HI5019 Strategic Information Systems : Issue in the Control and Manage

ny further has four departments, namely risk and audit committee, sustainability committee, nomination committee as well as the remuneration committee. For the purpose of management and governance, the company has the department of policy formulation which includes charter, code of business conduct, risk management policy, sustainable development policy, human resources policy and resource planning. Also the company has key committees that include group management committee, financial risk management committee, global ethics panel, market risk management committee. There is also a department that is responsible to lay down the key standards and procedures which includes financial reporting standards, financial external reporting procedure, environment standard, fraud management procedure etc. for the purpose of assurance the company BHP Billiton has external auditors, group audit services, health safety environment and community auditors, peer review major projects and ore/oil/gas reserves review.

Operational Problem

Due to the organizational structure the company BHP Billiton shall be facing the problem of (Treville, et al., 2017):

• Wastage issue: such issue arises out of the issue in the control and management of the company (Hemmatfar, et al., 2010). As the company BHP Billiton has various sub departments in the departments of the organization, at times such organizational structure leads to the wastage of human as well as the physical resources along with financial resources. Such wastage can also be because of lack of communication due to the complex structure within the organization (Linnenluecke & Griffiths, 2010).
• Delay issue:  the company can face the problem in delayed decision making as well as delayed grabbing of the market opportunities. This is so because of the complex as well as lengthy organizational structure. However, the company is divided in just 4 departments, but under these departments the company has various personnel as well as sub-departments. Hence, for decision making and grabbing the market opportunities, the decision procedure includes various personnel and steps, which leads to delayed decision making (Guide & Ketokivi, 2017). Due to such organizational structure the company is not able to make the most of the business opportunities and hence, is not able to maintain the competitive advantage in the business market.  
• Quality issues: quality is the essence of any organization’s performance. Same is the case with the company BHP Billiton. The company operates on the aim to be at a leading position of the global resources and to main long term relationship with the stakeholders. All these aims can be obtained only when the company has such an organizational structure that focuses highly on the quality and standards. But in case of the company BHP Billiton the organizational structure highly complicated because of the increased number of the sub departments. To maintain and ensure high quality, communication of the standards is mandatory. But due to such complexion in the organizational structure, the employees gets confused about the reporting relationships and also at times, they are not aware about the standards and the work quality that is expected (Gunasekaran, 2017).

Most Likely Sysem Acquisition Methods

(Manikas & Hansen, 2013) The most prominent system acquisition methods are the commercial software as well as customer software along with ERP, which stands Enterprise Resource Planning (Addo-Tenkorang & Helo, 2011). Elaborating the software terms, the commercial software refers to the program which has been formulated and developed in order to ensure the license or for the purpose of sale to the ultimate or the end users. Such software is generally expected at the times of serving a commercial purpose. Initially, when it was in the development phase, the commercial software was referred as the software of the proprietors that is, it was being considered as the proprietary software (Li, et al., 2013). But in the contemporary era, the software is available through various open sources. It is easy to implement and is economic but before its usage the user has to pay, irrespective of their experience with the software. The custom software, as the name expresses is the software that is customized according to the needs and specifications of the users. The users can be an individual or an organization of any type. This software is also called as tailor made software. This software is expected to be proven as the most developed and designed effective software, as it is being developed on the basis of the needs of the users. However, as it is a customized the software takes a lot of time as well as cost to get developed and designed. Talking about the ERP which stands for Enterprise resource planning, helps the organization in practicing an integrated application system that assists in managing the operations and functions of the business. This software also handles the back office operations that are concerned with the matter of technology, personnel as well as the services offered (Beheshti & Beheshti, 2010).

Among the three, the most likely system acquisition method is the ERP, which stands for enterprise resource planning, followed by custom software and then the commercial software. This is because the ERP method has the ability to have a deep knowledge regarding the management and other processes of the organization and, develop and design software according to the needs of the organization. Moreover, the custom software is also considered to be prominent because of the fact that is provides the flexibility to the user to tailor the software according to their needs and preferences. However, custom software is expected to be practiced by the large organizations which have a great turnover, as this software is expensive and takes time in developing.  

Control Problems and Possible Frauds

The problems in the control of the enterprise resource planning arise as the software enables the organization to formulate an integrated application system that assists in managing the operations and functions of the business. This software also handles the back office operations that are concerned with the matter of technology, personnel as well as the services offered. The control of implementation of the enterprise resource planning faces various problems from within the organization. Firstly, it becomes complicated to have an idea regarding the selection in matter of the perfect product that shall ensure success. The selection becomes difficult due to the fact that there are more than 500 applications related to ERP in the market.  However, more than this the ERP faces issue in the implementation because of the commitment from the top management. As this system is closely involved in the management process, the senior personnel play a very important role in the implementation, which further marks to be the invitation of delayed decision making and complex implementation. The biggest threat to the enterprise resource planning system is the fraud of leakage of relevant and confidential information. Also the system has the risk of getting the operations and functions of the business disrupted due to the attacks of the hackers. Moreover, the ERP software has the disadvantage of getting disrupted or disoriented in the middle of the implementation or the during the ongoing process, which further has the risk of getting fraudulent because of the leakage of the relevant and confident piece of information (Sharma & Panigrahi, 2013).  

Part 2

Development and Adoption of The Accounting Software Packages

Due to the advancement in the information technology sector, the software of accounting is getting in practice in Australia. Initially the jobs were done in batches and this marks to be the reason that theta the organizations initiated the step to make an investment for the purpose of developing the proprietary accounting system. In the year 1973, the idea of accounting was considered to be feasible, because of the enhancing and growing technology the computers were becoming capable to perform and get installed the system software. Now the computers, because of the advanced technology, have become capable to handle large sized operations that help in easy and quick financial responses. The adopting of the accounting software has been practices at a faster pace in Australia. In fact the small size business of the Australia is more towards the adoption of the accounting software packages. The reason behind such improvement in the pace of the accounting software is the reduction in the complexity of the paperwork process, free from the risk and fraud of errors and omission, time saving as well as economic in costing. The accounting system is easy as it just requires the input, and the output is being presented automatically which is more efficient, exact and quick (Kanellou, 2013).

Current Market Size

The current market size of the accounting software packages in the country Australia. The history of the development of this accounting software has been remarkable. Australia is marked to be having the three biggest accounting system, that are so advanced and developed that they provide such services that enables the growing small and medium sized companies of Australia to have a competitive advantage in the market. These three accounting software package is Xero, Intuit and MYOB that has the capability of dominating the accounting software market of Australia. However, even this software that are developed by these companies have shortcomings, but strategies has been formulated to overcome such shortcomings.

Leaders And The Competitive Advantage

The leading accounting software in the Australian accounting system market are being developed and designed by the three biggest software companies in Australia. The names of these companies are Xero as well as MYBO along with Intuit. These companies are proving to dominate the Australian accounting system market. The reason being the efficiency, correctness as well as the effectiveness that is being provided by the software which is being developed by these leading companies. The major competitive advantage of these biggest accounting software companies are that it integrates the software of the account into cloud. This is done for the purpose of solving the issues and the challenges which is concerned with the desktop accounting software system.

Challenges And Recommendations 

With the advancement in the technology, the accounting systems have improved accordingly. But, with the advancements comes the challenges. The users of the accounting systems or packages are facing various issues which are concerned with the lack of security, under which relevant and confidential information is being leaked out. Also the challenge of weak reporting services, lack of efficiency and accuracy and features along with being expensive are being faced by the users (Ghasemi, et al., 2011). However, with every problem comes the solution. Following are the certain recommendations:

• The accounting system to be used must be selected only after proper analysis of the requirements. For this purpose, it is advisable to use the QuickBooks online.
• The company must ensure that the company has a business only checking account.
• Connecting the bank accounts with QuickBooks shall also serve the purpose.
• Cloud based accounting platform must be adopted for the purpose of storage.
• To ensure error free accounting, the computers must be upgraded.

References:

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