Lowe's and Information Technology Management

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Lowe’s is a home improvement warehouse that was founded in 1946 as a single store and since has grown to become the second largest in the world. As technology has evolved, Lowe’s has made many advances incorporating new systems and devices to stay competitive. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the information technology management systems used at Lowe’s. It will look at Porter’s Five Force Model, supply chain management; data base management system, five agent-based technologies, e-commerce and system development lifecycle. Furthermore, it will look at business continuity planning, emerging trends and security vulnerabilities relates to the organization to remain competitive. Information Systems Remaining Competitive Lowe’s employs more than 260,000 people in more than 1830 stores; these employees are trained to provide exceptional customer service as well as receiving up-to-date product knowledge to assist customers with their improvement needs. In addition, Lowe’s has upgraded store information technology infrastructure to assist employees in accessing product data faster and easier. This is accomplished by providing the sales team with computers that have Internet access, and Ipad’s and Iphone’s loaded with specialized apps (Lowes, 2014). Porter’s Five Forces Model Threat of Entry. Lowe’s is the second largest home improvement retailer in the U.S. and is expanding into other countries. Their stores carry a wide variety of major brands with “40,000 products in stock, 500,000 items available online at Lowes.com and more than 500,000 more products available by Special Order” (Lowe's, 2014). Rivalry. Home Depot, Ace Hardware and Menards are the biggest competition that Lowe’s faces. With Home Depot being the large... ... middle of paper ... ...: John Wiley & Sons. Real Results Magazine (2012). Leading the pack. Retrieved from http://www.jda.com/realresultsmagazine/view-article.cfm?did=2470#lowes Rudarakanchana, D. (2013). E-Commerce retailers foresee strong holiday sales, amazon besting traditional firms. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.com/e-commerce-retailers-foresee-strong-holiday-sales-amazon-besting-traditional-firms-1468146 Seeking Alpha (2012). Lowe's companies, inc. (low) news. Retrieved from http://seekingalpha.com/article/1047981-lowes-companies-ceo-hosts-2012-analyst-and-investor-conference-transcript?part=single Traxler, D. (2013). Large retailers redefining e-commerce. Retrieved from http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/60699-Large-Retailers-Redefining-Ecommerce UPenn (2014). Mobile agent computing. Retrieved from www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/courses/629/papers/Concordia-WhitePaper.html

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