Wal-Mart Resources

The technology helps the Walmart in the reduction of the cost and the Walmart provide the efficient services

The author is pleased to have brought you this case study about Walmart Stores Inc. From the organisational profile of the company, the magnitude of Walmart was revealed since it basically operates all over the globe with a number of stores in different variety. The retailing Giants carry a vast array of products to cater for all customers. In terms of Walmart’s vision and mission statements - the company endeavours to sell at very economical prices while being as efficient as possible in terms of expenditure. In terms of the literature review that was undertaken, this emphasised Walmart’s direction in comparison to that of Target Corporation and Costco Wholesale Corporation. From this, an appreciation was gathered that Walmart’s offerings

Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world and handles more than one million customer transactions every hour and generates more than 2.5 petabytes of data storage (Venkatraman & Brooks, 2012). To put this into perspective, this data is equivalent to 167 times the number of books in America’s Library of Congress (Venkatraman & Brooks, 2012). So how can Wal-Mart use this massive amount of data and what useful information can this data provide? This paper will provide a brief overview of the importance of Business Intelligence (BI) and how the largest retailer in world, Walmart, is using it.

Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer operating over 11,000 retail units under 71 banners in 27 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries (Wal-Mart, 2014). It employs 2.2 million associates around the world — 1.3 million in the U.S. alone. Since the first Wal-Mart store opened in 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas, Sam Walton expanded nationally to 51 stores with recorded annual sales of $78 million by 1972 when Wal-Mart was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (WMT). After a decade of several firsts, Wal-Mart reached $1 billion in annual sales in 1980, faster than any other company at that time. By 1990, Walmart became the nation 's number-one retailer. As the Wal-Mart Supercenter redefined convenience and

Wal-Mart's resourcefulness is widely shown in their in-bound logistics. Wal-Mart's satellite network is the largest private satellite communication system in the United States, this along with its strategic locations for their distribution centers have given them another competitive edge. Unlike other competitors who house less than half of their inventory in distribution centers, Wal-Mart houses over 80 percent in their distribution center; this purpose being more sales space for the stores and 100 percent in-stock position. To cut

First and most important thing about Wal-Mart’s information system is precisely that the customer’s needs come first. Wal-Mart had implemented a satellite network system that was used to share information between the company's network of stores, distribution centers and suppliers so orders could be consolidated, enabling the company to buy full truckloads without incurring excess inventory costs. Increase flexibility, insured 100 percent in-stock position increased store-selling space (by reducing the space required for back-room inventory storage).

Wal-Mart creates the technology behind their ecommerce called @WalmartLabs. It is the strategy that Wal-Mart uses to improve their shopping experience for their customers. @WalmartLabs redefines ecommerce for Wal-Mart in order to help their customers to save money and live better by personalizing data. It helps them to better understand their customers both online and in-store. Their job includes mainly operating the Wal-Mart Mobile. 6

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the largest retail company in the United States. Their corporate strategy is four parts: Dominance in the retail market, expansion in the U.S. and International markets, creation of positive brand and company recognition and branch out into new sectors of retail.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Walmart) is an American multinational retail corporation that runs chains of large discount department stores and warehouse stores. The Company is headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas and has been in operation over the last 52 years. Currently, it has expanded to about 27 countries with over 11,000 stores worldwide (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2014d). According to 2014’s Fortune Global 500 listing, Walmart is considered as the world's largest public corporation and ranks as well as the biggest private employer in the world with over two million employees on top of being the largest retailer in the world (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 2014a).

Different tasks are included in the value chain process of the Walmart. Primary and secondary activities of Walmart are considered in the value chain process. The primary activities include the essential process of the Walmart whereas the secondary activities provides support to the secondary activities. In the primary activities, all the main process has shown, where as in the secondary activities all the supporting actions in the primary activities are evaluated (van Duijn et.al, 2016).

Wal-Mart had a contract with a third party procurement firm in Asia. The firm used suppliers that would mark-up merchandise and resell that merchandise to Wal-Mart. The company has reduced costs, lead times, and eliminated the middleman mark-ups. In 2002, Wal-Mart began to buy directly from the manufacturer to procure a better price. According to Stundza, (2006), “ Wal-Mart has global procurement and supplier alignment teams responsible for identifying new suppliers, sourcing new products, building partnerships with existing suppliers, and managing the global supply chain of Wal-Mart’s direct imports.”

In 1969, Wal-Mart installed the first computer to track the inventory. In early 1980’s, they also created an internal satellite network, which can help to transfer the information of sales data to different stores. Over many years, Wal-Mart keeps investing heavily in information technology. One of the investments is the Retail Link system, which is a bridge between Wal-Mart and its vendors. Also it is a decision support system in order for their suppliers to make the most informed mutually beneficial decisions.

The company also uses WebMethod Integration platform which is also known as Software AG, helps them in cost effectiveness and reduce duplication of within the Woolworths’ IT system. The company has invested more money in its supply chain development program by bringing in Business Process Management (BPM) capabilities (Reuters 2009). In 2005 Woolworths became a major competitor to local supermarkets. The company hire “ECN Group” which are specialised in providing integration and messaging solutions that enable business to electronically manage and exchange a broad range of information flows across their organisations (The ECN Group 2009). ECN’s key focus is inside the supply chain and logistic of Retailer and Suppliers market. Events across supply chain impact on every business and the ability to meet customer’s anticipation. ECN helps Woolworths to obtain visibility of and mange these events which eventually lead to gain competitive advantage.

The reason Wal-Mart did not create a customer loyalty program is because they have been successful in gaining insights from research companies, analyzing transactions and by managing categories of consumers. Like many other companies Wal-Mart segments their potential customers into categories. Although, rather than using data received from so called “loyal” customers, Wal-Mart grouped their shoppers by demographics. Rural, Hispanic and baby boomers are just a few of the groups Wal-Mart targets. Wal-Mart uses geography to develop a local marketing strategy in attempt to make consumers feel like Wal-Mart is the community store. As they say, “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” Developing,

Wal-Mart has employed over 2.2 million associates across the globe and about 1.3 million in the USA (Wal-Mart company website, 2014) Maintaining communication in such a huge work force is a daunting task. Wal-Mart communication network reaches all its employees from the cashier to the CEO. The company’s progressive innovation in their technology has been the key to their global success. Wal-Mart’s technological investments have kept the company’s products at low prices and available and accessible to its customers. Wal mart has outsourced their technical communication so that they can concentrate more on the business itself. They have also outsourced their database, which is the world’s largest commercial database at 7.5 terabyte, to NCR Corporation. They also use software that helps the management to more effectively communicate with other departments for instance the accounts and human resources departments. Neo Vista Company who tailored the software for the requirements of the NCR database environment provided for this software. This type of access to data is known as data mining where any employee of Wal-Mart could access the database and get key information about any item sold or is available for sale at any time the information is required. This has proved