Thạc Sĩ Information Technology for Business Assignment I (3)

Content:
1. INTRODUCTION . 3
2. BODY 3
2.1. Retailer – Wal-Mart 3
2.1.1. Introduction about Wal-Mart 3
2.1.2. Products, services and targerted customers . 4
2.1.3. Benefits of information system . 4
2.1.4. Future plans . 6
2.2. Healthcare- Changi General Hospital . 6
2.2.1. Introduction about the hospital . 6
2.2.2. Products, services and targeted customers 7
2.2.3. Benefits of information system . 7
2.2.4. Future plans . 8
2.3. Telecommunication – AT&T 8
2.3.1. Introduction about AT&T 8
2.3.2. Products, services and targeted customers 8
2.3.3. Benefits of information system . 9
2.3.4. Future plans . 9
2.4. Financial services- HSCB Bank 9
2.4.1. Introduction about HSCB Bank . 10
2.4.2. Products, services and targeted customers . 10
2.4.3. Benefits of information system 11
2.4.4. Future plans 12
3. CONCLUSION . 12
REFERENCES . 13

1. Introduction
In the information age, the implementation of information system has had a lot of effects on
our society as well as industrial revolution. It is obvious that the success or failure of an
organization significantly depends on the use of information and the management. As a
result, more and more companies focus on the utilization of good information system that
provides an effective and efficient use of information to create them more competitive
advantage .In fact, information system consists of inter-related subsystems that work
together to collect, process, store, transform or distribute data for the purpose of
organizational control, decision making processes .In this paper, I will analyze four
organizations in different fields to explore the benefits of information systems provided to
them. There are HSCB bank, Changi General Hospital in Singapore, the largest retailer WalMart and the well-known telecommunication AT&T.
2. Analysis of information system in four organizations
2.1Retailer- Wal-Mart
2.1 .1 Introduction about Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart Stores, founded by Sam Walton in 1962, is one of the well-known and profitable
retailers in the world, with $408,214.0 million sales at the end of year 2010. The growth of
Wal-Mart is from a store in Rogers, Arkansas to 8,500 attractive stores, 55 banners in 15
markets worldwide. There are 2.1 million employees to serve nearly 200 million customers
per year
1
(Wikipedia.org). In Fortune Magazine, Wal-Mart has ranked number one on
Fortune 500 Index. According to Patrick Hayden “ Wal-Mart has four parts to its corporate
strategy: Dominance in retail market, Expansion
in the United States and International market,
creation of positive brand and company
recognition, branch out into new sectors of
retail”
2
(allman.rhon).
Page 4 of 15
2.1.2 Product, Services &targeted customers
Wal-Mart provides general merchandise at lowest possible price for its customers: household
needs, health and beauty aids, family apparel, toys, electronics, fabrics, lawn and garden,
crafts, jewelry and shoes. Wal-Mart also run pharmacy department – Tire & Lube Express,
and Photo processing center
3
(Wal-Mart.com). The purpose of Sam Walton as well as WalMart is to save money of customers to help them live better and increase their benefits. Due
to providing direct economic benefits, Wal-Mart attract more than hundred million people of
all ages, races and backgrounds to come to their stores per year. To be more specific, WalMart focuses on three groups of customers. Firstly, Brand Aspirationals are people with low
income, but they like brand names such as KitchenAid. Secondly, Price-sensitive affluents
are shopper with high income, and love the deals. Finally, Value-Price Shoppers are
customers who like purchasing cheap products, and they cannot afford much more
4
(consumerist.com)
2.1.3 Benefits of information system
Managing data is an important task of Wal-Mart because they have 800 million transactions
per day in over 8,500 stores around the world. The amount of data in Wal-Mart is more than
hundred times of many businesses. In fact, database and systems can provide Wal-Mart the
foundation on which decisions are made, so there are some information systems to help WalMart to collect and control data effectively such as EPOS and Product barcodes. In the first
place, EPOS terminals ( Electronic- point-of-sale terminals) , are the supermarket checkouts,
which include a keyboard, a scanner, a digital display to read the bar codes, a set of scales, a
credit/ debit card reader, a printer, and a till drawer
5
( wordpress.com). All of these are
connected to the minicomputer in store, where saving a database of product information. The
main duties of the system are record, collect and manage information about goods sold, and
give backup for each other. At Wal-Mart, “a EPOS data table usually consists of: store
number, item number, department number, activity sequence number, selling unit quantity,
selling amount, selling cost, Monday unit quantity, Tuesday unit quantity, Wednesday unit
quantity, Thursday unit quantity, Friday unit quantity, Saturday unit quantity, and Sunday
unit quantity”
6
(Westerman, 2001). The importance of EPOS is undeniable, because it brings
lots of advantages. For stock control, EPOS helps to display inventory movement down to

References
1
Wikipedia, 2012, Wal-Mart . Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walmart. Retrieved at
26 March, 2012
2
A case study on Wal-Mart (2002) , Patrick Hayden, George Washington University .
http://allman.rhon.itam.mx/~oromero/Wal_Mart_CaseStudy.pdf .Retrieved at 28 March, 2012
3
A case study on Wal-Mart (2002) , Patrick Hayden, George Washington University
http://allman.rhon.itam.mx/~oromero/Wal_Mart_CaseStudy.pdf .Retrieved at 28 March ,2012
4
Wal-Mart’s 3 customers (2007) .Available at :http://consumerist.com/2007/03/walmarts-3-customers.html .Retrieved at 28 March ,2012
5
http://kerryturner.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/ict_in_supermarkets.pdf . Retrieved at 30 March
2012
6
Westerman, P. (2001). Data warehouse: Using Wal-Mart model. New York: Morgan Kaufmann
Publishers, p366.
7
Jianfeng Wang (2006), Economies of IT systems at Wal-Mart historical perspective, Academic
of information and Management journal,
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6073/is_1_9/ai_n29362883/pg_12/?tag=content;col1 .
Retrieved at 30 March, 2012
8
Jianfeng Wang (2006), Economies of IT systems at Wal-Mart historical perspective, Academic
of information and Management journal,
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6073/is_1_9/ai_n29362883/pg_12/?tag=content;col1 .
Retrieved at 30 March, 2012
9
Jianfeng Wang (2006), Economies of IT systems at Wal-Mart historical perspective, Academic
of information and Management journal,
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb6073/is_1_9/ai_n29362883/pg_12/?tag=content;col1 .
Retrieved at 10 May, 2012
10
Fiserv technology let Wal-Mart customers pay bill, 2009, Paul Gores , Journal Sentinel.
Available at: http://www.jsonline.com/business/56676182.html . Retrieved at 10 May ,2012
11
Fiserv technology let Wal-Mart customers pay bill, 2009, Paul Gores , Journal Sentinel.
Available at:
http://www.jsonline.com/business/56676182.html . Retrieved at 10 May, 2012
12
http://www.cgh.com.sg/AboutUs/Pages/vision.aspx . Retrieved at 11 May, 2012
13
http://www.enterpriseinnovation.net//content/changi-general-hospitals-emr-journey-deliveringnew-model-care
Retrieved at 11 May, 2012
14
http://www.enterpriseinnovation.net//content/changi-general-hospitals-emr-journey-deliveringnew-model-care . Retrieved at 11 May, 2012
15
http://www.cgh.com.sg/AboutUs/Pages/useofit.aspx . Retrieved at 12 May, 2012
16
http://www.cgh.com.sg/AboutUs/Pages/useofit.aspx . Retrieved at 13 May, 2012
17
Wikipedia, 2012, AT&T. Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T . Retrieved at
13 May, 2012
18
http://images.autodesk.com/emea_s_main/files/comcast_customer_success_story_f.pdf .
Retrieved at 18 May, 2012
19
http://images.autodesk.com/emea_s_main/files/comcast_customer_success_story_f.pdf .
Retrieved at 18 May, 2012
20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSBC . Retrieved at 18 May, 2012
21
Kenneth C. Laudon & Jane Price Laudon (2004), Management information systems: managing
the digital firm. Prentice Hall.
22
Microsoft Serve Product ,HSBC Improve Reliability, Security and Cost Savings for Desktop
Standardization Effort,
http://www.google.com.vn/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCgQFjAA
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23
http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2011/03/impact-of-management-informationsystem-on-organizational-performance-of-hsbc.html . Retrieved at 19 May, 2012
24
Evan S 2008, HSCB Bank on Nortel for Unified Communication Portfolio,
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May, 2012
25
Kenneth C. Laudon & Jane Price Laudon (2004), Management information systems: managing
the digital firm. Prentice Hall, p.366