Data Warehousing at Wal-Mart

Paper Summary:

The paper examines the data warehousing project Wal-Mart implemented in June, 2007 to streamline business analytics and reporting from its stores, in addition to synchronizing demand with suppliers through its retail link system. The paper emphasizes that, for Wal-Mart, information is what makes its entire supply chain and retail operations work. The paper concludes that the use of data warehouses significantly contributes to Wal-Mart's ability to stay ahead of the trends and costs that influence its business while being better aligned with customers' needs.

Outline:
Introduction
Wal-Mart's Selection of Data Warehousing Strategies
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"For Wal-Mart, creating data warehouses that provide demand visibility back to its supply chain is critical if the key measures of its internal efficiency are going to be attained. These include inventory turns and delivering orders that are flawless in execution and quality. The timeline for Wal-Mart's data warehousing project began in 2005 when the CIO and VPs in the IT Division realized that there were several hundred stores that were not specifically having their data read into the Master Data Management (MDM) hierarchy that had been created. Further, these retail locations, many of them superstores only had limited visibility into what products would be available for delivery in the next 72 hours (Duff, 14) which made the many processes required for forecasting demand quite time consuming and imprecise (Foote, Krishnamurthi, 15). All of these factors combined with the growing reliance on the Retail Link system in Wal-Mart for planning new store expansions made an enterprise-level data warehousing project a high priority."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Mike Duff. "SUPERMARKETS & SUPERCENTERS: CAN THEY REALLY COEXIST? " Retailing Today 26 May 2008: 14. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. 3 Jul. 2008
• Paul Sheldon Foote, Malini Krishnamurthi. "Forecasting using data warehousing model: Wal-Mart's experience. " The Journal of Business Forecasting Methods & Systems 20.3 (2001): 13-17. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. . 1 Jul. 2008
• Heather Havenstein. "Wal-Mart Turns to HP for Data Warehouse Update. " Computerworld 6 Aug. 2007: 14. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. 3 Jul. 2008
• Jianfeng Wang. "ECONOMIES OF IT SYSTEMS AT WAL-MART - AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE. " Academy of Information and Management Sciences Journal 9.1 (2006): 45-66. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. 5 Jul. 2008
• Mary Hayes Weier. "HP Data Warehouse Lands In Wal-Mart's Shopping Cart. " InformationWeek 6 Aug. 2007: 31-32. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. 1Jul. 2008

More papers on Data Warehousing at Wal-Mart:

• Analytical Essay # 149594 : "Data Warehousing as a Catalyst of Competitive Advantage"
• Essay # 36449 : "Data Warehousing"
• Essay # 71330 : "Data Warehousing "

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: