Overview of the Revenue Cycle for Motherboards and More
The paper reflects on the case study “Motherboards and More Pty Ltd which is one of the privately owned enterprises of Australia. The organization mainly manufacturers various types of computer parts including motherboards, graphics as well as microchips The orders are mainly placed by the customers with the help of website, email as well as telephone. It is identified that the orders of the customers are generally picked as well as sent in the warehouse where they are generally placed near the alphabetical order by the name of the customers. The loading dock is mainly utilized for outgoing shipments as well as for receiving different types of incoming alphabets. It is found that increase in sales numbers creates number of errors including late delivery of customer’s orders, delays in shipments improper maintenance of warehouse, improper physical count of inventory and more. The system is generally configured for preparing sales invoice after shipping employees enter the actual quantity, which helps in ensuring that the customers are only billed only for the items that are actually sent.
The internal control weaknesses in Motherboards and More Revenue Cycle include:
Improper management: The organization “Motherboard and More Pty Ltd.” faces number of difficulties due to enhanced number of sales. This is because with the increase number of sales, the organization are unable to manage the orders of sales due to absence of proper system due to which there have also been delays in shipping various items which are mainly found in the warehouse (Scaife et al., 2016)
Inappropriate tracking: The organization does not have proper tracking system and as a result, they cannot maintain their inventory properly. It is found that there is no physical count over two years in the organization. When any item is not found then the staff of the warehouse notes the information within the logbook.
Absence of proper billing system: Due to absence of proper billing system, it is identified that that the organization sends an invoice to the customers after shipping by entering the number of quantities that are sent to the customer (Tai, Xie & Ching, 2016). This helps in ensuring that the customers generally bills items that are actually sent but not for anything, that was back order.
The impact of the weaknesses on the organization includes:
Loss of customers: Due to late delivery or improper customer service, the customers can opt for another manufacturer and as a result, the company will lose its customers, which have negative impact on the yearly revenue of the business.
Loss of revenue: Due to huge market competition as well as loss of customers, it is quite difficult to achieve appropriate revenue from the business (Sharif et al., 2016).Thus, the organization must use proper technique for managing their business.
Face challenge for existing in the market: The Company “Motherboard and More Pty Ltd” will face number of challenges due to loss of competitors. It will be quite difficult for the organization to exist in the market if proper resolution methods or strategies for improving their business system are not done.
Internal control weaknesses in the Revenue Cycle
The internal control, which may be implemented by motherboard include:
Implementation of proper inventory system: The organization must utilize proper inventory system in order to manage sales of the organization (Xie & Ching, 2016). This is quite beneficial in reducing the difficulties that the organization faces due to enhanced number of sales.
Implementation of proper billing system: Proper billing system must be utilized so that the organization can easily track the cost of the delivered products as well as the items of back order without any difficulty (Tai, Xie & Ching, 2016).
Proper management: Proper management system must be utilized by the organization so that they can manage sales, delivery and other activities quite easily without facing any type of difficulty.
Figure 1: Level 0 DFD
(Source: Created by the Author)
Ransomware is defined as one of the subset of Malware in which various data of the victims are generally locked within the computer typically with the help of the encryption and thus payment is mainly demanded before the decryption of the ransomed data and thus access is mainly returned to the victim. It is identified that in this attack, the victim is generally notified about exploitation has occurred (Kharraz et al., 2016). It is identified that ransomware attacks mainly occurs due to self-replicating software that generally take advantage of vulnerabilities of older version of Microsoft windows. It generally spreads from one computer to computer as the exposed target is found.
The recommendations include:
Wary of malicious mail: All the users must beware of wary emails as well as attachment in order to reduce the chances of ransomware attack, as another major way of spreading ransomware attack is emails as well as attachments.
Downloading new path from windows: The users of the windows XP can generally defend themselves from the attack by downloading new patch from the windows. This is quite helpful in reducing the chances of ransomware attack.
Update the system: The system must be updated with the help of Windows update. This helps in minimizing the chances of attacking with ransomware.
Utilization of firewall: It is found that active firewall as well as antimalware solution can reduce attacks that occur in the hospital. It is found that both Firewall as well as windows defender are quite adequate and thus a thus third party antimalware solution is quite better.
The most appropriate method that must be adopted by the hospital for minimizing this type of cases in the future is by updating the system regularly. It is identified that by regularly updating the system, the chances of ransom attack reduces.
References:
Kharraz, A., Arshad, S., Mulliner, C., Robertson, W. K., &Kirda, E. (2016, August). UNVEIL: A Large-Scale, Automated Approach to Detecting Ransomware. In USENIX Security Symposium (pp. 757-772).
Mercaldo, F., Nardone, V., Santone, A., &Visaggio, C. A. (2016, June). Ransomware steals your phone. formal methods rescue it. In International Conference on Formal Techniques for Distributed Objects, Components, and Systems (pp. 212-221). Springer, Cham.
Scaife, N., Carter, H., Traynor, P., & Butler, K. R. (2016, June). Cryptolock (and drop it): stopping ransomware attacks on user data. In Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), 2016 IEEE 36th International Conference on (pp. 303-312). IEEE
Sharif, K. I., Ibrahim, J. A., Udin, Z. M., & Othman, A. A. (2016). Decision making of spare parts inventory based on risk quantification. International Journal of Supply Chain Management, 5(3), 96-9.
Sittig, D. F., & Singh, H. (2016). A socio-technical approach to preventing, mitigating, and recovering from ransomware attacks. Applied clinical informatics, 7(2), 624.
Tai, A. H., Xie, Y., &Ching, W. K. (2016). Inspection policy for inventory system with deteriorating products. International Journal of Production Economics, 173, 22-29.