Operational Issues and the ERP System
Discuss about the Information System Integration Enabling Control.
Globalization has become the major reason that enforces many companies to keep focus on their organizational structure. A strategic Information system is considered as an effective tool to operate the entire system of the business in a smooth manner. It is aligned with the structure and strategy that enhances the capability to respond quickly to environmental changes and hence builds competitive advantages. The discussion has been made on operational issues and ERP system. System flow chart of the sales procedures has been defined in this paper in the context of the chosen company. Atlassian Corporation is a large software company in Australia that introduces a product for software developers, project managers and content developers. Issue tracking application of its firm is well known. The paper will elaborate the control problems issues in the context of using accounting software by the chosen company. The leaders in the market of this company all over Australia and the reason why are they getting competitive advantages will be defined in a sophisticated manner which will be helpful to increase the better understanding of the reader about the assignment.
Atlassian Corporation has adopted the hierarchical structure where every employee of the company has a certain role as per their positions. As per Galliers and Leidner, (2014), strategic information system has huge role in the development of the organization as it facilitates not only in providing information about the company but also helps to make a decision in the context of the growth of the company. It is one of the largest Australian based software companies. It has more than 60000 customers that are served by around 2300 employees. It has a wide network of information sources which helps it to develop MIS organizational structure that is considered as more hierarchical structure (Atlassion, 2018). It has been found that the level of information is always dependent on the organizational structure of the company. The first level of this information sustains strategic planning at the top level of management. The second level of information facilitates in decision making along with the tactical planning for the control of management. The third level of information resources assists in daily activities of the operations and controls the organization in an adequate manner. The last level entails various information regarding with transactional processing.
The operational issues within the form can reduce the productivity of the form and may lead the organization into the adverse situation. There are various operational concerns that impact the business adversely and being the cause of less productivity. Laudon and Laudon, (2016), suggest that many sorts of errors and conflicts can arise within the organization due to the ineffective organizational structure. The long chain of the organizational structure can create the errors in the operation and be the cause of miscommunication between employee and employer. Internal as well as external factors are liable to increase the operational issues within the organization. The data notion should be installed by company to increase the efficiency of the operation. The rigidness in the software system is another operational issues which being the cause of losing data from the organization. It has been analyzed that when operations and activities of the company are growing rapidly and reaching worldwide, it is vital for some projects of the company to be accomplished at the place of located company that would be helpful to increase the economic condition of the country in an efficient manner. Dull and Wheeler, (2011), supports that it can be good decision for the company because it decreases the costs for the software development. Cost issues influence the efficiency of the budget that is why the pricing strategy and budgeting system of the company should be effective. The skilled staffs are able to fight any kinds of conflicts on the other hand inefficiency in the workers can bring the huge issues in the operation which may impact the entire functions of the company. It is required for the manager of the company to distinguish the work among the different employees as per their skills which facilitates organization to overcome the operational issues (Scanlon, Miller, Wolfangel, Wright and Hauch, Red Hat Inc, 2010).
Control Problems with Accounting Software
Atlassian can implemented number of system acquisition method to manage their day to day activities of the operation. Thus, it is vital for the company to execute the effective and unique software system to evaluate the present condition of the organization (Lund, Petry, Croteau, Okumura, and Carroll, Google Inc, 2010). It has been found that the system acquisition method is utilized by this company to make effective strategies for the development of the company. The description of some of the software that is executed by the company has been defined below.
The commercial software can be explained as the software of the computer which is executed for selling the products and services. It facilitates to maintain the daily activities records of the company because it is not possible for the multinational companies to write down about the selling procedure of the company. With the help of MS office and Microsoft Window Company can handle its various activities. The competitive advantages of the company can be attained by using commercial software. There are various multinational companies such as Google, Microsoft, IBM and Dell that are using commercial software to increase its sales.
Custom software is not made for every organization as it comes to work for specific organization and users. This software is made after analyzing the demand of the customers. It is used for managing the account of other company. It can be compared with the usage of various software packages that are developed for the mass market like commercial off the shelf software (Huang, Chan, Ng and Yeung, 2010).
Enterprise resource planning can be referred as the business process management software that permits the company to use a system of integrated applications to manage the business activities as well as the operation in an effective manner. Forecasting is necessary for the business to plan the further strategic decision which can be done in a sophisticated manner with the help of ERP system. Atlassian is able to transfer the data from one place to another each day with the help of ERP system.
System flowchart is a way of describing how data flows in a system and define the process to control the events. It is considered as the physical design technique that signifies the activities and operations which would be executed in an information system. Along with that, the system flowchart facilitates Atlassian to sell their services and products in the worldwide market (Zalan, Muzychenko and Burshtein, 2009). It has been found that the system flow charts facilitates in evaluating the process of business and handling sales by the software application. Training and development program can be implemented by the organization to execute the system flowchart system within the organization as it facilitates employee to understand what the role of it within the organization is. Effective accounting services can be given by the company with the help of system flow chart.
Adoption of Various Software Packages for Managing Day-to-Day Operations
The system flowchart can decrease the issues within the company and increase the revenues by providing the number of services to its customers.
Atlassian is facing a number of control problems including data collection, cyber security and staff retention issues. Due to enhancing pressure to cloud and superiority of software, the effective endowment of hackers, it has become hard for the company to save their data for customers in the market. It has been found that unequalled levels are being used to shift the data. Thus, it is hard to make control of the cloud-based services (Hülsmann, Grapp and Li, 2008). The completion of this company is huge as it increases the difficulties to retain the customers that influence the success of the company. Along with this, there are a number of control issues by which Atlassian has to manage with such as cyber security and data collection. The data with the company is at risk due to entire data of the company related to cloud. It is vital for the organization to safeguard the data as it would impact the image of the company in the point of view of outsiders as well as employees. Hackers are the biggest challenge for the company as they can steal relevant and authenticated information regarding the business information of the company.
It has been stated by Galliers and Leidner, (2014), that because of several reasons, it is possible that hackers can corrupt the information which may reveal the strategy or formula of the company. It would bring the huge financial loss along with losing the trust of customers. It has been analyzed that Atlassian can face the risk of financial frauds which could hamper the revenues and profits of the company. The company has huge responsibility of many companies as it develops the software which comes in use by many companies in different activities (Klein and Rai, 2009).
According to Boonstra, (2013), there are a number of companies in Australia that use accounting software to maintain the activities of its financial term. Along with that various companies utilize some sort of cloud system and among them; MYOB, Xero and Reckon have usually held the lion’s share of the market. It has been analyzed that both have strategies or cloud services. Additionally, the accounting software has become huge as it assists the company for maintaining the financial activities in an efficient manner. It reveals that the accounting software is not providing the facilities of managing the financial activities but also it helps out to make a proper decision regarding the management of the company (Gullkvist and Jokipii, 2013).
Risk of Cyber Threats and Data Collection
Therefore, the adoption of accounting software packages is wise decision to make it. Traditionally Reckon has conquered other accounting packages but initiatives of MYOB and Xero have given a huge segment to SME business. It has been analyzed that 40 percent of latest MYOB product registrations are available for cloud-based solutions (Gelinas, Dull and Wheeler, 2011). Earlier, companies in Australia were using Jira and confluences software for their clients as well as themselves but now they have rolled out by Xero software (JIRA Software, 2018). This software is helpful to remove the bugs in the process that facilitates in removing the errors in the project management. Trello, Google Docs, Basecamp and Share point are major competitors of the company that have confined the huge part of the market.
The company has provided a number of services to its clients in which it has around 75000 clients. This is done because of the innovations in its products they have made such as software packages. There is a huge contribution of Confluences, Jira and Xero in covering the huge area of the market which is used by all their clients in an effective manner. It has been found that Atlassian is the biggest partner companies all over the world. The use of accounting software is expanded day by day in every industry where the contribution of Australia is huge in it.
There are several competitors available in the market of Australia in which the bigger competitors are Asana, Bugzilla, Redmine, TFS, Axosoft and many more. Along with that, it has been found that they are losing market to Adobe CQ, Liferay, TYPO3 and dotCMS. In the current market of Australia, VersionOne is the market leader as it gives effective and efficient software platform that is made for Agile as well as DevOps (Karunakaran, 2013). The usage of this software gives the huge competitive advantage to them. Along with that the Australian government is focused towards the latest technology and contribute to the development of it which helps them to attain competitive advantages.
According to Boonstra, (2013), users of strategic information system, as well as accounting software has to face a number of issues which is the reason of gaps and challenges. It is vital for the company to address these issues in a proper manner so as to increase the sales of the company. Hackers are considered as the biggest challenge for this kind of software as they can hack the confidential information of the company which may bring the adverse situation in the form of financial and client loss. It is essential for them to make sure that the software packages used by the company need to be safe so that information cannot be revealed (Chapman and Kihn, 2009). Data abstraction feature should be considered by the company in an effective manner in which the company require a better platform where the accessibility of the confidential data is given to reliable stakeholders. The users can face the challenge of unawareness about how to operate latest information system in an adequate manner (Huang, Yen, Hung, Zhou and Hua, 2009).
It has been recommended to the company that uses software for managing their daily activities to install a firewall. It is an effective approach that can protect the data through passwords and other authentications system. There should be better control over the ERP system so that they can get protection in opposition to the risks that are developed in the business. The adoption of accounting software should be done after analysing that which software will be suitable for managing the financial activities of the company.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that ERP System has an efficient role in managing the daily activities of the organization. The paper has been made on Atlassian in which the organizational structure and the control issues due to lack of efficiency in organizational structure have been defined. The use of accounting software and its examples in the market of Australia has been elaborated for making a better understanding of the concept of the paper. Leaders of the market and how they attain the competitive advantage has been explained.
References
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