While Kmart has the technology but it was used to collect data which was never used properly. The data could be to forecast demand but unfortunately that was never done. The company was losing money very rapidly and by 2000, it was in deep trouble.
Supply chain management was the main area of trouble for Kmart. The firm never seemed to know which products did it actually require and supply of required products was almost always late. There was serious lack of coordination between inventory and suppliers and while the firm always had truckloads of unneeded items in inventory, it never seemed to have the needed items. That was because of poor connection with suppliers. With the adoption of i2 technologies, it was hoped that things would improve. But while the project was huge, it failed to bring about...
And operational problems were certainly there since Kmart was encountering serious supply management issues.
Wal0Mart has an IT strategy, which is complaint with its organizational vision. But it is not true for Kmart. This means that while Wal-Mart is clear about what it needs to achieve and knows about the direction in which it wants to go, Kmart is absolutely clueless. Wal-Mart knew it was fighting a price war, and thus price was the main issue. It then made sure that its IT technology was used to minimize costs so further discounts could be offered without the firm losing money. Kmart on the other hand failed to use its IT strategy in this same manner and thus lost serious money that resulted in bankruptcy.
