MIS in Walmart: Interconnected Units, Data Management & Ethical Issues

This report provides an overview of Walmart's Management Information System (MIS), focusing on the interrelation of its various business units, including Walmart discount stores, supercenters, and neighborhood markets. It examines different forms of data used by Walmart and the role of data warehousing in managing this information, including the use of executive support systems and decision support systems. The report also evaluates Walmart's current IS using approaches like CAMELS and API models, and recommends strategies for improving data storage and warehousing, such as cloud storage. Finally, it summarizes key ethical, legal, and professional concerns related to information handling and security within the organization.

Management
Information System

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..............................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Management information system is related to those system which is used by many business
organisation for their decision making and for the control, analysing and visualisation of
information in the organisation. There is a serious growth is seen in this concept as the
development of technology take place in environment (Bak and Mill, 2020). The main aim of
management information system is to gather the information from different sources in relation to
the needs and preference of customer from the market and used in organisation to develop the
product according to them. The management information system helps the higher level
management to take effective decisions for the business on the basis of the information collected.
The organisation which is chosen here to demonstrate this report is Walmart. This report states
the discussion related to the interrelation of different business units of Walmart with each other.
It also included different forms of data and and the roles& responsibilities of data warehousing
of Walmart. It also incudes Summary of key concerns about ethical, legal and professional
implications associated with information handling and security.
About the company
Walmart is an American multinational organisation which deals in retail sector of the country. It
operates different hypermarkets, discount stores and retail stores. The headquarter of the
company are located in Bentonville, Arkansas. The company was founded by Sam Walton in trh
year 1962.
Question-1
Describe how the business units of Walmart are interconnected
Walmart is one of the biggest organisation of the world which are having more than
11000 stores operates in different countries of the world. It is regarded as the biggest company
of the world in term of revenue by the fortune list 2020. The management of Walmart operates
large number of hypermarkets, grocery stores and discount stores in all over the world. One of
the main reason for the success of these stores is their interrelation and this can be possible by
the efforts and handwork of the management of the organisation.
The business of the organisation are spread in different countries of the world which
provided huge number of customer to the company. This huge customer base priovide
tremendous data to the organisation which is required to be manage. This data are managed with

the help of information management system. This concept different department of Walmart to
use this data for the betterment of the business. The main aim of the company is to provide the
product to their customers at low prices which is only possible on the basis of cost advantage.
The main reason for the cost advantage of company is the interrelation of their different business
units and the brief discussion related to the same are given below:
Walmart discount store- It is one of the most important and attractive business store of
Walmart is their discount stores which are operates in different countries of the world. There are
different types of walmart stores which differs from their size, the range of size are 30,000 to
2,21,000 square feet of area (Beynon-Davies, 2019). The concept behind this stores is to provide
different types of products to their customers on heavy discounts to gain the loyalty of the
customers. This concept of the organisation become success on the basis of cost minimisation.
The management of the company uses modern and advance technology so that the cost of the
products can be low and company becomes able to provide them in lower prices. This can be
possible by the effective interrelation of the this business unit with the production and marketing
department of the organisation.
Walmart supercenter- It is an important business unit of the Walmart because of revenue
generation. This business unit of the company are different from other units in comparison to
their size which is 69,000 to 2,60,000 square feet. The size of this department is more than the
discount stores, as the company offers multiple range of products to their customers from these
hypermarkets. The product which sell under these hypermarkets are baked food, sea foods,
frozen food and many more. There are also some hyper markets are present by organisation
where they provide pharmacy and garden center. The management of Walmart decided to add
the Mc donald in their supermarkets but this decision are taken back in the year 2007 when the
subways replaces them. Walmart sells more than 100000 products in their hypermarkets in
comparison to their online market which operates more than 30 million products. The
management of Walmart develop effective communication in these department which helps the
supermarket to mobilise the data to their head departments.
Walmart neighbourhood market- These stores are introduced by the company in the year 2010
with an aim to provide different product range in comparison to other stores of the company.
These stores are generally small in term of size and product as compared to the super markets of
the Walmart. The main focus of the organisation is are based on grocery, pharmacy and fuels.

All the three category of the products provides considerable revenue to the organisation such as
grocery provides 55 percent of the total company revenue. The prices of the product which are
provided in these stores same as the prices are offered in super markets of the company.
Infrastructure- The major role played in the efficiency and effectiveness of the organisation are
based on the infrastructure of the company. It is very important for the expansion of the company
to have huge areas for the performance of different business functions such as production, selling
and many more with the organisation (Haldorai and Ramu, 2020). One of the most important
feature of the Walmart is their effective infrastructure which enables the organisation to perform
all their functions effectively without any problem. The effective infrastructure of the company
helps the management to properly allocates the resources in different business units. It is the
feature of the company that they develop considerable infrastructure before setting the any store
in any particular area.
QUESTION 2
Different forms of data & the role or responsibility of data warehousing in Walmart
Walmart is one of the most biggest organisation of the world which are having multiple
product range which they provide from their different markets to all over the world. Currently
the organisation maintains huge amount of data which is related to their employees and
customer. It is very important for the management of company to develop effective storage for
this data because of their importance. The management of walmart develops different section in
their organisation which helps to maintain this data and the brief discussion related to these are
given below.
Executive support system- It is one ,of the most important and useful system which the
management of company used to manage the data in their organisation. Under this system, the
executives of the company prepares effective strategies for the controlling and handling of data
related to different business functions such as inventory, production, sales and marketing. This
system of data helps the management of Walmart to manage the data related to the daily
activities of the business.
Decision support system- It is related to those system which is developed for the management
of organisation under which the executives can take decision related to any aspect effectively.
Under this system, the managers of company used computerised software which are having the

data related to previous performance of the company such as sales data, revenue data and many
more. The automated computer system use this data and provides considerable judgement related
to the future trends and level of production should be maintained. In context of Walmart the
management of the organisation use this system to solve those problems which are arises in the
organisation again and again and also helps them to manage the tremendous data present in the
organisation.
Evaluation of current IS at Walmart- One of the most attractive approach which the
management of Walmart used in their organisation is CAMELS approach. It is modern approach
which is used by many business organisation for the management of their data. The concept
behind this approach is capital adequacy, earnings of company, and various sensitive factors.
There is one another model are there which is used by company is API model (Land, 2018). This
model is used by those organisations which are big in size and has include huge amount of data
and information. One of the feature of his system that the data of the company are updates
automatically on regular basis.
Recommendations One of the most important and useful recommendation to the management of Walmart
they use those methods of data storage and warehousing which arecv favourable for their
customers as well as different stakeholders of the company. It is the duty of managers of
the organisation to analyse the needs and preference of the customer from the market inn
relation to the data access and their storage and then develop the technology which
satisfies these needs and preference. The system or method used should have easy access
and storage of data by the customers as well as employees of the organisation. It is not possible in the big organisation like Walmart that the company have only same
kind of information and data. There are different types of data are present such as
quantitative and qualitative. It is recommended to the management of Walmart that they
provide equal focus on management of both types of data. It is the duty of the managers
that they summarise these data in systematic manner and according to the nature of data.
 It is very important for the effective usage of the data and information that each and
every piece of data are recorded and summarised, not a single piece of data remains to be
unrecorded because it makes very difficulty to the managers. It is recommended to the

Walmart that they update the data arises in the organisation on daily basis so that it can
be used effectively. The systematic handling and controlling of the data in the organisation are depend upon
the skills and management qualities of the employees. It is recommended to the
management of the Walmart that they employees those employees in the process of data
handling and management which are having superior skills of management and
technology.
Technology strategy to enable big data strategy
The development of technology and digital methods provided great methods and
strategies to the business organisation for the performance of their business processes. In the
present time most of the organisations used new and advanced technology in different business
functions such as production , marketing and information storage and handling. It is the duty of
the managers of the organisation to use creative and innovative methods in their organisation
and use then to make the management of data in organisation effectively (Li and Guldenmund,
2018). There are many software and applications are developed in the market which can be used
by the organisation to maintain huge amount of data and information. The usage of new and
advanced technology not only helps the organisation to manage their data but also helps them to
attract new customers from the market. In context of Walmart, there is a new technology in the
market called cloud storage which can be used by the management in the organisation. One of
the main advantage of this system is that it provides online storage to the organisation and also
makes able to access the data from all over the world with the help of genuine authentication.
Advantages of Information System-
The information system which the management of organisation used in their business process
provided many advantage because it enable the company to forecast the future trend and
analyses and the brief discussion related to the same are given below. Enhance communication activities- The information system used in the management of
data and information in the organisation helps the managers to enhance the communication
in company. These information system enables the employees of the organisation to interact
with each other with the help of messaging and other effective communication channels in
the organisation.

 Creation of new jobs- The methods which is used by the management of Walmart for
handling their data and information has include different computerised activities which
requires workforce. This information system generates large number of jobs and
employment. Helps to make effective decisions- The information system uses the previous data and
information of the organisation and forecast the future trends and levels which helps the
management to set the goals and objectives for their business.
Disadvantages of information system-
It is not possible that any concept has only positive aspect or advantage, there is a possibility that
they have negative impacts. The brief discussion related to the disadvantage information system
are given below:
 Security issues- One of the most important and dangerous disadvantage of these
technological information system is their security issues. All the information which are
stored by the company are maintained in online storage of these systems and there are
many hackers and cyber attackers are present which can assess this data and use them for
negative purpose (Markus and Rowe, 2018). It is recommended to the management of
Walmart that they develop effective online safety measures in their organisation so that
important information remains safe.
 Implementation expenses- The organisation which acquire modern and advanced
technology for the storage of their data and information required huge capital which
makes negative impact on the balance sheet of the organisation. In context of Walmart,
the balance sheet of organisation has huge amount of funds which enables the organisatio
to acquire this technology.
 Excessive dependant on technological devices- One of the common disadvantage of
these online software that the dependency of company on technology are increased by
high level and sometimes the employees may face difficulty in access the information if
there is any defect in the machinery.

Question-3
Summary of key concerns about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with
information handling and security
There are many factors which the management of the organisation has to consider in their
handling and control of data and information in the organisation. There are many rules and
regulations which the government of respected country provided to their business organisations
for the protection of rights. The General Data Protection Regulation is regarded as 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.
 Ethical- It is related to those values and practises which is conducted by the employees
of the organisation in term of their positive behaviour towards other persons and activity
of the organisation. It is the duty of the managers of the organisation that they does not
leak the information of the company to any outsider or rival organisation (Singh, 2019).
It is the duty of the managers of the organisation that they develop effective information
technology team which has quality of being working in ethical way in the organisation
and make sure the proper ethical practise are followed by them or not. It is recommended
to the management of Walmart that they followed all the rules and regulation which are
regarded as ethical in data management and handling. It is very important for the ethical
promotion in the organisation that the employees working in the organisation has clear
and positive mind set towards the data and information because if they have any negative
thought in their mind then they create many difficulties for the management.
 Legal- There are many legal rules and regulation which are developed by the government
of respected country to be followed by the organisation in relation to the data handling
and management. These rules and regulations are formed for the protection of customers
information from the negative and mal practise of organisation as well as their
employees. The information collected by the organisation are also includes the personal
information and banking information of the customers which can be used by any hacker
and take advantage of it. It is the duty of the managers of the organisation to implement
these rules and regulation in their organisation so that the risk of data theft can be
minimised. In context of the Walmart, company develops various standards and policies

on the basis of government regulation which the employees follow in data handling and
management in the business processes.
 Professional- It is very import for the organisation to achieve the success in their
business that their employees behave professionally in the organisation. It is the duty of
the human resource management of the organisation that they provide training related to
the professionalism in new employees joining the organisation.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that the business units of Walmart are interconnected and also
conclude the different forms of data & the role or responsibility of data warehousing in Walmart.
(Vom Brocke and Mendling, 2018) The brief discussion related to the summary of key concerns
about ethical, legal and professional implications associated with information handling and
security are concluded in this report

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