Impact Of Information System On Business Management: A Case Study Of Walmart

Benefits of Information System in Business

The technology has advanced a lot in recent times, the business organisations can acquire several benefits using the business information system software applications (Laudon & Laudon, 2016). WalMart is one such organization that has planned to enhance their productivity and market share and adaptation of information system has made them the most popular retail company in the US.

The report will highlight how they can be benefitted with the usage of the information system. The detailed analysis has been provided in the report showcasing how they have enhanced their growth.

The information system is enhancing the business structure of the organisations. The information system is facilitating the innovative approach and creative thinking of the professionals so the organisations can now get effective and agile service. Also, the information system can give one organisation the competitive edge by which they can stay ahead of their peers. The Wal-Mart has recently decided to adopt the information system in their premises (Chakraborty et al., 2016). The initiation of information system can subsequently reduce the pressure from the staff. The information system can cater an infrastructure for the development of the managerial roles as well. The IS definitely helps the stakeholders to run the business activities smoothly. The productivity of Wal-Mart has augmented a lot due to the adaptation of IS. The IS initiates innovative approach by which Wal-Mart can ensure business effectiveness and flexibility in case of workings.

The IS can enhance the customer relationship management. The retail store can now facilitate their existing customer relationship management via CRM software.  The information system can facilitate them to connect with the customers all throughout day and night 24×7. WalMart needs to have a clear objective about the usage of the CRM software. They will need to know how the CRM software can enhance their business activities. The effective usage of IS software can help WalMart to take an innovative approach. Thus through CRM software, WalMart can set a specific goal and specific strategy (Cavusoglu et al., 2015). The organization can serve well to the customers. They can offer services to the customers all throughout day and night. In this way, the customers’ demands can be met. The CRM software can gather the customers’ data and WalMart can use the customers’ data for their business. The WalMart can know the customers’ wish lists, the customers’ purchase lists (Walters, 2014). Thus, CRM software can help to know the customers’ shopping behaviour and the shopping patterns, Wal-Mart can attract customers, can offer discounts. The activities are associated with the efficiency of the supply chain.

Customer Relationship Management

WalMart can be benefitted by adopting the information system to the supply chain. They need to control the supply chain. WalMart, the retailers’ main objective to offer cost-effective service and goods to the customers, however, they need to consider the redundant costs as well. They need to diminish the redundant costs. Thus with aid of the information system, they can take the innovative approach. Thus, WalMart wants to embellish the efficiency of the supply chain (Suryandari & Paswan, 2014). The information system has influenced the supply chain management. The adaptation of the IS services and the elimination of the redundant activities can play an active role in conducting the business operations successfully. Thus the information can help them in creative thinking.

The information system also has the capability to enhance the flexibility of the workplace. The business opportunities can increase due to the benefits and the opportunities. All these approaches can help the company to increase the business effectiveness through various innovative solutions (Hovav & Gray, 2014). Wal-Mart is the booming industry and thus it needs improvising. The information system with their innovative features can provide a lot to the retail store. The retail store with the aid of IS can conduct the business operations completely online (Niranjanamurthy et al., 2013). The customers can see the products available over the internet that are also present in the physical stores. The customers can order products online and can enjoy the online service sitting at home. The products once ordered will be delivered to the customers via home delivery. This feature generally put them ahead of all others (Orel & Kara, 2014). In this way, Wal-mart can gain the competitive advantage over others. The productivity thus will increase as result of the information system.

The Management Information System utilizes a digital computer-based database to administer and monitor the financial as well as the company’s financial data. This can be helpful to detect and recognize the strategic issues (Redlich & Nemzow, 2013). The systematic technology of MIS in Wal-Mart Company utilizes the logistics data gathering by examining the external communication as well as the internal communication.

Analysis

An analytical approach can be helpful to know the structure of Management Information System (Clemes, Gan & Zhang, 2014). The strategic growth and the value of using IT can be helpful to develop the backbone of the information system.

Contingency Based Approach

The contingency based approach provides the enterprises with the cost-effective IT services. This approach can assist in further development of the project (Demirkan & Spohrer, 2014). This approach also has the capability to reduce the price of the products.

Flexibility of the Workplace

Resource-Centric Approach

The resource-centric approach can be helpful in enhancing the flexibility of the retail services. The IT applications can improve the profitability by enhancing the revenues of Wal-Mart (Flanagin et al., 2014). The approach uses the various techniques to incorporate the company’s resources to the latest information system.

RSM approach

The Wal-Mart’s business operations can get furnished with the aid of information system. The company’s productivity can get increased due to the improved performance the information system provides (Peppard & Ward, 2016). Wal-Mart can even handle the financial services with the help of information system.

Impacts of Information system

MIS offers multiple advantages to the organisations. Wal-Mart is no exception. The MIS can bring immense benefits to the enterprise. The production can get enhanced due to the demands of the customers, the working flow and the latest innovative approaches. Thus it is a great opportunity to earn great profits (Demirkan & Spohrer, 2014). The annual revenue of the company accounts for $466 billion approximately in the year 2017. The effective management of the information system can aid in handling the augmented business demands. There are various advantages of MIS-

The scheduled works of Wal-Mart can get enhanced as a result of the MIS, thus MIS leads to high productivity. MIS can also help Wal-Mart to configure the strategic control by storing backups. The MIS can also prove to be helpful to develop SWOT analysis within the company (Posey et al., 2014). The SWOT analysis is used to develop a formula, the formula can predict the success of the business of Wal-Mart. The decision-making procedures can be enriched due to the adoption of MIS. The effective synchronization of the symmetric approach can help to maintain the effective time management procedures of the designing architecture. Wal-Mart Company can utilise the effective synchronization to manage the effective time management.

The risk management of the MIS system for the Wal-Mart company is a vital activity that needs to be maintained. The risk management can ensure that Wal-Mart can help to track the risks. Based on the risks, they can take appropriate strategy to carry out the business activities. The appropriate risks management procedure can help to control the risks. Wal-Mart can handle the risks quite well before they become an issue (Modi, Wiles & Mishra, 2015). The risk management of information security should be maintained through technical efficiency and the information security can be maintained by keeping the information of the company safe and secure.

1. Appropriateusage of policy

Efficiency of the Supply Chain

The inappropriate use of information system in the enterprise can lead to several kinds of threats and risks. It must be specified pretty early what is permitted and what is not permitted. Thus the acceptable usage value can protect all the parties associated. The scope of this usage policy involves correct usage of the IT resources like the emails and the Internet connectivity (Smith, 2015). WalMart by applying the usage policy ensures the confidentiality and proper usage of web browsers and emails.

1. Confidential Data Policy

The confidential data holds the value to the company. WalMart confidential data is the customers’ data and company’s financial data. Thus they must have proper standards by which they can protect the confidential data of the enterprise. Therefore, the confidential data policy should be handled with care.

1. Email policy

The email is a vital prospect for any organisations. The security risks and vulnerabilities can be a threat to emails. WalMart must have email policy and in this way, they can lessen the risks of email-related security incidents. WalMart can enrich the business communications within the enterprise (Moody & Galletta, 2015). The employees of the enterprise can safely and securely communicate with each other via emails, can share confidential data via emails.

1. Mobile device policy

The mobile applications and the mobile platform acts as a productive workforce. The smartphone apps are furnishing the business usage of the enterprises. The customers stay connected with the smartphone all the time and so the mobile apps can be used to effectively communicate with the customers (Coll, 2014). WalMart ensures security for the mobile apps so that the customers can purchase retail goods and can transact money via mobile platform with ease.

1. Incident Response policy

An incident response policy is must for every enterprise and similarly, WalMart can be benefitted by the appropriate usage of the policy. They can safeguard their system and database from the attackers as well as the malware attack. The policy can protect them from the potential threats.

1. Network Security policy

Every company needs the network security policy and WalMart is no exception. The sole objective of the network architecture is to install and configure the best network infrastructure. The e-commerce activities depend much on the network framework and the associated network security (Taylor & Levin, 2014). The policy for the network security includes the IT security, networked hardware, device passwords, firewalls and security testing.

1. Password Policy

The easiest way to secure the database as well the system is simply applying a password. WalMart employees and the customers can safeguard their system by applying a password, however, the password must be strong enough to hack. It must contain at least one numeric value, one small letter alphabet, one capital letter alphabet, one numeric value and the password length must be 8 digits long.

1. Physical security policy

Managing Information Systems and Technological Change

The goal of this policy is to protect the company’s physical information system. The company’s IT services must be secured to protect from the risk and vulnerabilities. The policy must be applied to the WalMart’s owned network resources or network devices.

1. Wireless Network and Guest Access policy

WalMart by the wireless network policy can get significant benefits. The policy will assist the company to take initiatives and secure the wireless infrastructure (Sharif et al., 2015). The workers of the company who uses the wireless network must abide by the security policies.

Walmart adopting the information system policies can enhance their business operations and can continue their business venture. In this way, they can also mitigate the threats and vulnerabilities of the system.

Wal-Mart must need to sell quality products. Their objective must be to sell good quality products and goods at a reasonably low price. In this way, they can reach out to the local customers. They can only increase their customer base via consistent quality service over a longer period of time. The information system can help them in gaining the globalization. They can stay connected to the customers all the time. The customers can solve their queries immediately with the help of WalMart’s 24×7 services. Besides, through information system, they can reach to a large number of customers at a single time. The customers can give orders and can their desired products with ease without hassle (Glanz et al., 2016). WalMart uses the globalization strategy to diminish the cultural gap and caters user-friendly products keeping in mind the specified culture of that country. In this way, WalMart with the aid of information system can reach to several millions of customers all over the world. The customer positive feedback can give them the reputation, thus give the competitive advantage over other top retail brands in the world.

Ethical responsibilities

The business officials as well the business managers must act responsibly while using the technology. The workers working in the company must be knowledgeable about the ethics and the policies and the information security standards (Masoud, 2013). In this way, the company can save time and money, and they can earn credentials, the productivity of the company can increase a lot. The managers and the must educate their subordinates so that they can use the information system ineffective way such that it can offer benefits to the organisation.

Technological crime

The information technology adaptation can lead to all kinds of security threats and issues and cybercrime is one such issue. The unethical usage of WalMart’s computer and network resources can lead to technological crime. The attackers or hackers can hack the system and can sabotage the system and the database. They can take away the confidential data of the customers and the financial data. The hackers also take advantage of the weak and insecure network as well. The hackers locked the system and restrict the owners of the system to use their own system (Masoud, 2013). These are all illegal techniques and unethical practice by which they exploit one’s system using technical expertise and skill, in this way they gain illegal access to one’s system. There may be a threat from physical means as well. The accessing, using or destroying hardware and software contained in the information system can be done by someone who wants to take revenge, also they steal data from the database and can leak the same. WalMart must install hardware firewall as well as software firewall to restrict unauthorized access.

MIS and Risk Management

Privacy issues and Identity theft

The information system has revolutionized the way the retail industry and WalMart are also enjoying the benefits of the information system. The hackers hack the customers’ personal information from the database of WalMart. WalMart uses the data for their business, the customers’ data help them to know the customers’ shopping behaviour, customers’ wish list and customers’ purchase list, in this way they can know the latest trends and can acquire a list of products which customers prefer, they offer discounts on those products and in this way they maximize their profit. The hackers hacking that sensitive information can use them for their benefits, the customers’ personal details thus get compromised which threatens the privacy of the customers (Glanz et al., 2016). Again they can hack the smartphone of the customers those who use the WalMart service on the mobile phone and can take away the card details.

This can be restricted by installing and configuring antivirus on the system and the smartphones. The antivirus software must be updated regularly as this can reduce the chance of malware and intruders attack.

1. The information system uses the authentic data security policy and via this security policy,the confidentiality ofthe database can be properly maintained.
2. WalMart should keep backup of their daily activities and daily tasks. That should help them to know the employees’ skills.
3. The technical awareness can get enhanced by managing effective accountability and thus it increases the customers’ reliability on WalMart services.
4. The company should engage human resources in developing the socioeconomic aspects of the business.
5. WalMart must secure their system providing the end-to-end authenticated connection.

1. WalMart is a multinational and reputed retail organisationlocated in the US. The company uses the innovative technology by ensuring the working flexibility and the integrity of the product development techniques (Hauser et al., 2017).
2. WalMart has decided to upgrade their information system and that help them to take appropriate strategic solutions. The upgraded information system can give them the competitive edge and along with that,they can conduct the business operationsin agile and effective means (Glanz et al., 2016). The upgraded information system has given the opportunity to earn about $480 million.
3. Accessing WalMart’s assets it can be found that WalMart earnsabout $466 billion that can be considered as world’s largest company in terms of revenue. The company also deals with about 2.3 million employees, so they arealso known as the World’s largest employer.
4. The strategic information helps them to makecritical decisions. The information system also facilitates creative thinking.
5. The information system helps in accurate measurement of accounting and it provides the accurate conceptual framework to carry out the business activities (Collins, Ricks & Van Meter, 2015).
6. They also impartknowledge to the subordinates and that helps them to carry out the business activities in an efficient manner.

The factors influencing economic aspects

The factors that influence the economic aspects are the capital investment, the product’s demands and the market developing assets (Sahney, 2015). The economic profitability can be achieved by appropriate usage of IT strategic planning.

The factor developing technical aspects

The technical factors that aid in prospering the business activities are database management and artificial intelligence (Sahney, 2015). The financial stability can be achieved by managing the information system accountability.

The factor developing social aspects

The information system manages the strategy of effective analysis by ensuring workers via usage of effective staff management.

WalMart’s Limitations

WalMart in order to provide cost-effective service to their customers has decided to move to overseas. They have planned to move to China and thus new job opportunities have emerged in China. For this reason, American employees are losing jobs. America already has the worker policy whereas WalMart will have to build the policies once again in China.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discourse that the technological advancement can help WalMart to carry out the business activities in agile and effective means. The information system helps them in providing the business opportunities and maintaining sustainability. The report has highlighted the implementation of MIS in WalMart. The various IT applications aid in can help in enhancing the business development. The impact of information system has been discussed in the report. WalMart can get significant benefits via information system all these aspects have been elaborated in the report. The impact of MIS has been discussed as well. The information security policies must be implemented and the report has elaborately explained the implementation of security policies in WalMart. The IS compliance with the legal and ethical frameworks have been showcased in the report.

Conclusion

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