Current State of Wal-Mart Information Technology

Current State of Wal-Mart Information Technology

Introduction

This research entails the information regarding the current state of the information technology or the information systems of the corporate giant Wal-Mart. This information would be extracted from the exclusive interviews from Mr. Paul Bland: Receiving Manager, Wal-Mart Houston, TX and Mr. Pedro Ruvalcaba: Assistant Store Manager, Wal-Mart, San Antonio, TX. The two personalities have shed light on the current state of the information systems incorporated in Wal-Mart and also the strategies employed for managing those information systems, which facilitate Wal-Mart in acquiring maximal competitive advantage and keep up its name in the lading corporate giants operating all through the world.

Background of the Company and its Information Systems

Wal-Mart is a cut rate retail store which was initially opened by Sam Walton in the year 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas. Wal-Mart set off as a small cut rate store since Mr. Walton wished to provide the customers with reduced prices for them to save their money and head towards an enhanced living. According to his belief it was the responsibility of the organization to endow the customers with what they desired that made Wal-Mart's service a customer friendly service with quality merchandize yet reduced and economical prices. After some seven years, Wal-Mart was expanded into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. by Mr. Walton and was traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange in the year 1972 for the first time. Wal-Mart is currently known as a retailing giant having more than nine thousand six hundred retail stores in more than twenty eight countries, having approximately 2.1 million individuals employed, and yielding annual turnovers of approximately four hundred and thirty two dollars. Wal-Mart in the United States runs almost seven hundred retail units, six hundred and ten Sam's Club warehouses, two thousand nine hundred supercenters which sell the general merchandize and groceries, and an escalating number of smaller format stores. The financial and corporate facts of Wal-Mart elucidate that Wal-Mart stands on the first rank on the 2012 Fortune 500 list of the largest companies' revenues all through the world.

The structure of an organization is referred to as the framework, specifically hierarchical, within which an organization assembles or organizes its lines of communication and authority, and assigns responsibilities and rights. It establishes the extent and manner in which the responsibilities, power, and roles are assigned, coordinated and controlled, and also the way information passes amongst the management levels. The structure of an organization is mainly dependent on the strategy opted and the objectives set out by the organization for the order of achieving them. The decision making power in a centralized organizational structure in resolute in the top-most layer of the management and strict control is practiced over the divisions and departments that is apparent in the organizational structure of the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. because Wal-Mart has each and every path of its decision making directed down from the Chief Executive Officer through the executive committee and to the suitable divisions, it may be ...