WAL-MART TURNS TO MOBILE FOR WEATHER ALERTS The benefits of using weather information in the retail industry are

numerous. Not only do retailers need to know the impact of weather on specific consumer demands at the store level and in turn on revenue and profitability, but they also need to ensure the safety and well-being of their customers, employees, and stores during weather emergencies. This is why larger retailers often have specialized staff devoted to monitoring weather forecasts and weather emergencies. A case in point is Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer. Although the company would not reveal the dollar specifics, Jason Jackson, Wal-Mart's director of emer- gency management, acknowledges that "weather is the greatest disruption point in Wal-Mart's business." Until 2007, Wal-Mart's emergency operation center monitored watches and warnings from the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) and Storm Prediction Center, manually call- ing store managers to warn them of coming weather emergencies. For widespread and drawn out weather emergencies, like the 2005 hurricane season in the United States, it is difficult to keep up with the level of weather activity in specific locales. A manual system creates too much of a time lag between the time a potential emergency is detected in a given locale and the appropriate store managers are notified. In 2007 Wal-Mart decided to institute an automated system that would deliver locally specific weather emer- gency information to its 3,800 stores across the United States. They selected the Smart Notification Weather Service. The service generates, authorizes, and delivers severe weather alerts to subscribers when severe weather (hurricanes, lightning, floods, wind gusts, tornadoes) is detected within their proximity. The service is a partner- ship between WeatherBug and Send Word Now. The service utilizes information taken from WeatherBug's network of 8,000 tracking stations located throughout the United States, as well as information from the USPLN (United States Precision Lightning Network) and the NWS, to plot weather conditions within a 3 mile area. WeatherBug's stations update information every 2 seconds over the Internet and are far denser than the NWS's 1,200 stations, which are located mainly at major airports and provide updates every hour. The areas covered by the NWS are zip codebased and cover 5 miles to 30+ miles in area. The Send Word Now network matches standard or customized weather alerts to each subscriber's specific location (based on their GPS-based phone and weather profile). The service formats the appropriate alert to the supported devices and relays the alert to each individual. This provides greater accuracy and relevancy than previous alerting systems. A Java application on the user's mobile device lets the service know the user's location and can be enabled to receive more detailed information. In the case of Wal-Mart, alerts are routed based on a store manager's location. The service also provides two-way messaging, so that local managers can send back a "message received" reply, and it gener- ates an audit log that shows who received the message, when it was received, and on what device they acknowledged it.

In the summer of 2007, Wal-Mart tested the service in 40 stores. They have since expanded it to 3,000 stores. For most subscribers, the cost of the system is $10 per month, although there is no information on how much Wal-Mart spends per user. Overall, the automated system provided by the Smart Notification Weather Service is more precise, locally relevant, customized, and reliable than the manual system it replaced. With early warning about local conditions, managers have the information needed to make real-time decisions. As Wal-Mart notes, the faster warning time enables maximum time for proper preparations, which minimizes safety issues and reduces the impact to the bottom line.

1. Why was Wal-Mart interested in instituting an automated weather alert system? 2. How does the Smart Notification Weather Service work? Why is it more precise, accurate, and rele- vant than the NWS tracking system? 3. What are the benefits of the Smart Notification Weather Service for Wal-Mart?