BUS4002 Management Information Systems Report - Walmart and Amazon

This report provides a detailed analysis of Walmart's Management Information Systems (MIS), focusing on the interconnection of its various business units, data flow, and organizational structure. It describes the different forms of data used by Walmart, the role of data warehousing, and evaluates the current information systems. The report also addresses ethical, legal, and professional implications associated with information handling and security within Walmart. Furthermore, it includes recommendations to the board of directors regarding big data solutions and proposes a solution in response to Amazon's strategy, outlining its advantages and disadvantages. The analysis covers Walmart's hierarchical organizational structure, data flow diagrams, and the rationale behind choosing these structures, along with a discussion of the technologies and processes used within the company's IT infrastructure.

Management
Information Systems

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
Describe how the different business units of Walmart are interconnected............................3
Organisation chart to represent the dependence of each of the business units to each other. 4
Data flow diagrams to represent the direction of data flows within the organisation............5
Reasons behind choosing structure of organizational chart...................................................6
Reasons behind choosing structure of data flow diagrams....................................................7
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Describe the different forms of data in Walmart....................................................................7
Role of data warehousing in Walmart....................................................................................8
Evaluate the current Information Systems.............................................................................9
Recommendations to the board of directors about big data solutions....................................9
Description of the proposed solution with advantages and disadvantages of the system in
response to Amazon’s strategy.............................................................................................10
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................10
Key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with information
handling and security in Walmart.........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Management information system can be defined as the study of technology and people in
which they are working with the aim of having their relationships. With the use of such systems,
organisation which is having the assistance with the use of such equipment in their operations. It
is related to the humans that also emphasis on having the better results in the marketplace
through the certain technology(Alsharari, 2021). It also use the strategic decisions so that they
can properly coordinate with the technologies with better services. It also access the further
strategic decisions making by which they can coordinate with the information within the
organisation. It is helpful in every department that includes human resource, research and
development, information technology, finance etc. This respective report is based on the case
study that is Walmart ad Amazon. Walmart is the leading company which is established in
United States. Currently, they are operating over 4700 retail store across the globe and
generating the revenue of more than 510 Billion U.S. Dollars. Whereas Amazon is the fresh
forward looking plan which is also called Amazon Go convenient stores where consumer can
rightly pick up items and walk out of the items that are easily check by the cashier. This report
will provide the forms of data and its diagram with justification. This also analyse the ethical,
legal and professional implications of security with proper conclusion.
Task 1
Describe how the different business units of Walmart are interconnected.
There are various business unit of Walmart that are interconnected to each other. There
are certain business that are considered as the various department of the company which includes
the finance, human resource, sales, marketing which is commonly followed by the information
technology unit and their certain operations. All these units work together. For example, sales
and marketing department are interconnected to each other such as marketer make the
advertising activities and distribution channels so that they can easily contact to the potential
customers. On same side human resource unit is connected with the staff as if they will not hire
the deserving and having certain consideration to have the higher business growth in the market.
Similarly the human resource department is lined with other units because if the specialised staff
is not being hired by the talented people so this hurdle the overall functionality of the business
and its operations. Finance department is interconnected with the marketing unit as it set the

budget for conducting advertisement and promotional task so finance department have to take
care above the certain expenses in order to have better results within the organisation with full
effectiveness. Information technology unit manage all the information system of every
department for recording their huge data in the particular database system for having effective
analysis and interpretation of the information in the given field. These are the ways by which
business unit of Walmart are lined their each department to each other.
Organisation chart to represent the dependence of each of the business units to each other
Organisational chart is the represented format of various business units of Walmart and
their interconnection. They are using hierarchical organisational structure which start with the
president, chief executive officer in the store of Walmart are considered. In second level of
hierarchy, the President and chief executive officer of Walmart United States. Further, Sam's
club, global e-commerce and new technology is being included. These all department is having
certain business that are previously discussed and they are interconnected with each other.
Moreover, they are further divided into planning and framing policy, geographical information
and general services and the data monitoring of geographical national. This respective
information is basically used by the organsaition so that they can have proper follow-up of
hierarchical structure.

Data flow diagrams to represent the direction of data flows within the organisation
Data flow diagram is shows the direction of the information and data is flowing within
the organisation. Departments that are included in the procedure of data flow are the shopping
card and warehousing in the particular location and customer can easily reach by searching the
given item and the proper shopping list. There is the website of Walmart consists of all the other
elements by which all the data can reach to the right place. Internal business units includes all
such elements in Walmart for having better experience for execution of the certain functions to
assists the customer to order have the online.
Information flow within the organizational structure is demonstrated and they make the
decisions as per the levels of management and their rights on the organization. Strategic level of
hierarchy makes the decisions based on the technology decisions, capacity decisions, facilities
decisions and vertical integration. Tactical level of hierarchy makes the decisions based on the
parameters for measurement of performance, resource management decisions, manpower
planning and technical based decisions. Operational level of hierarchy makes the decisions based
on the execution areas that is the client dealing and direct interaction with the customers.

Reasons behind choosing structure of organizational chart
Walmart is operating their business in hierarchical organisational structure, the main
consideration is that the structure is showing the clear lines of give authority and accountability
within the organisation. They are giving proper and clear understanding for having the easy flow
of actions and decision making in different management levels. Furthermore, it also helps in
having the easy flow of services and decisions making in different level of management. It also
support the career path and further development aspects that can influence and motivate
employees. This is also leading to have the better results within the organisation by giving
various employment opportunities to the employees so that they can be expertise in their
particular domain. Additionally, It is ensuring the effective supervision of the employees so tat al
the working can be managed and controlled. It also assist the culture of loyalty fr the team and
the business units within the company as a whole.

Reasons behind choosing structure of data flow diagrams
Data flow is used by the Walmart is online method and the main reason foe this is having
the easy flow of information in order to understand the limits of the system in the form of
graphical representation so that everyone can understand and helps to visualize the data well as
per the specification within the organisation. The structure diagram is being used by the
Walmart shows the detailed and properly explained data of various systems that are the part of
the system documentation file. Furthermore, it is the basis of the flow diagram which needs to
be done by the technical person but also have the non technical person which can be understand
the data flow in the organisation as they have to given any data that can be used by the business t
figure out the flow of data.
There are various components which are used in the process and the functions of
information technology within Walmart such as basic technology, networking,
intercommunication media, people and processes. Current technology used within Walmart is the
basic information systems which helps in the decision making process and supports all the
activities of the business. Type of network used in the company is the WAN that is the wide area
network because organizations operates internationally and therefore, global connections are
required. Intercommunication media used by Walmart is the intranet framework and private links
so that communications can be done on an internal basis. There are expertise which are hired by
the company from the field of information technology and security systems for better
implementing and maintaining the technical systems within the firm. Process involved in
Walmart of IT is the installing of the security systems so that the information systems used by
Walmart can be secure from any cybercrime in order to protect the private and important data.
Task 2
Describe the different forms of data in Walmart
There are various forms of information and data which is being used by Walmart for
analysing the data and the interpretation for having the effective strategic decisions for the
consideration of future. Walmart using 200 sources of data and its business that includes the
Telecom data and social data in the social media and economic data that is commonly used by
the meteorological data. Moreover, Gas prices and local event also used in the forms of the
transactional data. This helps in the proper functioning of Walmart and other type of data that is

basically is having qualitative and quantitative data use by Walmart. For instance, qualitative
data includes ordinal and normal data. Nominal data is commonly helps in recording which is
showing gender or the particular purchasing power of the buyer. On other hand, Ordinal data are
basically the data that also gives the grades for examples for medium and low. Quantitative data
involves the discrete the data and the continuous data. It is also showing the number that is
concerned with the large number of workers and suppliers. Continuous data also shown the
various example the speedy operational techniques and its rate of recovery. All these aspects
includes the various forms of data which is accessed by the Walmart in their day to day functions
and the overall working in different organisation.
Role of data warehousing in Walmart
The role of data warehousing is the positive and essential foe the basic and in-depths
functioning within the company. Data warehouse helps the business to sponsorship of the
different Walmart as it records the information or the data in order to analyse the market
conditions and the sponsorship is required to includes in which type of companies. System
sponsorship is also the basis which is related to the responsibility of the person to the list of their
requirements of the systems and also analyse the data warehousing in which the past data is
already available and meeting the different requirements of the business. This also helps in
having the previous data which is already stored for the better interpretation of it. Data
Warehousing facilities helps in having proper coordination which is also responsible for
analysing data which is commonly used by the companies so that they can understand the the
future consideration which can be made as per the proper coordination is being conducted in the
Walmart. It further helps in the training and education of the employees with effective
documentation of them. Moreover, It will analyse the data warehousing services the
administration of data and architecture of data with the proper repository by which company can
rightly analyse the requirements of the business and that are commonly followed by the data
modeling. Data warehousing also helps in selecting the infrastructure of the certain methods and
the tools which can be modified and further used with their physical development of warehouse
tables. This also leads to have the extraction and the transformation schemes of Walmart. In
consideration to this, warehousing helps in connecting effective environmental connectivity and
physical access also the security of the information system so that they can easily solves the data

and complex queries of warehouse users. Data warehousing also support the testing component
integrated ans with the data loading by having proper execution of their queries.
Evaluate the current Information Systems
In consideration to Walmart, current information system is use by them for having proper
interactions with the employees so that they have the higher functionality and productivity in the
company. Customer relationship management is the major information system that is commonly
used by the Walmart. It is also related to the customer relationship management which is
having the information system that is used by the Walmart. It s the basic information system that
helps in the management of long-term customer relationship towards the loyalty of their
customers. Software record is the big data and also leads to have the effective analysis of the
aspects to the targeted customer as per their needs and wants. Supply chain management system
also use for the distribution by which they can easily use the electronic data and interchange
within the organisation.
Recommendations to the board of directors about big data solutions
There are certain ways by which Walmart can have the effective use of their big data
within the organisation and they can use it for the effective and improving the stock check along
with the management of the aspects which is having the effective consideration and commonly
used by the business. This also helps in their personalised shopping experience by their potential
customers. Commendations to the board of the directors is that they can have the big data
solutions in Walmart and they must sue the Apache Hadoop software for big data accessing so
that they can helps in having the good innovation with the complete picture. It also helps in the
increment of revenue which can increase the sales the in the business which also detect the
overall functionality of the business and also detect fraud from any cyber crime. Furthermore, the
Apache Hadoop s the data which can be accessed which also leads to have the higher
profitability. It also performs the centralised management and the file system which also includes
the programming framework with the storage support and the extended attributes. It also have
the features and benefits Walmart is given with the use of use of Apache Hadoop in the
consideration of big data files in the market.

Description of the proposed solution with advantages and disadvantages of the system in
response to Amazon’s strategy
It is recommended for the Walmart to have proposed solution is Apache Hadoop. When
analyse the strategy of Amazon. Apache Hadoop is having their advantage and disadvantages.
Certain benefits for the business is that this is the same strategy for the Amazon which easy to
sue their services so that they can rightly have positive response for their customer and the
customer service team. On other is the major disadvantage is that only batch processing is being
allowed in the cyclic and not having the efficient data for the further process. This not anyway
right as they are using the data encryption and the level of networks which makes difficult to
maintain.
Data forms discussed above used in Walmart in the form of recording of the information
of customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders, vendors and competitors. These are the types
of data forms which are recorded in qualitative and quantitative manner. Walmart has the large
amount of data in the form of big data which is managed with the help of business intelligence
tools that is the Apache Hadoop. These are the data which is processed with the help of
management information systems into the useful information which helps in the decision making
within organization.
Task 3
Key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with information
handling and security in Walmart
The Walmart code of conduct published latest in 2021 and this have replaced the formal
statement of ethics and the internal policy and the external statement that also includes the values
and the principles with the expected behaviour of the person so that they can have the better
approach in the market which is also leading to have the association of organisation and its
subsidiaries along with the board members. Code of conduct included the expectations which is
ethical decisions making and the certain conflicts along with the restrictions use of private
information and safeguard them in an appropriate manner. Walmart is releasing that new version
of 20 ethics and the certain alliances in 2020 and 2021. It covers the topics such as the financial
services which is related to the discrimination of the certain aspects of the company with the
trade compliances. Walmart is having the certain aspects which is the having effective code of

conduct in consideration to its suppliers. Further, It also includes the food and product safety
along with the trade and effective compliances with the sanctions. It also includes the conflicts
and the fair trade trade policy which is the key for the Walmart is having key concern on
cultivating a culture of integrity and established the effective power and ethics and compliances
issues. Code of conduct helps in developing and implementing the accessible training material
so that they can have the container risk associated with this and this also helps in the training
materials. There are different ethical and legal issues which this specific profession and locations
with the information that is handling and securing the Walmart. It also involves the personal
privacy which is related to the information and intellectual property. With the cyber security and
the cyber crime that is being followed by the digital divisions. The top issues are the ransom and
malware which also impact the devices until they are having the effective working as per the
overall functionality of the organisation. Hackers can attack in the form which is impacting the
overall computing and the certain functionality until the sum of money is being pad to the
hacker. They can take the personal information of the company and leak them to the various
social domains in the world which is leading to have the certain consideration of misuse of the
data. Cloud threat is the issues in which company is saving their all their personal information in
the internet with full security but some how some of the hacker get this information and break
the security and access all the data which leads t have data loss. It is mania consideration in
which they are having the social engineering and it can done with the help of email and phones
calls. All these issues can be solved by having security culture within the organisation so that all
the data can be rightly managed and kept.
General data protection regulation act 2018 contains various strict laws and rules to use
and protect the data and prevent from major losses and breaches. There are seven principles of
GDPR 2018 such as first is lawfulness, fairness and transparency, second is purpose limitation,
third is data minimization, fourth is accuracy, fifth is storage limitations, sixth is integrity and
confidentiality and seventh is accountability. All these are the principles which are used while
implementing the GDPR act on the big data within Walmart.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is concluded that management information is the significant
aspects to learn and so that all the application can be applied in the real world. This is due to the
higher proper support as the minor functionality of the companies which are giving comfortable

and effective working. Therefore, It is necessary to analyse the various business unit that are
linked together so that they can have the effective working within the organisation and all the
information is being circulated among all the employees. It is having the different business units
which is having various business unites so that they can rightly handled and managed. It is
significant to have the sufficient knowledge for choosing the structure of the organisational chart
which shows the overall functionality. Lastly it is analysed that it is having the certain
consideration of the data which is having the proper evaluation as the current information
system. Thus the report is having the all the areas in order to understand the conception of
management information system.

REFERENCES
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