Data-Driven Decision-Making

For this assignment, you will take what you have learned so far about information systems along with your life experience and write a short paper about how customer sales data is created every time we shop and how you think that data is used by a large corporation that does not have a Walmart-like, supplier-driven inventory management system. Look at or remember a receipt you got from the grocery store, the mall, the gas station, or anywhere you have bought something. Think about the kinds of information printed on it, from the name of the company and store number down to the items you purchased at which date and time. If a large corporation did not have its suppliers act as "product managers" as is the case with Walmart, how do you think the company might best go about making business decisions about which products to carry or drop, which stores to carry the products in, and in what quantities? Do you think the time of year or holidays affect inventory decisions, and if yes, how so (give examples)? How might the geographic location of the store affect the products it carries? This is an extension of the Sidebar information found in the Information Systems for Business and Beyond reading assignment in this module.