Background of the Organization
Discuss about the Strategic Information System.
There are several entities and departments that make up an organization. It is essential for the organizations to have an integrated unit with all the departments linked together. There are often certain departments which are essential and there are also some which are not very essential. One of the extremely essential departments in the organization is Accounts department. This is the department that was entirely functional upon paper based records and manual processes to carry out the accounting operations. Technology has evolved itself and has applied to the department of accounts which has led to the use and application of automation in the same. Automated and integrated packages offering required services and accounting activities are being provided by numerous providers in the market. Australian industry has also witnessed the presence of a lot many providers in this regard.
Online retailing is on a rise in the present times and there are several organizations in Australia and on a global scale that are doing business in this field. Woolworths Limited is one such organization that has set its foot in Australia and is a retail store that provides the customers with a variety of products such as groceries and many more.
The organizational structure that is followed at Woolworths comprises of several levels in which the resources have been placed. Some of these levels include top level management, leadership levels, operational staff and many more. Collaboration of these resources from all the levels is essential to ensure that Woolworths succeeds in achieving the goals (Woolworths, 2017).
As stated in the overview of the organization and its organizational structure above, it can be observed that there are many resources in Woolworths that have been placed at several levels. Woolworths will be able to achieve its objectives only when the resources collaborate with each other and function as one team. However, such a strong integration is currently missing from Woolworths which leads to a lot many problems in the operational and managerial activities (Henderson, 2004).
System acquisition methods that can be applied in case of Woolworths are many in number. The organization can go for utilization of custom software and can also implement the required functionalities with the aid of commercial software. The most applicable methods out of all will be the use and implementation of enterprise application as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (Yang and Tamir, 2015).
Issues associated with Current Organizational Structure
ERP will provide the organization with the ability to overcome the issues associated with the organizational structure as stated above (Mallery, 2011).
Sales operations in Woolworths are carried out in four phases one after the other as depicted in the flow chart above.
Woolworths: Sales Process
Business objectives act as the input for the sales procedures which lead to the satisfied customers as an outcome. There are numerous sub-activities that are carried out in between (Gulledge, 2002).
As seen in the flow chart above, there are four phases in the sales procedures with multiple activities and sub-activities being carried out at each phase. As a result, there are several problems associated with control and monitoring of the entire process. Manual tracking and management of these activities is not feasible due to the vastness of operations and therefore use of automated systems would be essential to tactfully control and monitor the sales operations.
Because of the varying activities and excessive numbers, there are also some of the frauds and malevolent practices that have been observed in terms of information handling and exchange of information (Mohapatra and Patnaik, 2011).
One of the extremely essential departments in the organization is Accounts department. This is the department that was entirely functional upon paper based records and manual processes to carry out the accounting operations. Technology has evolved itself and has applied to the department of accounts which has led to the use and application of automation in the same. Automated and integrated packages offering required services and accounting activities are being provided by numerous providers in the market (Seethamraju, 2012).
There has been a shift and transformation in the customer expectations as well. Earlier, customers did not complaint regarding the involvement of long queues and waiting hours; however, such delays are not acceptable in the present times. In case of a system downtime, customer engagement and level of satisfaction will immediately drop down. Similarly, the levels and expectations in terms of performance of the system along with its usability has also changed and evolved with time (James, 2016).
One of the extremely essential departments in the organization is Accounts department. This is the department that was entirely functional upon paper based records and manual processes to carry out the accounting operations. Technology has evolved itself and has applied to the department of accounts which has led to the use and application of automation in the same. Automated and integrated packages offering required services and accounting activities are being provided by numerous providers in the market (Afpbb, 2016). There are more than 11,000 firms that work in the area of accounts and related activities and more than 135,000 individuals are engaged as employees in these firms. With such a huge share of market, it is expected that the industry will grow to another 6% in terms of revenues and profits in the current financial year (Bankwest, 2015).
Method of System Acquisition
The market share and market size that is associated with accounting industry is huge as can be seen from the number presented in the previous sections. According to the requirements and demands from the customers, there are numerous providers that have established themselves and have emerged in the market to provide customized automated accounting software package. One of the leading accounting package providers in the list is Reckon. The unique features of the provider have been illustrated below.
- Excellent reputation in market with good reviews from customers
- Ensures that the investments will remain safe. There is no risk involved in this regard
- Provides the ability to easily integrate the system with other sub-systems
- Use of latest technology at the back-end for faster processings (Carey, 2015).
The market share and market size that is associated with accounting industry is huge as can be seen from the number presented in the previous sections. According to the requirements and demands from the customers, there are numerous providers that have established themselves and have emerged in the market to provide customized automated accounting software package. One of the leading accounting package providers in the list is MYOB. The unique features of the provider have been illustrated below.
- Real-time picture can be seen with the aid of this package
- Point of Sale (PoS) transactions can be easily done
- Does not depend upon the network issues for delivering the excellent performance
- Adheres to the standards and compliance policies
- Scalability and supportability offered is excellent (Myob, 2016).
Market share and market size that is associated with accounting industry is huge as can be seen from the number presented in the previous sections. According to the requirements and demands from the customers, there are numerous providers that have established themselves and have emerged in the market to provide customized automated accounting software package. One of the leading accounting package providers in the list is Xero. The unique features of the provider have been illustrated below.
- Back-end processing is very quick leading to shorter response time
- Reconciliation tasks and processes can be easily executed
- Usability and user experience is super rich
- Easy integration with the rest of the systems (Miller, 2016).
The market share and market size that is associated with accounting industry is huge as can be seen from the number presented in the previous sections. According to the requirements and demands from the customers, there are numerous providers that have established themselves and have emerged in the market to provide customized automated accounting software package. One of the leading accounting package providers in the list is Saasu. The unique features of the provider have been illustrated below.
- Easy collaboration with the rest of the systems
- Customer base is strong
- Scalability and supportability along with adaptability of the system is excellent
- There are many currency and language options
The market share and market size that is associated with accounting industry is huge as can be seen from the number presented in the previous sections. According to the requirements and demands from the customers, there are numerous providers that have established themselves and have emerged in the market to provide customized automated accounting software package. One of the leading accounting package providers in the list is Intuit QuickBooks. The unique features of the provider have been illustrated below.
- Charges extremely low from the customers for providing the services
- No issues with performance have been observed
- Data related operations and the management of the data is excellent
- Payroll services can be availed without spending any penny
- Mobile application for the package has also been developed
- There are no security occurrences and breaches that have taken place in the past (Advisoryhq, 2015).
|
Type of Cost for the Accounting Software Package |
Reckon |
MYOB |
Xero |
Saasu |
Intuit QuickBooks |
|
Basic Package |
$5 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$50 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$9 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$15 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$12 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
|
Advanced Package |
Decided as per add-ons that are included |
$99 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$70 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$180 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
$21 would be charged from the customer with the validity period of the package as one month |
Cost Table (Advisoryhq, 2015)
- There are a number issues and challenges that are associated in terms of the security vulnerabilities that may have an adverse impact upon the information of the users and the system
- The overall cost is sometimes not revealed by the providers at the time of purchase and the customers are then asked to pay a heavy amount at the later stages (Crowder, 2016).
- System documentation and user manuals are not provided to the customers that bring them to a situation when it becomes very difficult to understand the steps to follow to execute a particular operation
- Support after the deployment and delivery is often not up to the mark
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 25 Apr. 2017].
Afpbb, (2016) The Australian Accounting Industry. [online] Afpbb.net.au. Available at: https://www.afpbb.net.au/Resources/TheAustralianAccountingIndustry.aspx [Accessed 25 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 25 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 25 Apr. 2017].
Crowder, C. (2016) [online] Techin.oureverydaylife.com. Available at: https://techin.oureverydaylife.com/disadvantages-accounting-software-1965.html [Accessed 25 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 25 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 25 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 25 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 25 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 25 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.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
