OPPapers.com

Wal Mart And Its It Alignment

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Information Technology (IT) alignment has become one of the primary factor for the development of business strategy and process in industries. It helps the industries to increase its productivity and quality without compromising cost thus having competitive advantage in the market. Information systems and technology has given edge to many industries to make revolution in their business performance. However, adopting to certain information technology involves risks and depends on firm wants and needs.

In this study, I have discussed about IT and Business strategy of Wal-Mart using Strategic Alignment Model (SAM) developed by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993). Each and every factor of this model has been analyzed in a better way and also pointed inhibitors and exhibitors later in this report. I have used interrelations of Supply Chain Management, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Post of Sales (POS) to explain the IT architecture with respect to the Strategic Alignment Model used.


CONTENTS PAGE NO
Executive Summary 2
1. Introduction 5
2. Literature Review
2.1 Importance and Benefits of IT Alignment 6
6
3. Strategic Alignment Model (SAM)
3.1 Strategic Alignment and its Concerns
3.2 Strategy Alignment – Business, IT, Organization and Infrastructure 7
7
8
4. IT in Supply Chain Management (SCM) 10
5. RFID in Supply Chain Management 12
6. Strategic Alignment in Wal-Mart
6.1 Wal-Mart and its Business Alignment
6.2.1 Business Strategy
6.2.2 Business Model
6.2.3 Core Competency
6.2.4 Competitors
6.2 Wal-Mart's IT Alignment
6.2.1 IT Strategy and its Processes
6.2.2 IT Governance
6.2.3 IT Architecture
6.2.4 IT Skills
6.2.5 Technologies in Wal-Mart 13
13
15
16
16
17
18
18
21
21
24
25
7. Wal-Mart's Key Enablers 25
8. Wal-Mart's Key Inhibitors
Content Cont… 26
9. Conclusion 26
10. References 27
List of Table:
Table 1: SCM Elements and its Components 9
List of...