Accounting Software Packages And ERP Implementation At Woolworths In Australia

Woolworths Organizational Structure and Challenges

Question:

Discuss about the Strategic Information System Banking Software and Packages in Australia.

Accounting is a necessary department in the organizations and plays a significant role in its business processes and activities. An organization cannot function well without the presence of a strong and efficient accounting department. The accounting activities are being done since years and there have been several modifications in the journey. The latest advancements that have been observed are in the software and tools that are used for the execution of activities. There are automated information systems and software packages that are being installed and are successfully being used in the industries. Australian industries have also adopted these latest practices to have advanced services with better quality and result. The document highlights the details of the accounting software packages along with the information of an organization in Australia along organizational structure and challenges.

Woolworths Limited is an Australian company that is a retailer of groceries and associated products. The company has its online portal in the form of a website to allow the customers to easily buy groceries from any location.

The organization is composed of senior, middle and low level management along with the technical and operational staff members. There are several components and departments that are present in the organization that are interlinked and interrelated with each other (Woolworths, 2017).

There may be several problems that may be associated with the current organizational structure of Woolworths as it requires a strong integration of the departments and sub-components that are present.

It is also necessary to have the information systems in place in order to avoid the issues associated with the operational and security threats. There may also be insider threats and attacks that may come up due to this structure (Henderson, 2004).

There are numerous system acquisition methods that are present that include implementation of custom software, commercial software or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software (Yang and Tamir, 2015).

The method that would apply the best in this case would be ERP. It is because of the reason that the ERP packages will offer several advantages to Woolworths in terms of the business processes and their continuity along with the performance and integration of all the components (Mallery, 2011).

System Flowchart of Sales Process at Woolworths

The sales process that is followed at Woolworths is as described above. There are several sales activities that are performed in the organization and it is necessary to make sure that these activities are carried out with the required levels of performance, processing speed and reliability. The sales activities in Woolworths are therefore divided in to a number of four phases as described in the flowchart above. Each of the phases has its own set of activities and sub-activities (Gulledge, 2002).

With the presence of so many activities in the sales flowchart of the operations at Woolworths, there may be a number of control and monitoring problems that may emerge. Not all of these activities are automated in nature and therefore there may be issues associated with timely tracking and review of the status of these activities. The same may give rise to the problems associated with the performance and the outcome.

System Flowchart of Sales Process at Woolworths

There may also be some of the frauds that may be given shape by the employees in association with the sales activities. Such frauds may be associated with deliberate steps to incorrect operations, operational errors along with insider threats that may possess threat to the security of the information (Mohapatra and Patnaik, 2011).

There has been a lot of change in technology in the present times and the same has had an impact on the accounting software packages as well. The primary demands of the customers in the present times are associated with the speed and availability of the services along with their reliability. The same expectations are now associated with the accounting software packages as well. The expectations and demands of the customers are associated with better performance along with enhanced handling of queries and cost effectiveness of the software (Seethamraju, 2012).

It is because of these changes in the customer expectations that the accounting software packages that are being developed in the current times are fully automated and require a very little human intervention. The focus on the service providers are also in accordance with the customer expectations and are associated with the minimization of the costs and enhancement of the technology. There are numerous interesting and useful features that are being incorporated in these packages such as automated and customized reporting, frequent and scheduled alerts, ease of transactions and easier management, integration and convenient development (James, 2016).

The accounting activities are huge and varied in terms of volume and operations. However, there are primarily three classes of services and operation that the accounting software packages of Australia offer to their customers viz. accounting services, auditing services and bookkeeping operations (Afpbb, 2016). There are close to 10k companies that provide automated accounting services and the employees that are associated and collaborated with these companies are over 134,000. The expansion of the companies, their clients and their operations is on an ever increasing pace and it is because of this reason that it has been estimated that there will be further development of close to 5.5% in the year 2016-17 in order to achieve AUD 20.7 billion (Bankwest, 2015).

Intuit QuickBooks

Accounting software packages and the companies that are developing and providing the same are huge in number in Australia. There are several such packages that can be deployed and acquired by the customers and one some extremely useful and popular one out of the list is the Intuit QuickBooks package.  

• The package offers the features and benefits associated with cost-savings and cost-effectiveness.
• The package has an equally good performance for the business users as well as the individual users.
• The package scores exceedingly well in terms of the storage of data, management of data along with the other operations on the data and information.
• The package allows the users to do the payroll payments for the free of cost.
• The package can be accessed on mobile platform as well as on the web platforms without any performance issues.
• Security is the most important advantage of this package as it comes with basic as well as enhanced security mechanisms to allow the customers to avail the same without any security risks and threats (Advisoryhq, 2015).

Accounting software packages and the companies that are developing and providing the same are huge in number in Australia. There are several such packages that can be deployed and acquired by the customers and one some extremely useful and popular one out of the list is the MYOB package. 

• The business users can experience and view the real-time situations and context with the aid of this software package.
• Point of Sale (POS) transactions and operations can be done easily with the aid of this software package.
• There are no issues with the continuity of accounting activities even in case of network loss or breakdown as this package can be used in the offline mode as well.
• There are no issues with the compliance and related formalities associated with this software
• There is an option of customization that is also available that allows the users to include additional features and functionalities (Myob, 2016).

Accounting software packages and the companies that are developing and providing the same are huge in number in Australia. There are several such packages that can be deployed and acquired by the customers and one some extremely useful and popular one out of the list is the Reckon package. 

• The customer base that is associated with this package is huge and therefore the investments that are made using this accounting software package remain safe and secure.
• It offers easier integration with the rest of the activities and services in the organization.
• Some of the advanced features that are offered by this package include management of credit, management of billing activities, resource planning, processing of taxes and many more (Carey, 2015).

Accounting Software Packages and Latest Advancements

Accounting software packages and the companies that are developing and providing the same are huge in number in Australia. There are several such packages that can be deployed and acquired by the customers and one some extremely useful and popular one out of the list is the Saasu package. 

The integration and connectivity that is offered by this particular accounting software package has no comparison and also it offers the activities to be completed and customized on the basis of several currency options that are available for the customers. Also, there can be customizations that can be done in this package in terms of language and themes.

Accounting software packages and the companies that are developing and providing the same are huge in number in Australia. There are several such packages that can be deployed and acquired by the customers and one some extremely useful and popular one out of the list is the Xero package. 

• The processing speed along with the online transactional speed is extremely fast.
• The software allows the reconciliation activities to be done quickly and without any compromise in performance as well
• The software package allows the users to experience enhance usability along with rich user experience.
• Integration and connection that can be done with this package is easy and quick (Miller, 2016).

The following table brings out the comparison of the cost that is associated with the accounting software packages that are listed above.

Cost of the accounting software (www.advisoryhq.com, 2015).

• There can be numerous frauds that may be given shape by the attackers and hackers in terms of the information security threats and there may also be a number of insider threats that may also emerge.
• Companies look for the accounting software packages that may be cost-effective in nature. There are many packages that are available at basic rates but the cost of the add-ons is huge and that disturbs the estimated budget for the company (Crowder, 2016).
• There are requirements for the users to have some sort of system documentation available to allow them to run several functionalities without any errors. Accounting is one department in which there is lesser scope for errors and any mistake can prove to have devastating results. Companies at times do not provide adequate documentation and therefore the users face troubles during the usage.
• Maintenance and support is also often the major challenges as these activities are not developed correctly.

References

Advisoryhq.com, (2015) 5 Best Small Business Accounting Software in Australia. [online] AdvisoryHQ. Available at: https://www.advisoryhq.com/articles/5-best-small-business-accounting-software-in-australia/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Afpbb, (2016) The Australian Accounting Industry. [online] Afpbb.net.au. Available at: https://www.afpbb.net.au/Resources/TheAustralianAccountingIndustry.aspx [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Bankwest, (2015) Accounting Services Industry Report. 1st ed. [ebook] Bankwest. Available at: https://www.bankwest.com.au/cs/ContentServer%3Fpagename%3DFoundation/CS/Blob/Document%26id%3D1292539844555%26ext%3D.pdf+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=in [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Carey, M. (2015) Cloud Accounting Overview 2015: MYOB Essentials vs Xero vs Intuit QuickBooks Online vs Reckon One – Digital First. [online] Digital First. Available at: https://www.digitalfirst.com/2015-overview-cloud-accounting-software/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Crowder, C. (2016) [online] Techin.oureverydaylife.com. Available at: https://techin.oureverydaylife.com/disadvantages-accounting-software-1965.html [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Gulledge, T. (2002). Business process management: public sector implications. Business Process Management Journal, 8(4), pp.364-376.

Henderson, L. (2004). Encoding and decoding communication competencies in project management ? an exploratory study. International Journal of Project Management, 22(6), pp.469-476.

James, D. (2016) 7 accounting packages for Australian small businesses compared: including MYOB, QuickBooks Online, Reckon, Xero. [online] BIT. Available at: https://www.bit.com.au/Review/344651,7-accounting-packages-for-australian-small-businesses-compared-including-myob-quickbooks-online-reckon-xero.aspx [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Mallery, M. (2011). Project Management Portal (PMP) from the University of Washington Information Technology Wiki – https://wiki.cac.washington.edu/display/pmportal/Project+Management+Portal. Technical Services Quarterly, 28(3), pp.365-367.

Miller, K. (2016) Xero Review 2016 | Reviews, Ratings, Complaints, Comparisons. [online] Merchant Maverick. Available at: https://www.merchantmaverick.com/reviews/xero-review/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Mohapatra, S. and Patnaik, A. (2011). Sustainability in HRIS implementation through effective project management. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 3(1), p.78.

Myob, (2016) Online Accounting Software for Businesses | MYOB. [online] Myob.com. Available at: https://www.myob.com/au/accounting-software/compare [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Ryan, E. (2016) The Evolution of Accounting Software: Past, Present and Future|. [online] Gaaaccounting.com. Available at: https://www.gaaaccounting.com/the-evolution-of-accounting-software-past-present-and-future/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Seethamraju, R. (2012). Business process management: a missing link in business education. Business Process Management Journal, 18(3), pp.532-547.

Woolworths, (2017). Woolworths Supermarket – Buy Groceries Online. [online] Woolworths Online. Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 10 Apr. 2017].

Yang, Y. and Tamir, G. (2015). Offshore software project management: mapping project success factors. International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 7(2), p.111.

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