DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN RELATION TO BIG DATA

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DATA MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN RELATION TO BIG DATA

INFS 5089 - Enterprise Data Management

Assignment 2 - Case Study: 40% (Group of 3)

Case Background

According to an article by Logistics Magazine (2008),

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the world’s largest retailer, with nearly 6,500 stores and wholesale clubs across 13 countries. The company has more than 1.9 million associates worldwide, and revenue of more than $312 billion (A$333.44 billion) in fiscal 2006. The company has even been termed “most admired retailer” by FORTUNE magazine. Wal-Mart also enjoys a reputation as a leader in supply chain technology and efficiency.

It invented the practice of sharing sales data via computer with major suppliers and has been a global innovator in the use of wireless technology—warehouse management systems (WMS) and radio frequency (RF) data communication systems, for example—to track and manage the flow of goods though its distribution centres.

Srikanth (2011) adds to this discussion and contends that,

This year, the big giant of retail, Walmart, made headlines in the technology media space when it announced its intentions to acquire Kosmix, a start-up focused on social media. When this announcement happened, many analysts were surprised and were analysing the key reasons for a giant retailer to acquire a start-up company.

Post acquisition, the Kosmix team operates as part of the newly formed company called WalmartLabs. Kosmix understands context extremely well. For example, if a user tweets ‘I enjoyed Salt,’ it knows that the tweet is related to a movie starring Angelina Jolie, and not the salt we use for cooking. By applying semantic analysis to social media, Kosmix understands the connections between people, topics, location and products. .. While the idea sounds great, doing this in reality is a huge problem — especially since there are thousands of data pieces flowing in a torrent from live data sources such as tweets, Facebook posts and blogs. The data flow was so fast that Kosmix could not rely on the traditional Map-Reduce or Hadoop framework that is typically used to solve Big Data problems.

Groenfeldt (2012) informs that “WalmartLabs Can Figure Out Gifts Your Facebook Friends Want”, and suggests that,

In addition to using Hadoop on stored data, WalmartLabs has developed Muppet for analyzing what Rajaraman refers to as fast data over a large cluster of computers.

Research the available material on Walmart’s past, current and anticipated future Big Data challenge. Analyse and create a profile for Walmart’s enterprise data management strategies in relation to Big

Data and provide solutions to resolve the identified issues.

Hint: Please use the Walmart Coprorate Fact sheets to justify your approach http://news.walmart.com/walmart-facts/fact-sheets

Structure: Formal report style.

Referencing Style: UniSA Harvard Referencing Style Minimum 15 references required Word limit: 2500 words

Hint

1. Look at other data management and supply chain efficiency case studies to determine possible Big Data management issues, formulate solutions and offer views on comparative benefits and drawbacks.

2. With the introduction of RFID, Walmart has experienced Big Data issues in the past. Try to take a broader perspective of EDM (not limited to the social network only).

References

Groenfeldt, T 2012, `WalmartLabs Can Figure Out Gifts Your Facebook Friends Want`, Forbes, 3 July, viewed 24 July, 2016,.

Logistics & Materials Handling 2008, `Wal-Mart spearheads wireless vehicle management`, Logistics Magazine, 5 March, 2008, viewed 24 July, 2016,.

Srikanth, RP 2011, ‘How Walmart plans to use Big Data’, InformationWeek, 19 December, viewed 24 July, 2016,.