Accounting Software Packages And Information Systems In Australian Organizations: A Case Study Of Woolworths

Importance of integration and suitable accounting tools

Discuss about the Strategic Information Systems of Woolworths Limited.

A business organization can efficiently function only when the several units and departments are in sync with each other and are integrated. The integration of the business units and departments ensures correct and timely flow of the information sets. The business organizations are composed of certain essential and non-essential departments. One of the essential units in any of the business organization irrespective of its size, location, or domain is the accounts department. It is the department that keeps track of all the funds and costs associated with the project and business activities along with the salaries of the employees. Thus, a business organization shall ensure that it makes use of adequate accounting tools and techniques to efficiently execute the accounting tasks. With the demand of such tools and techniques, there are several accounting software packages that have been developed with numerous vendors in the market. The accounting industry has witnessed several changes and transformations over the years with the use and involvement of latest technology. There are integrated software solutions and packages that are developed that serve the accounting needs of an organization with a single package. Australia is one of the primary users of such packages in its accounting and backing firms. Woolworths is one such Australian organization uses these packages and the report covers the information of accounting software packages being used in Australia.

Woolworths Limited is an Australian organization that has been selected to study the accounting software packages and information systems that are in use in Australia. Woolworths is a company that is an online and offline retailer of groceries and household products. The company has its e-commerce cite to allow the customers to order the products online.

The business operations that are carried out in Woolworths have increased with the passage of time due to increase in the number of customers. There are leaders and managerial resources deployed in the organization along with the middle level managers and operation staff members to carry out all of the business activities and tasks (Woolworths, 2017).

The organization structure that is followed in Woolworths is functional structure. According to this structure, the skills and expertise of the resources are assessed and the resources are distributed in functional units. These functional units are then utilized to carry out the business activities and operations. The implementation of this organizational structure in Woolworths has brought up a number of issues. Collaboration and communication between the functional units is one of the major issues that are seen. There is lack of communication between the functional units that adversely impacts the business performance and quality of operations. Integration of the units is essential so that all the departments are aware of the organizational information at all times.  

Evaluation of the sales process at Woolworths

The issues that have been listed above can be resolved with the implementation of information systems and tools (Henderson, 2004).

The information systems that are developed can be acquired through several methods. Some of these methods may include acquiring software from a third-party or there may also be configuration & installation of such a package utilizing commercially available software packages. The software vendors and providers have also come up with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions that may also be utilized in this case (Yang and Tamir, 2015).

Woolworths shall install and implement an ERP package. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the software package that integrates the back-end functions that are carried out in a business organization. The strong integration of these back-end functions ensure that the organization benefits from the execution of the business activities as the desired results are achieved (Mallery, 2011).

Sales Process at Woolworths

Sales are one of the primary set of activities that are carried out at the organization. The results of the sales activities determine the profits and revenues that are earned by an organization. The sales process at Woolworths includes the definition of the business objectives which are used in the marketing research and other marketing activities followed by utilizing the suspects and results in qualifying and identification of the opportunities. The opportunities identified are then used in the proposing phase to agree upon the terms of implementation followed by the delivery processes. The goal of the sales processes is to earn the satisfaction of the customers (Gulledge, 2002).

There is numerous control issues that are detected in association with the sales activities and processes carried out at the Woolworths organization. The business organizations are now required to include latest technological measures and techniques in all of their activities. However, the sales process that is depicted above has not been updated since long. As a result, the use of latest technologies is not reflected in the process. This leads to the lack of automation and slower processes. The review of the sales processes along with the monitoring is not easy to carry out as per the current flow. The overall sales and business performance gets negatively impacted as a result.

The sales data and information is accessible to the numerous sales resources in the organization. There are privacy concerns that have emerged as a result of uncontrolled data access. The unauthorized access may lead to the exposure of the information and data sets to the external entities and the sales data may be incorrectly utilized (Mohapatra and Patnaik, 2011).

Impact of technology on the accounting industry

There are transformations that the accounting and banking departments have seen over the years. A business organization shall ensure that it makes use of adequate accounting tools and techniques to efficiently execute the accounting tasks. With the demand of such tools and techniques, there are several accounting software packages that have been developed with numerous vendors in the market. The accounting industry has witnessed several changes and transformations over the years with the use and involvement of latest technology. There are integrated software solutions and packages that are developed that serve the accounting needs of an organization with a single package (Seethamraju, 2012).

These changes have had impact on the business operations which in turn has impacted the customer expectations and demands. The customers now expect the accounting software packages to be integrated with the reflection of latest technologies, such as business automation, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things (IoT). The accounting firms are now trying to incorporate such technologies in the automated tools and applications to meet the demands of the customers. There are also regular updates that are installed so that the customers are offered with innovative solutions at all times (James, 2016).

Woolworths and other business organizations that are set up in Australia and other locations carry out a number of accounting activities and operations. Most of the accounting activities that are performed are classified in three types of activities or operations. These include auditing services, bookkeeping services, and accounting operations (Afpbb, 2016). Australia is composed of over 10,000 organizations and vendors that provide the customers with the automated accounting services or packages solutions. There are close to 150,000 resources that work in these organizations and units so that the latest accounting services are provided to the customers. The use of accounting services will not be eliminated from the business units as it is one of the essential elements in the organizations. the industry will witness further growth of close of 6 percent in the coming years and the overall revenue earned by the accounting industry will touch AUD 21 billion by the end of this year (Bankwest, 2015).

MYOB Accounting Software

MYOB is an integrated accounting package that is provided by the vendor in Australia and other global locations. Australia is one of the prime users of accounting software packages and the solution serves such huge demands. There are innovative features that are offered to the customers as a part of this package. There are also regular updates done so that the technology and features do not become obsolete. Some of the interesting features that are offered by MYOB package are listed below.  

• The real-time accounting and financial information across different categories is available and can be viewed
• Point of Sale activities and transactions can be adequately carried out
• The software package can be used in offline mode also so that the disruption in the services never occurs
• The software package complies with the legal, regulatory, and ethical policies at all times
• The users can customize the software package as per their needs and demands. The level of personalization that is maintained in the package is high (Myob, 2016).

Overview of the Australian accounting industry and its growth trajectory

Intuit QuickBooks is an accounting software package that is widely used across Australia and beyond. The package has an excellent response rate in the market owing to the wide range of features that it comes with. There are also some of the unique features that are included in the package that are not available or offered by any other vendor in the Australian markets as of now.  Some of the interesting features that are offered by Intuit QuickBooks package are listed below. 

• Extremely cost-effective solution that meets the accounting needs of the customers.
• There are no performance lags witnessed with the increase or decrease in the load.
• Data and information management is carried out with the integration of advanced data analytics, databases, and Big Data tools.
• The payroll features and operations in the tool come for free of cost.
• The package can be easily accessed without any platform dependability.
• The security risks and attacks that may come up with the financial information and data sets can be avoided with the use of the advanced security protocols that come with the package (Advisoryhq, 2015).

Saasu is another accounting package that is high on demand and is used in the Australian organizations and other business organizations spread all across the globe. Australia is one of the prime users of accounting software packages and the solution serves such huge demands. There are innovative features that are offered to the customers as a part of this package. There are also regular updates done so that the technology and features do not become obsolete.

This software package has succeeded in maintaining good market profile due to the excellent customer support and customer service that the vendor offers to its users. One of the primary features of the tool is the enhanced customization and personalization that comes along with Saasu and the users can modify the features as per their needs and requirements.

Reckon is an accounting software package that is widely used across Australia and beyond. The package has an excellent response rate in the market owing to the wide range of features that it comes with. There are also some of the unique features that are included in the package that are not available or offered by any other vendor in the Australian markets as of now. The feature set of the package have been listed below.    

• The vendor has an excellent market reputation and therefore the customers can easily trust the vendor with the investments that they choose to make on it.
• The package would be compatible with the other technical components and tools installed at the client-side.
• The tool offers unique set of features, such as resource management, tracking of the credit scores, billing and invoicing activities, and many more (Carey, 2015).

Xero is another accounting package that is used by the Australian and other global customers and business organizations. There are varied accounting packages that are available in Australia and provided by the vendors. Xero is one such package that comes with abundant features and services. Some of these features are as listed below.

• The processing speed, response rate, and throughput time associated with the tool is quick that leads to time savings and enhanced performance of the package.
• The reconciliation and auditing activities that are carried out using Xero are quick and easy to carry out.
• The user interface and user experience that comes along with the tool is rich and visually appealing.
• The tool can be collaborated with other tools and systems in the business organization (Miller, 2016).

The list of costs that are associated with the various accounting packages are illustrated in the table below.

Type of Cost	MYOB	Intuit QuickBooks	Saasu	Reckon	Xero
Basic Accounting Software Package	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $50 to avail the features and services	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $12 to avail the features and services	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $15 to avail the features and services	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $5 to avail the features and services	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $9 to avail the features and services
Advanced Accounting Software Package	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $99 to avail the features and services	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $21 to avail the features and services	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $180 to avail the features and services	There are add-ons that are available with the package and the pricing depends upon the same	The customers will be required to pay a monthly charge of $70 to avail the features and services

Cost of the accounting software (Advisoryhq, 2015)

• There may be fraudulent activities given shape by the malicious attackers with the execution of the security risks and attacks, such as ransomware attacks, denial of service attacks, distributed denial of service attacks, and other malware attacks.
• There are occurrences wherein the vendors and the service providers keep certain costs hidden and these costs are revealed at the time of configuration or installation. This may come up as a major challenge for the users with stringent budget (Crowder, 2016).
• System documentation is one of the necessary deliverables that shall come along with the final release of the package. It is often encountered that the vendors do not provide detailed documentation to the users and as a result it becomes difficult for the users to resolve the errors and operational mistakes that occur.
• Post-production support and the after sales support offered by the vendors may not be adequate which may prove to be challenging for the users at the time of security incidents or other technical errors.

Conclusion

Woolworths is a company that is an online and offline retailer of groceries and household products. The company has its e-commerce cite to allow the customers to order the products online. The company may deploy Intuit QuickBooks as the accounting software package across all of its business units and locations. The recommendation has been made on the basis of the requirements of the company along with the pricing model and charges associated with the package. The feature set of Intuit QuickBooks will match up with the needs of the organization.

References

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