division of Walmart as it manage all stores in 50 states
of United State, Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. This division control all different
aspects of an individual's daily necessities such as entertainment, Hard lines , health,
grocery and other etc. along with the financial services, Walmart offers prepaid cards, bill
payments, money orders and the wire transfers (Cuzzocrea, 2020).
 They also sell licensed and the private label merchandise. It provide the physical access to
its customers in the form of discount stores, super centres and other store formates. Digital

access to the Walmart U.S. Is an array of the merchandise and services to its customers
through mobile applications and e-commerce websites.
 Walmart international- It include around 27 nations where the Walmart store is exist. It
also have some other formate store such as wholesale, retail and many others. It contain
three main categories such as retail, wholesale and others that consist the supermarket,
hypermarket and other super centers. These stores are operating through the joint venture
and other wholly owned subsidiaries. Its all physical stores support the digital access with
with facilitating such as home delivery in Mexico and Click & Collect in United Kingdom.
 Sam's Club- It is the third business unit of Walmart that operates in around 44 states in
U.S. and the Puerto Rico. This unit takes care of the membership only warehouse clubs.
They provide a subscription service to an individual customers as well as the business
owners. Digital access factor in this unit supports to physical clubs and its members that
helps of a utility which is called “Club Pickup.” it offer merchandise in the category of
Grocery and the consumable inclduing dairy, fuel and the other categories consist of tools,
tobacco and gasoline, health and wellness and many others (Freeland, 2020).
 Walmart Neighbourhood market- Walmart store is a series of small grocery store and
started its operations after 10 years from the day of Super centre. Main focus of the
Walmart neighbourhood is on three categories that include pharmacy ,groceries and fuel
stores. Grocery part of the Walmart make nearly 55% of the organisational revenue. Main
purpose of this market is to bridge the gap between its own super centres & discount
stores. Now there are around 683 stores as the Walmart Neighbourhood market and under
this each store used to operate with 90-95 full time as well as part time staff.
 Walmart Discount Store: It is categorized as the discount departments stores that offer
only limited groceries and general merchandise items, garden centre, optical stores, lube &
tire, etc. The idea of discount stores is raised from the surpassing of Supercenters. First
Walmart discount store was established in the Bentonville in 1990. in this year the
company was having a highest number of the discount stores which is around 1,995 but
by the year 2021 it lasts to only 371 (Johne and Wallenburg, 2021).
 Walmart Super centres- These hypermarket stores of Walmart offers those products
that a supermarket offers such as baked goods, frozen foods, dairy products, garden,
products, seafood's, pet shop, pharmacy, optical centre and many others. Walmart's

functioning having its operations around 3,571 stores in most of the states of US. The
supermarket store of Walmart used to sell more than 120,000 products while the online
store sells with more than 35 million products.
 Technology- It is the most essential one of all because this division is essential in all
sectors. It's significance could be neglect form the company's operations, digital
transactions and the technological advancement enhancement of several analytical tools.
Walmart is multinational supermarket ans operating its business with a high level of
technology and machines most especially in their supply chain procedure in order to have a
better functioning & utilization of their resources. Walmart also operates its worldwide
business through indulging technology in it.
Different forms of data & the role or responsibility of data warehousing in Walmart
Walmart is an American multinational retail company which operates a chain of
hypermarkets. The company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas. The founded by the Sam
Walton in 1962. it is the world's largest organisation by its revenue. The company is famous for
offering the different services which is based on their divisional structure. It follows the different
divisional structure which is considered as an important aspect in the operations of the business
enterprise. The organisation is able to facilitate its growth by adopting the different structures and
interconnecting them with each other. As each division execute all together for the better
functioning of the business enterprise. It also follows different infrastructural such as innovations
in the technology, the application of the information system software. The company nis able to
perform better in the activities due to the use of the technology. The task is all interconnected
through the digital platforms which allows the smooth process in transforming information from
one department to the another (Rai and Kumar, 2021). The different stores at different locations
are able to manage all the services and the communication process has becoming more convinient
through the technology. Through the availability of such platforms businesses is able to maintain
the data warehousing for all of the stores. Walmart acts upon the different functions with an
effective way by identifying each technology source which can be utilise in the company. The
company uses various information systems which are explained below:
Executive support system (ESS)- It is a software technology which is designed to
provide the information the internal and external information to the managers of the business
organisation. This can be helpful for the managers for making the best decisions and completing

the other managerial responsibilities which depend on the outside information whether related to
the competitors, customers, stakeholders etc. Walmart adopts this information system in order to
have the information of the inventory and assets the business has in the present situation, which is
highly dependent on the current sales and financial data of the busines enterprise. This information
system is very crucial for the organisation and maintaining the data collection (Saha and Debnath,
2021).
Decision support system (DSS)- This is the most crucial function during the process of
decision making in the difficult situations. This system identifies and analyse the assistance of
information technological tools in order to have the accurate collection of data for the effective
working within the organisation. Also, this covers spread sheets data as well as databases in each
possible outcome with the objective to getting perspective outcome. This structure is adopted by
Walmart in order to project the information as well as enabling to the managers of the company in
the complex situations. So that the managers can use the technology and resolve the issues in the
organisation (Salam. and Bajaba, 2021).
However, all the above mentioned system is highly important for the decision making in
the business organisation and for the retail sector that results in the good decision making and the
operations can be conducted effectively. Therefore, such structures enables the organisational
performance as well as impacts upon mangers potential. As per Walmart, the enterprise shows its
efficiency into the organisation by these functions that enables the improvement areas to
overcome with certain abilities of the departments. The company Walmart can think of profitable
operations by its technological innovation through utilizing technological information software as
well as hardware that provides a new experience to its customers into technology or digital
transformation of tools. These business organisation have an advantage of maximizing profits.
The current information system implemented by Walmart
As the Walmart is the billion dollar retail company and gas grown so rapidly in the past five
decades. The company has incorporated the different types of information system into the day to
day business activities. The business organisation is well known for its innovations when it comes
to adopting the new latest technology and information system to maximize their profitability. The
company has implemented radio frequency identification (RFID). This technology allows the

company to have the smooth functioning as they are capable of sending and receiving the real time
data to the networks. This information system help the suppliers producers, manufacturers and
other logistic department in sharing the other information which is related to the inventory and
delivery the products and services (Selzer, 2021).
Recommendation
The management associated with the information systems need to have better customer
satisfaction by specialising their knowledge and understanding the business operations and
activities. The company can adopt the other information system such as DSS, KMS and ESS
which is highly significant because of their accuracy of the information which is given to the
organisation. This can lead the business to the higher level of growth. The Walmart need to focus
on the strategical aspects which is qualitative and quantitative process (Thomke, 2020).
Technology strategy to enable big data strategy
The big data strategy is considered as the most important technological strategy for the
business organisation. It allows the enterprise to collect the information which is useful for the
managers and the economy. As Walmart has the huge amount of data which can be utilised in
their growth strategy and how the company can develop and innovate its process. The company
has experts which can identify this collected data into the simple form. This technology helps the
organisation in identifying the several opportunities by which the company can expand and
develop its products and services.
Advantages and disadvantages of information system
Advantage
Openness- The aspect of the information system allows the business organisation to access it 24*7
services for the company's customer and as well as for the delivering processes. This technology
has benefited the organisations in developing to the new strategies and identifying the market
trends (Wiesböck, Hess and Spanjol, 2020).
Disadvantage- The information system has security issues as these software are complicated and
there is a risk of hackers which can misuse the information and the important data of the
organisation. The websites or the data collected can be hacked. The organisation need to have the
strong privacy in terms of this data because it contains the important data of the customers.

Information about Code of Conduct and the new GDPR Data protection of Walmart
GDPR means, General Data Protection Legislations, it govern those way in which an
individual can use , process and can store personal data such as living person and information
about an identifiable. Its guidelines are formulated to provide the protection and the insurance for
essentials informations. GDPR protect and an individual form misuse of their informations about
them and also ensure that every employees can understand their own obli9gations or rights under
the data protection law. It helps the organisations to protect their personal data against an
unauthorised access and also enhance the privacy of these data (Kiesow Cortez, 2020). GDPR
implements to all the business organisation in Europe whose supplying the goods and services to
the Europe. In context of Walmart, there are GDPR data protection legislations with key concern
about the ethical, legal and the professional implication are given below:
 Ethics- Walmart manage their ethical issues by setting up ethics and compliance programs
foundations by including to have the right program structure, training associates on the
compliance, develop standards and control in order to maintain the compliance and
monitoring or controlling to responding the issues. The employees of walmart, have to
check every software which is used by the company, it shows that they are accountable for
their work and if there any vulnerabilities or weakness then it can be solved effectively. In
order to prevent the situation to become worse, the authorities should be informed if there
is any problem so that it can be handled. If any software is obtained in the ethical way and
then create a problem. It will create a big hinder in the overall performance of the
organisation there can be the risk of security. walmart collaborate with others in order to
drive a positive change across the global supply chain. Their sustainability efforts focus to
prioritize peoples and the planet by the aim of sell sustainable products, sources
responsible, protect and restore the natural resources and also reduce the emission. It treat
the peoples with respect and put their customers first as they strive for an excellence and
work with integrity. The values are their legacy and they shaped the respective company
for more than half century. Now day's walmart strives as to be most trusted retailer, they
are more committed than ever to doing a business in right way. Hence, it is essential that
the walmart follows ethics within the organisation. If it work according to its ethics the is

will always beneficial and successful. They can also satisfy their customers and fulfil the
government's requirements (Loetpipatwanich and Vichitthamaros, 2020).
 Legal- The GDPR 2016/679 is that regulation which is presented in EU laws. It helps to
address the information which is used to deliver the operations outside EU and EEA. The
GDPR rights are for individuals such as right to be informed,right to erasure, right of
access, right to restrict processing, right to rectification and also right around the
automated decision making. In Walmart, this types of practices does not take the place
with client's prior permissions because to share the information it need to the permission
of respective clients. If there is such type of activities, then it can create a big problem for
the company with negative impacts. Walmart do not rent or sell a client's personal
information, in case of when the business is merged and sold. They may share client's
personal information with co0mpanies that offers a co-branded product and services like
their co-branded credit card. For the purpose of California law, they may share the
personal information with these parties, except for biometric information, government
information and the background or criminal information. By careful except lly following
the regulations, it become very easy to complete the given task and it is very beneficial for
them to work legally. These kind of laws are very essential and need to follow up as the
confidential information of the company need to be safe and secure (Martinez, 2021).
 Professional- It is required by any organisation to behave professionally and it is a set of
the competencies and behaviour that define the professionalism for the health care
organisations. Walmart, maintain the professionalism as it never share the personal
information to clients to anyone. For the company and it's employees, it is very essential
that they keep maintain the confidentiality because clients trust them very much and on the
basis of this trust they share their personal information with the company. Walmart also
maintain the integrity during the work and maintain their relation with clients that helps
them to increase trust and create a good brand image in the markets. all the rules,
regulations and working with the professionalism means adhering to privacy, integrity,
confidentiality, and transparency concepts of the information's security. The
professionalism leads to company's success, strong reputation and high level of the work
ethics with excellence. Thus, it is desirable by the workers to follow up the rules and

maintain a professionalism during working as they are working with company (Posdorfer,
Kalinowski and Bornholdt, 2021).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that, there is an interconnection between several
business units of an organisation. The financial institutes gets advantages as it help in improving
financial performance of an organisation. There are various data and the big data play a vital role
in the company's operating activities. It has its own advantage and disadvantage in the respect of
given company. Data warehousing is very essential in the functioning of a company s all the
important information are gathered there and it need to be kept very confidential in order to gain
the client's trust. The GDPR data protection regulation is a critical piece of the regulations. It is
very essential steps as it protect the data and introduce potential regulatory bodies. It include the
company's ethics, and professionalism to protect the client's information by its misuse and
accomplish its operation effectively. So, it is very significant that an organisation should be
careful regarding the customer's or client's personal information to run their business efficiently
and build a good reputed brand image in the market.

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