Discuss about the Strategic Information System Of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited in Australia.
Just about a decade ago the demand to use cloud-based accounting software was being neglected in Australia. Many business and accounting firms mainly depended on traditional accounting techniques to perform their day to day operations. During the 990s, several accounting software and spreadsheets have been introduced in the accounting sector and they have revolutionized the sector. Majority of accounting firms have adopted these accounting software in Australia and this has improved the efficiency of accounting operations in the organizations (Riungu-Kalliosaari et al, 2016). An example of the companies that have adopted the accounting software in Australia is Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited commonly known as Deloitte. This organization is among the world’s largest accounting firms based on the revenue collected and the number of professionals. This essay is a literature review on the company based on the current organizational structure with its related operation problems, the acquisition method, the sale procedures and any problem control system in the organization. This literature review also discusses the accounting software development and adoption as well as its challenges. Technology advancements occur each and every day and accounting firms should be flexible in adapting the software packages that can help them operate more efficiently.
The organizational structure of any organization is very critical in determining the success or failure of the organization. A good organizational structure should clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of every person as well as ensure a smooth and efficient information flow across all the levels in an organization. The Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited in Australia is governed by a body of governor headed by the chairman who is currently Mike Fucci. The board of governors has the responsibility to guide the company in achieving both its short term and long term strategies and objectives. The board has the role of stewarding and being the voice of all the partnership and ensuring that long-term success and short-term success of the organization are properly balanced for smooth operation. The board also has the duty of acting as a custodian of the partnership and offers oversight of management to guarantee the organization is protected from both the internal and external risks. The board of governors serves as the advocate of supporting the management to execute the organization’s longtime goals and strategy, therefore, ensuring the prosperity and growth of the organization.
The Organization also has a chief executive officer (CEO) currently Cindy Hook is occupying this after being appointed in the year 2015. The chief executive officer of Deloitte Australia is associated with her ability to embrace innovations that have driven the progress of the firm. The main role of the CEO is to develop sustainable and transformative solutions to their clients by bringing together all the resources available to the firm and integrating them well. The CEO is responsible for ensuring that the organization makes positive economic, social and cultural impacts in Australia.
The organization also has several management officers that are allocated different responsibilities in the operation of the organization. These officers include the chief operating officers, chief strategic officer, chief risk officer, the chief financial officer as several managing partners such as Audit & Assurance and clients and industries. They are in charge of their respective departments. The management officers are answerable to the chief executive officer who is, in turn, answerable to the board of governors. Going down the hierarchy we have the operation officers which include the accountants, technicians and subordinate staff of the organization. This organization structure ensures that information flow occurs efficiently thus allowing smooth operation of the organization.
The organizational structure of an organization can seem to be perfect and operational but its impact during the implementation stage is likely to expose the loopholes that may exist in the structure. Therefore, it is likely that the structure of this organization also has some problems in its implementation process. The first problem I think the structure has is that it has not articulated business model and strategy clearly. The structure has not clearly outlined the guidelines to be followed in making specific decisions. This may lead to ambiguity and confusion in making very important decisions that affect the operation of the organization. The other problem is that the structural design may not be sufficiently solving the problems faced by the organization. Problems facing any organization are dynamic and they change as time goes. A good structural organization should be redesigned periodically to ensure that it is aligned with the current problems at hand and I am not really sure when the organization started using this structure. Whatever year it is, a lot of business dynamics must have changed and therefore it requires to be redesigned.
There are several acquisition methods the company could be using including custom software, ERP or commercial software. Data acquisition is the procedure of selecting signals that can be used to measure real world physical conditions and convert the results into digital numeric values the computer can manipulate. The company is likely to be using commercial accounting software since the Sharesight Company announced that it had partnered with Deloitte and other accounting firms including the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC). The organization is using accounting software known as the Sharesight API. And this application provides an interface that allows third-party developers to access data on the behalf of the user. The software offers two APIs namely the Connect API and User API. The former is portfolio- based while the latter is user-based.
The system acquisition method allows the organization to acquire data from the clients, process it and deliver process information to the clients. The accounting software comes with the advantage of caring out accounting tasks in less time compared to traditional accounting methods. The software are also easy to use and they don’t require complex specialized skills to work with them. The organization is also most likely to be using custom software that are developed specifically to meet their organizational needs and requirements. Strategic
The above sale process flow chart I designed for the Deloitte Company in Australia is meant to illustrate all the possible actions and steps that the company can use to sell its goods and services. The flowchart shows the major steps of service and product delivery to ensure they meet the needs of their customers since customer satisfaction is an important goal of any business organization.
The flowchart is designed such that once the customer makes an order, the order has to be identified if it is a pick order, to be ordered or to be produced. Once this decision is made then a series of the process have been highlighted based on the decision made. After going the respective steps the product has to be packaged and an invoice developed. Finally, the product can now be shipped to the customer through the laid down shipment system the organization has chosen.
The control problems in the system may be communication channels and proper documentation. The best solution to this problem I recommend the company to employ mobile computing technologies. This technology ensures an efficient information management system for the organization. This will ensure that the organizational structure and even designed flowchart operates properly.
Accounting Software Packages have been developing gradually since the 1990s to date. Currently, the development of these packages is very rapid due to the advancement of technology. However, Markov and Brender (2013) cited that the main drawback of conventional accounting software is that they cannot be coupled to the internet and it also has to be installed into the computer operating system. In Australia, the cloud-based accounting software was introduced in the 1990s and they included applications such as Quick books, Xero and many more. This software was not readily accepted but with time they were adopted by big accounting firms and they have really revolutionized the accounting functions of these organizations.
The cloud-based accounting software was adopted by the accounting firms because of the benefits they offered to these organizations. One of the reasons that the software was adopted very fast in the Australian accounting sector is because they are easy to use. The simplicity in most of these software packages and the fact that no one needs much specialization to use them really lured many accounting firms to adopt them. Another reason for the rapid adoption of these packages is the fact that they are integrated and internet based in nature. The other reason could be because people in today’s era have a positive attitude to technology and they believe technology is a means of solving the various problems we face in accounting.
According to Miseviciene and Christauskas (2012), cloud-based accounting software packages have evolved to be more than a humble accounting package as a business management tool. Lack of incorporation of the diverse fundamentals of accounting functions could not easily interact with each other hence is the main challenge that the software packages faced in the 1990s. Also the coordination of purchase, sales and inventory management was missing hence the implementation of these was challenging. The existing regulations in the traditional techniques during that time were complex such that even the firms that were not based on accounting saw the need to evolve. Therefore specialized modules such as the secretarial functions, compliance functions, taxation and payroll, however, all these functions required integration with the back office functions.
Using cloud accounting software in the early days they were introduced was hindered by the challenges the accountants faced at that time. However, these challenges have been dealt with and the demand for cloud-based accounting software packages has increased in Australia. The available accounting software packages have successfully overcome the restrictions and challenges that the traditional accounting systems posed. Some of the common accounting based software packages that are being used in Australia today include MYOB, Quick books, Zoho books, Xero and Fresh books. The two main benefits that these accounting software packages are offering is the integration of accounting and automation (Cleary and Quinn, 2016). However, the stiff competition existing has made the software packages to almost have similar features and performance. The benefits offered by the accounting software packages are used by accounting firms to keep the competitive advantage over their competitors in the accounting sector. This software also have several advantages in accounting such as fast bank reconciliation, easy invoicing, faster management of inventory, integrated payroll, online bill payment, accessibility through mobile applications and smart reports and dashboards (Ferris and Red, 2017). This technology of account based software packages are becoming more common not only in Australia but all over the world because they allow multi-currency transactions, filling of GTS returns, storing accounting files online, generating purchase and sales orders as well as they can be used for asset accounting.
The number of potential users in the market usually determines the demand for any product. According to Marand et al, (2013), the current demand for the cloud accounting software packages in Australia is increasing rapidly among both small scale and big scale accounting firms. The automation features the packages has greatly led to their increased demand. In the context of Özdemir and Elita (2015), these software packages have a high demand because they don’t necessarily require to be installed in computers and they can as well be used to any electronic device as long as it is connected to the internet. The need for accounting firms to evolve and adapt to the dynamic technology also make these new accounting inventions to be at a very high demand in the accounting sector.
In a business environment where similar products can be offered by several organizations competition is always going to be there. The market for accounting software packages in Australia is mainly dominated by Quick books, Zoho books, Xero and MYOB. The competitive advantage this software have over their competitor is mainly based on price. The software offer features that are almost similar and organizations have to select the one that comes at a pocket-friendly price. The nature of the accounting firm and their banking requirements is also a factor that gives them a competitive advantage (Christauskas and Miseviciene, 2012). The use of these packages is more popular among the small and medium scale firms as compared to large-scale firms such as Woolworths.
The use of these software has so many benefits and they offer so many opportunities to accounting firms but they also come with several challenges. The first challenge is cost as Pendley (2015) mentioned in his article. The software packages require the establishment of a back-p data system with minimum speed and memory requirements. This will require a lot of funds to obtain the hardware components as well as the technical expertise to install and maintain them. There also monthly subscription fees to be paid for the software packages and they also have several add-on features that have to be purchased to support their operation (Pierce and Mworks, 2015). The cost involved is usually high and it may discourage firms, especially the small-scale accounting firms.
The other challenge is difficult in use since most of these packages are designed uniquely. Accountants used to traditional techniques find it very difficult to use them. The other challenge is the potential cybercrimes threat. The packages are internet based and with the increasing rate of cybercrimes which always occur on the internet, the packages expose the accounting firms to so many risks. The security protocols can be overpassed by individuals with malicious intentions and access confidential data from these packages. The other challenge is the issue of time. The habitual use of these packages can lead to temporary slow-downs as mentioned in Marand et al (2013)
I recommend that training sessions should always be organized to help accountants to familiarize with these packages before they are incorporated into any accounting firm. Also, anti-virus software should be installed to eliminate or reduce the cybercrime threat associated with the use of these packages.
Conclusion
The demand to use cloud-based accounting software was being neglected in Australia for so long. Many business and accounting firms mainly depended on traditional accounting techniques to perform their day to day operations. The use of these packages has evolved with time and they have been successfully adopted. Using cloud accounting software in the early days they were introduced was hindered by the challenges the accountants faced at that time. However, these challenges have been dealt with and the demand for cloud-based accounting software packages has increased in Australia. The accounting software packages come with several benefits to accounting firms in Australia although there a few challenges that have to be locked into. The few suggestions I have stated can be used as solutions to deal with the challenges.
Brender, N. and Markov, I., 2013. Risk perception and risk management in cloud computing: Results from a case study of Swiss companies. International journal of information management, 33(5), pp.726-733.
Christauskas, C. and Miseviciene, R., 2012. Cloud–computing based accounting for small to medium sized business. Engineering Economics, 23(1), pp.14-21.
Cleary, P. and Quinn, M., 2016. Intellectual capital and business performance: An exploratory study of the impact of cloud-based accounting and finance infrastructure. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 17(2), pp.255-278.
Ferris, J.M., Red Hat Inc, 2017. Adjusting resource usage for cloud-based networks. U.S. Patent 9,842,004.
Marand, A.A., Marand, E.A. and Dashtebayaz, M.L., 2013. Investigating the effects of cloud Computing on accounting and its comparison with traditional models. Advances in Environmental Biology, 7(10 S1), pp.2836-2847.
Özdemir, S. and Elita?, C., 2015. The Risks of Cloud Computing in Accounting Field and the Solution Offers: The Case of Turkey.
Pendley, J.A., 2015. Information Security and Cloud?Based Computing: Tools for the Corporate
Treasurer. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, 26(3), pp.27-30.
Pierce, D., Mworks Worldwide, Inc., 2015. Integrated enterprise software and social network system user interfaces utilizing cloud computing infrastructures and single secure portal access. U.S. Patent 9,003,297.
Riungu-Kalliosaari, L., Taipale, O., Smolander, K. and Richardson, I., 2016. Adoption and use of cloud-based testing in practice. Software Quality Journal, 24(2), pp.337-364.
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