1. After watching the “Creating Winning IT Strategies – Dave Aron (Gartner Group) (Links to an external site.)” video, find an example of a company, which has been in the news sometime in the last two months, that is using information technology (IT) for strategic advantage. Describe the strategy of the company. What business is the company in? How does the company make money? What does the company excel at: customer intimacy, product leadership, operational excellence? How does the company use IT to meet its business goals? You must include a reference to the news article with the proper URL. Each student must reference a different news item. each questions 3-5 sentence is fine. Plagiarism free. please

Then reply those 2 post from other students.

1.After watching the “Creating Winning IT Strategies – Dave Aron (Gartner Group) (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)” video, find an example of a company, which has been in the news sometime in the last two months, that is using information technology (IT) for strategic advantage.

News article dated 22nd July 2019.

Walmart is using Virtual Reality(VR) headsets in its training centers called “Walmart Academies”. Walmart has used the VR technology to improve the employee experience, better assess workers’ skills and present new ways of training staff. According to the 5 Principles of delivering values, one of the principle is “Adopt a Holistic Orientation to Technology value”. This is achieved by managing and using people, processes and incorporating technology into the business and Walmart seems to do, just that.

Describe the strategy of the company.

Walmart’s IT strategy is to use IT for innovative solutions to increase efficiency and add competitive value. IT solutions are critical for driving innovation, value, and cross-functional business operations. Walmart is considering technologies and processes that are best suited for meeting the needs of the enterprise.

Virtual reality technology in the retail environment makes a lot of sense, especially in stores that are open 24 hours a day.

Most of the times it is not possible to train employees after hours and Walmart does not want to disrupt customers on the floor. Virtual Reality allows you to artificially create scenarios that you can’t recreate on the sales floor in a way that associates can learn in a safe environment.

With the implementation of the VR technology, it stops Walmart from having to have to hire new on-boarding professionals, or else divert existing staffers to oversee training. VR also allows for employees to be trained for worst-case scenarios that don’t happen often but require a clear-cut plan.

Ultimately, the new VR training initiative from Walmart Academy is all about driving customer experience. Walmart is using technology to drive efficiency and reducing operational costs. Also making shopping and working at Walmart easier for customers and associates alike.

HR managers looking to use virtual reality in their training programs are considering not only how the technology can improve employee training, but also how the technology can strengthen the company’s overall business objectives.

What business is the company in?

Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores, headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Company operates through three segments: Walmart U.S., Walmart International and Sam’s Club.

The Walmart U.S. segment includes the Company’s mass merchant concept in the United States operating under the Walmart brands, as well as digital retail. The Walmart U.S. segment provides its customers access to an assortment of merchandise, including products not found in its physical stores, and services online through its e-commerce Websites and mobile commerce applications

The Walmart International segment consists of the Company’s operations outside of the United States, including various retail Websites.

The Sam’s Club segment includes the warehouse membership clubs in the United States, as well as samsclub.com. Sam’s Club provides its members access to an assortment of merchandise, including products not found in its clubs, and services online at samsclub.com, and through its mobile commerce application.

How does the company make money?

Walmart competitive strategy focused on offering the lowest possible prices has yielded a business that generates nearly $500 billion of annual revenue.

Walmart has maintained its low-price leadership position due to its continued focus on suppliers. Walmart has one of the largest supply chains in the world. To further reduce the cost and achieve price leadership, Walmart uses cross-docking. In cross-docking, inbound shipments from suppliers are unloaded directly into outbound trailers at distribution centers. These innovative strategies are helping Walmart succeed on the pricing front.

Walmart generates its revenues by directly selling products and services to individuals and business owners.

Product revenues: Walmart sells Grocery, Health and Wellness, Entertainment, Hardlines, Apparel, and Home products.

Service revenues: Walmart generates service revenues from:

• Financial services and related products.This includes service charges for money orders, prepaid cards, wire transfers, money transfers, check cashing, and bill payment.
• VUDU Movie Streaming Service.This includes subscription revenues for renting, buying, and watching movies, and TV shows on demand.
• Clinical Services.This includes service charge for preventative and routine health services for a standard set of common health ailments and screening needs that can be performed without urgent or emergency care including, but not limited to, wellness and preventive care, primary acute care, chronic condition management, referral to specialists, lab tests, and immunization.
• Health insurance services.This includes service charges for providing healthcare insurance from direct health.

What does the company excel at: customer intimacy, product leadership, operational excellence?

According to The Value discipline chart, Walmart excels in operational excellence .

Walmart’s offers operation excellence as the value proposition to customers that delivers the lowest possible cost to customers at the relatively highest level of quality. It achieves operational excellence by focusing on business process improvements, low levels of customization, high volume, and an overall emphasis on cost minimization.Companies that focus on operational excellence don’t innovate products or service. However, they do operate a hassle-free service with low prices.

How does the company use IT to meet its business goals?

Walmart’s uses Information technology which is split between two groups. Walmart Information Technology, based in Bentonville, focuses on building and managing technology for the stores themselves, while Global eCommerce, based in Silicon Valley, develops the e-commerce technologies and runs the sites.

The basic architecture within Walmart is a hybrid cloud, using some of the world’s largest SaaS providers but also internal applications. The company is also a big supporter of OpenStack.

Walmart’s Point of Sale (POS) system is completely custom-built. The tech team behind the point of sale system used the SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Service (SLEPOS) as their starting point.

SLEPOS in itself is incredibly heavy duty. It goes far beyond a standard point of sale system that you may come across in your local convenience store. Here are just some of the features:

• Graphical user interface for creating and managing images
• Easy installation process making it easy to roll out new service environments fast
• Centralized administration tools

In addition to a centralized server, the Walmart’s custom system also uses multiple branch servers, storing data on both top and local levels.

This has enabled Walmart to integrate both mobile POS systems and mobile applications into their existing system.

The cloud initiative is but one of several steps Wal-Mart is taking to boost its e-commerce business. The company has expanded its online selection and acquired smaller e-commerce retailers. Walmart is offering free two-day shipping on orders of $35 or more, and it recently asked vendors to supply it with merchandise priced at $10 and up to help it turn a profit online.

Walmart has stored information in smaller internal data centers for years. And it uses public cloud storage for non-critical data.

You must include a reference to the news article with the proper URL.

Lewis, N. (2019, July 22). Walmart Revolutionizes Its Training with Virtual Reality. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/t…

2. ‘Norsemen’ producer gamed Netflix’s algorithm with Facebook ads

A few weeks before the show Norsemen debuted on Netflix, the author Anders Tangen and his producers spent about $18,500 on targeted Facebook ads in major U.S. cities and states with big Norwegian populations consisting of Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago as well as Minnesota, Wisconsin and South Dakota. Through the use of algorithms, they were able to determine that 5.5 million Facebook users saw the ads and about 6,000 people started to follow the show. They later spent additional funds to promote the show outside the U.S. causing the show to explode on Netflix. Netflix purchased the rights to the show and it is now in its third season.

Describe the strategy of the company.

Netflix started as an online DVD rental by mail business and through the use of technology and strategic planning, has become a leader of online streaming content.

What business is the company in?

Netflix offers online video and gaming streaming services. The content includes original series like Norsemen, TV shows, movies, gaming, and DVD mail rentals.

How does the company make money?

The organizations main source of income is through subscriptions. It also generates revenue through DVD rentals and sales.

What does the company excel at: customer intimacy, product leadership, operational excellence?

Netflix excels at customer intimacy. It does this by providing exceptional value and positive customer experience. The organization leverages technology that builds customer loyalty by building databases that track the shows that customers watch and analysis the data to create new shows and movies geared towards large viewer audiences. They also use the information to make individual view recommendations based on previously watched genres.

How does the company use IT to meet its business goals?

Netflix has one of the largest databases in the world. In 2018, Netflix had about 130 million worldwide subscribers that they are able to track from the time they access the main company’s website, to the time they exit. The tracking includes what was searched for, watched, tagged, partially watched, how many episodes each subscriber watched, etc. They are able to see how many subscribers watched a movie, TV show, or played a game and see how many made it to the end or if there is a point that a large percentage turned it off or switched to something else. There could be a particular scene that caused viewers to stopped watching and if that is the case, they can avoid that type of scene in future shows that they create.

References

Holt, K. (2019, August 09). ‘Norsemen’ producer gamed Netflix’s algorithm with Facebook a. Retrieved from Engadget: https://www.engadget.com/2019/08/09/netflix-algorithm-facebook-ads-norsemen/?guccounter=1 (Links to an external site.)

Samson, R. (2018, November 5). The Business Strategy of Netflix. Retrieved from Profolus: https://www.profolus.com/topics/the-business-strategy-of-netflix/

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