What types of computers?

At Wal-Mart they offer:

Desktop: HP, e-machines, Dell, Acer, Zt, Lonovo, Cyber power, Ibuypower, Gateway, Sony, Aus, View sonic.

Laptops: Acer, Coby, Compaq, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, HP, e-machines, Asus, Lenova, MSI, Entourage systems, Mirus.

4.What brands of computer can you find at Wal*Mart?

At Wal*Mart we have a variety of selections on brands computers, the only questions should be made would be: How much capacity does the computer have? How much do you want to spend? Wal-Mart offers the following computer brands: HP, e-machines, Dell, Acer, ZT, Lenovo, Cyber Power, IbuyPower, Gateway, Sony, Asus, and View Sonic, Coby, Compaq, Toshiba, MSI, Entourage System, Mirus.

Is OLAP used?

The concept of OLAP— the manipulation of information to support decision- making. OLAP is an online application processing query. Wal-mart uses a global leader in business intelligence software, Hyperion. They use Hyperion Essbase OLAP technology to build an advanced merchandise planning and reporting system. Hyperion's Essbase technology will help Wal-mart create a scalable system that will deliver budgeting, forecasting and planning tools to international operations.

Who is responsible for the database?

The company’s CIO and EVP is Rollin Lee Ford, while Dan Philips is the Vice President of Information Technology, the database administrators report to either of these two men. Managers get reports from systems that allow for a Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), to help in the business initiatives. Types of reports, sales figures, quantities sold, time, sales trends, customer trends and general data related to store location and POS materials. Online Analytical Processing, the manipulation of information to support decision making is currently being used by Wal-Mart. A data warehouse is a logical collection of information gathered from different operational databases and used to create business intelligence that supports decision making tasks and business analysis activities. Wal-mart is known for having the biggest data warehouse used, which is larger then 4 Petabytes. Wal-mart turned its data warehouse into an operational system for managing daily store operations by refreshing the information its data warehouse holds every hour. The massive data warehouse is not just a customer of CRM systems but it also serves as the base for Wal-marts RetailLink support system. Teradata is Wal-marts data warehouse vendor.

The relational database series of logically related two-dimensional tables or files to store information in the form of a database. The files that Wal-Mart will create for on-line ordering would be Order Number, Order Date, Customer Number, Delivery Address, and Amount Ordered. Employee files would also have unique data, Employee Number, Date of Hire, Employee Name, (first and last). Regular customers that place orders via Wal-Mart’s website also have customer files with their customer number, customer name and contact service person. While there may be many fields to a file each field has a unique Primary Key. The databases used at Wal-Mart are CRM system and Retail Link. CRM helps with the tracking of customers, while Retail Link is a decision support system for suppliers and retailer. The brand of database software that is used is NCR’s Teradata Software, believed to carry approximately 583 terabytes.

Wal*Mart OLAP, Data Warehouse, Data Marts, Data Mining and Software

Wal-Mart uses OLAP which is an online analytical processing that allows the manipulation of information to support decision making, a data warehouse is a logical collection of information and is necessary for Wal-Mart in order to create customer relationship activities, strategies and campaigns, by creating this data warehouse employees can view all transactions customer has made at a given time any time accurately to check opportunities and to study the different market for prospect customers it also gives a massive data to transform its supplier relationship.

The data mining tools is used to manipulate the data warehouse information and depending who need it or the department that needed this can be small or big and the goal is to create business intelligence, an example on how Wal-Mart can use this tool it could be by department like the receivables department they would create a data mart. Data mart is a subset of a data warehouse in which only a focus portion of the data warehouse information is kept an example for the accounting department would be one that will allow this department to have specific information on the need of a customer and not any information that it will be only for the department making this data mart manageable considering their particular needs to the individual receivables items. Wal-Mart will be capturing a point of sale from over 2,900 stores in 6 countries and continuously transform this data to its massive 7.5 terabyte Terodata data warehouse this will allow more than 3,500 suppliers to access data on their products and perform data analysis. These suppliers will use this information to identify the customer buying patterns at the store and they will use this information to manage local store inventory and identify new merchandise necessary to be brought to the customer.

All this processes have a correlation because data mining tools are to data warehouse users what data manipulation subsystems tools are to database users and then this data warehouse system has the responsibility for converting logical request into physical equivalent through query and reporting tools, intelligent agents, multidimensional analysis tools and statistical tools.

Sam Walton didn’t care much for technology. The legendary patriarch of Wal-Mart Stores was well-known for his lack of excitement about computers, as he called the company’s IT systems. “Truthfully, I never viewed computers as anything more than necessary overhead, he wrote in his 1992 memoir, Made in America. A computer is not –and will never be-a substitute for getting out in your stores and learning what’s going on. Many still consider Wal-Mart pioneering, IT-driven supply chain to be the works most efficient, and the company’s technology standards still command respectful attention from its thousands of supplier” (Thomas Wailgum, cio.com)

Wal-mart uses NeoVista Software deploying the Neo Vista Decision Series which suites the integrated data mining software to replenish and support the decision environment and the purpose of this program is to refine store-item seasonality and build more accurate predictive models for its system-assisted replenishment systems. On a weekly basis, the NeoVista Decision Series analyzes 52 weeks of Wal-Mart POS(point of sale) from each of its 2,900 stores, representing approximately 70 gigabytes and when the result are back adds value to the data warehouse.

Databases and brand software used by Wal-Mart

The main databases that are used by Wal-Mart are Customer Relationship Management systems (CRM) and another called Retail Link. The CRM is primarily used for tracking customers by looking at orders, complaints, amount of money spent, products purchased, etc. The other program, Retail Link is a support system for Wal-Mart and their suppliers. The specific brand that they use is called NCR’s Teradata Software, which is said to hold approximately 583 terabytes.

Wal-Mart also uses what is called Neo Vista Software. Neo Vista software is used to help Wal-Mart do research and data mining for their database. One advantage of this software is that the company was able to further enhance their inventory management system. The initial reasoning for using data mining for their database is partly because of Wal-Mart's goal to deliver what customers want and need; they want to get the right item, to the proper store, at the time it is needed and with low pricing in order to satisfy their clients. The NeoVista Decision Series is also used to look at certain items for their stores to decide their seasonal sales promotions for that year, to give them a forecast of the appropriate amount inventory during that time.

What are some of the files used by Wal-Mart?

The files the company creates for the system would be Customer Number, Order Number, Delivery Address, Order Date, and the Amount Ordered. They also keep track of employee files on the system, which also carry the data of, Date of Hire, Employee Name, Employee Number, etc. Most of the information is obtained by customers that place their orders on the website.