Accounting Software is described as a type of application or program that records and processes transactions related to accounts within functional components such as payroll, accounts payable, general ledger, accounts receivable and trial balance. It acts as an Information System for accounting purpose. The report introduces the effect that implementation of one or more accounting software has on an organisation. To explain the fact provided above, a complete analysis of Woolworths Supermarket, a retail market chain based in Sydney, Australia, is provided in the report. The organisational structure and the effect of implementation of accounting software in the organisation will help in explaining the role, which accounting software plays in an organisational functionality.
2. About Woolworths Supermarket
Woolworths Supermarkets is a Sydney based Australian supermarket chain by Woolworths Limited. The company has expertise mostly in selling grocery products such as packaged food, fruit, vegetables, meat and such. They also have other merchandise as stationery items, magazines and DVDs. The current business asset of Woolworths is 1000 stores all over Australia, which includes 968 Supermarkets and extra 19 convenience stores using their logo (Woolworths.com.au 2017).
2.1. Existing Organisational Structure of Woolworths
The two figures provided below show the existing organisational structure of Woolworths at both corporate level and management level. The structure shows that a group of non-executive director and the chairperson forms the top level in the management hierarchy of the company.
Problems in the Organisation
The organisation has faced many alterations in the market share for years. Rapid changes in the market structure have rendered the strategies adopted by the company useless. The increase in competitors in the market has placed greater challenges for the company (Galliers and Leidner 2014). The organisation failed to cope up with the increasing demands of its customers. This has caused a decline in the market share of the company largely. The hike in the price of the products that the company sell has also led to the loss of consumers.
The higher management of the company plays a vital role in the decline of the situation of the company, as they are not aware of the predicament the company is undergoing. The mission and vision strategy adopted by the company are also not suitable for the existing market situation. The marketing department of the company is responsible for the propaganda of the company and its products. Poor quality of advertisement catered by the department has led to the loss of customers for the company (Peppard and Ward 2016).
2.3. System acquisition method of the Company
Woolworths Limited has adopted the ERP model as a system acquisition method. The company uses SAP system for the merchandising purpose but it created a lot of problem for the company at the initial stage of implementation. However, the company soon fixed the error and implemented a new and more stable version of SAP system (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The advanced ERP system has allowed the company to initiate a better relationship with the customers.
2.4. Sales procedure system flowchart of Woolworths
A system flowchart related to sales process helps an organisation to analyse and assess the drawbacks of the company regarding the sales process it has undertaken and allows to find a solution to eradicate such errors (Coviello and Tanev 2017). The figure provided below shows the system flowchart of sales process for Woolworths Supermarket. In the flowchart, it is shown that a customer places an order online, which is processed and forwarded by the portal (Cassidy 2016).
The order is accepted, reviewed and processed for delivery by a concerned executive of the company. In case there are any issues related to terms and conditions on the ordered product, the executive seeks confirmation from the consumer. The customer completes the payment for the ordered product via the online transaction system. The customer is liable to cancel the order at any stage of the transaction. In that case, the order is cancelled and the payment is refunded. In normal scenario, the ordered product is transported to the retailer nearest to the customer from where it is sent to the address of the customer (Nguyen, Nguyen and Bosch 2017).
2.5. Control Problems in the System
The organisational structure and its mode of operation have affected the market condition of the same (Wu et al. 2015). The business operations of the company were influenced by the external factors, inclusive of environmental factors. The control problems that have affected the market integrity of the company are structure of service process, issues related to forecasting and management of supply chain. Various kinds of frauds can happen in the system. The product that has been delivered by the company as per the order of the customer can be tampered while delivering from to its destination. Fake or wrong advertisements can lead to misunderstanding between the company and its customers.
3. Development and Adoption of Accounting Software Package at Woolworths
The company has adopted the B2B model as the accounting software package for the improvement of the drawbacks in the company procedure (Appelbaum et al. 2017). The B2B model has helped the company to establish a proper link with the brands that the company sells. The B2B model provides a group of third party technology providers that aids in resolving the loopholes of the company in the market. Therefore, it is evident that the B2B model is providing the necessary help that is required by the company to rectify its errors and for which it is adopted (Cassidy 2016).
3.1. The Market Size of Woolworths Limited
Despite the challenges faced by the company regarding its failed strategies, problem during adoption of the accounting software package and competitors in the market, Woolworths have always somehow managed to stay at the top of the sales chart and tried to maintain a steady improvement in its field of expertise. The following figures provided below shows the current market size of the company in comparison to other organisations of the same competency.
Although the company had a steady growth in the market in the past, however, the company has seen steady decline in the recent years, which has led to a total loss of 825 million dollar in September 2016 in the market (Sun et al. 2017).
3.2. Leaders in the Market and their competitive advantage
Woolworths, Coles and Aldi are the top dominant players in the Australian market. Each of the company has adopted different competitive strategies to gain advantage against its competitors in the market. For example, Coles provide a wider range of trendy products to its customers that have a higher price range, which has allowed it to gain a competitive advantage. Woolworths have invested a lot of money in lowering the price range of its products that acts as a competitive advantage in the market for attracting more customers (McKnight et al. 2017).
3.3. Present Challenges of Accounting Software Users
The Woolworth have used B2C model of accounting in the past that has aided in its downfall rather than improving it. The implementation of the B2B accounting model has allowed the company to maintain a stable flow of technical information of the brands the company sells. The company needs to keep updating the accounting software in relevance to the current market condition and its demands (Hallikainen et al. 2017).
3.4. Recommendations
It is recommended that, to maintain a top position in the market, Woolworths should implement the B2C model along with the B2B model. This is because, a business to customer communication is equally necessary to understand the demands of the clients as the need to communicate with other business brands. The implementation of both B2B as well as B2C model of accounting will help the company to understand the requirement of its customers and serve them as per their need.
4. Conclusion
The report concludes with the fact that implementation of one or more accounting software is necessary for the improvement of any organisation. The accounting software serves the purpose of analysing the existing status of the organisation in relation to its sales process and statistics and creates a report that helps in understanding the area of improvement and modification that is required in the organisation to develop further.
5. References
Appelbaum, D., Kogan, A., Vasarhelyi, M. and Yan, Z., 2017. Impact of business analytics and enterprise systems on managerial accounting. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 25, pp.29-44.
Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.
Coviello, N. and Tanev, S., 2017. Initiating a New Research Phase in the Field of International Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Professor Nicole Coviello. Technology Innovation Management Review, 7(5).
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Hallikainen, H., Paesbrugghe, B., Laukkanen, T., Rangarajan, D. and Gabrielsson, M., 2017, January. How Individual Technology Propensities and Organizational Culture Influence B2B Customer’s Behavioral Intention to Use Digital Services at Work?. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.
McKnight, D.H., Lankton, N.K., Nicolaou, A. and Price, J., 2017. Distinguishing the effects of B2B information quality, system quality, and service outcome quality on trust and distrust. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 26(2), pp.118-141.
Nguyen, T.V., Nguyen, N.C. and Bosch, O.J., 2017. Enhancing the competitive advantages of Vietnamese coffee through the exploration of causal loop modelling in the supply chain. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 26(1), pp.17-33.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Sun, Z., Strang, K. and Firmin, S., 2017. Business Analytics-Based Enterprise Information Systems. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 57(2), pp.169-178.
Woolworths.com.au. (2017). {{metaController.metaData.title}}. [online] Available at: https://www.woolworths.com.au/ [Accessed 11 Aug. 2017].
Wu, S.P.J., Straub, D.W. and Liang, T.P., 2015. How information technology governance mechanisms and strategic alignment influence organizational performance: Insights from a matched survey of business and it managers. Mis Quarterly, 39(2), pp.497-518.
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