by MUHAMMAD FAIZAN HAIDAR STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE (HI5019 S1) To SHAFIUL AZAM HOLMES INSTITUTE SYDNEY   STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS Accounting software is an application that is used by accountants to process records of accounts like general ledgers, trial balances and other accounting functions (Sweeting, 1991). Woolworth is a supermarket company in Australia that uses Reckons accounting software to prepare its financial records for accounting purposes. The question is, how efficient is the reckon software in solving the accounting problems to the Woolworth limited? To get the right answer, it is important to know the current organizational structure of Woolworth. Their organization will enable one to derive the most efficient system method they can use. Woolworth Company uses a hierarchical organizational system, where authority flows from top management level to the lower level management (Sweeting, 1991). It should be noted that organizational system influences to a wider extent the managerial accountant of any organization. In the management, emphases lie on the managerial attitudes and the impacts it can create on the administrative control systems. The top-level management is the management level with all the authority for the tactical planning of the company. This means it establishes the criteria for management organization and accounting services among other major functions of the enterprise. For the accounting information to be complete, all the management levels should be involved. The keeping of records starts from the lower management levels to upper management (Emmanuel, Gernon, & Gray, 1998). The lower management level is involved with the manual work of creating the accounting information that would be used by the top management level for them to run the organization efficiently. This then has to occur under supervisions, and that is where the middle-level management comes in. This level of the Directorate constitutes of the supervisors mostly. These are the heads of various departments in the company like for instance in Woolworth limited; they are the heads of stores, food supply, produce, supply and finance departments. An example of Woolworth organizational structure of top and middle management looks like this (Emmanuel, Gernon, & Gray, 1998): However, the hierarchical organizational structure has its challenges. First, there is slow communication when it comes to this type of organizational structure. Since information takes a hierarchy method which is starting from the bottom to the top (Sweeting, 1991). This means that before the senior manager gets any information, it might be weeks on end. Hence, it may trigger managers to give rash decisions because of the delay of information. For example, when more goods are required in the supermarket, which will automatically need money, but the financial manager might not give the authority to acquire funds from the company’s account hence delaying services for the organization and results to losses. Another challenge for Woolworth organizational structure is the rivalry that might arise from different departments in the organization (Emmanuel, Gernon, & Gray, 1998). The middle management is where departments are mostly headed. For instance, a finance department might get into conflict with a stores department. This might result when the storage department decides to compete for a bigger budget that may be rejected by the finance department. Moreover, a department might choose to have a bigger budget based on pride hence including projects that do not add value to the organization, which the finance department will have to fund. These scenarios create conflicts among agencies hence affecting the entire organization as a whole. Once the financial abilities of a body drop, it means most of the activities carried out in the organization will come to a sudden halt. Thus, the interdepartmental rivalry is a major challenge to the hierarchical organizational structure. A hierarchical organizational structure lacks sovereignty since a person cannot help a customer without consulting the management above them (Emmanuel, Gernon, & Gray, 1998). This means a customer might be dealing with a worker who happens to be in the least of the management structure. Ideally, the issue that the client would be having will take time to reach to the top management levels of approval, hence making the organization inefficient when dealing with its customers. This lowers the reputation of the organization and in turn, may result in its failure. Another challenge is on depending on resilient leadership for the adequate progress of the organization (Emmanuel, Gernon, & Gray, 1998). This means that in case a manager is reluctant in making quality decisions for the improvements of the organization, the organization will be bound to crumble. This includes overlooking a threat of an unexpected competitor in the market. With the hierarchy organization in place, such mangers might contribute to the fall of organizations. However, such challenges can be prevented if an organization chooses a suitable system method to manage their operations. In the case of Woolworth Company, ERP system is the best (Emmanuel, Gernon, & Gray, 1998). This system is an automated support system that has been adopted throughout the world and has shown different degrees of success. Thus, ERP is the best system for Woolworth organization since it is an international organization. Although implementing the ERP system is a complicated, lengthy and very expensive process, it has more pros than cons. Some of its advantages are increased ability to handle extreme growths of organizations and reduced expenses for various organizational processes. Since ERP system is effective in reducing costs, it would help the Woolworth Limited to manage its sales effectively at a manageable cost. Below is a flowchart representing the Woolworth limited sales for the year 2004. This chart shows that in that particular year, Woolworth had a total sale of $27.9B shillings. However, its expenses were excessive hence limiting the amount of profit the organization would have acquired had it used the enterprise resource planning system. Below is a sales order process in ERP that can work for the Woolworth Company. The finance and the supply chain manager should work together in doing the pre-sales processes, sales order, shipping and invoicing. In short, the supply and chain management assembles orders, and the finance department writes the bills. However, the ERP system has some control problems and can allow room for the defrauding of the organization (Chung, Schmidt, & Martin, 2017). Having two managerial departments organizing for the entire organization its sales might result to compromise of finances and other necessary information relevant to the company. In as much as ERP helps in reduction of costs, some challenges are facing the system (Hoang, & Tran, 2017). ERP system can have an unfortunate time, and cost estimation, which falters with the budget and thus, projects may not be completed in time. This problem can trigger fraud in that the finance managers can adjust the budget and to benefit them and blame it on the system. They might imply that the ERP system could not estimate the budget correctly hence ending up squandering the organization's funds. PART 2 The control problems that could arise from mismanagement of funds using the ERP system could be solved using the accounting software packages which are automated hence they cannot falter (Hoang, & Tran, 2017). With the emergence of accounting software, it has become easier for business owners to manage their businesses. Some companies have graduated into multimillion organizations due to this accounting software. These apps stand out because of their ease of access functionalities. This has made people be more creative and developed mobile applications for accounting software. One can only imagine how it feels like to create an invoice and send it to your client before you leave their offices just using your mobile phone. Due to the increase in production of this accounting software, the market has grown tremendously (Chung, Schmidt, & Martin, 2017). However, the companies that produce the accounting software operate in a duopoly. These two companies are MYOB and Reckon companies who are still struggling to build the next generation of the accounting software. The market size is large since many organizations are adopting the use of accounting software to perform their accounting functions with a lot of ease and gain more profits. This is because the software will give someone ideas of how to improve their business since they can plan a budget and calculate the cost for an organization. As mentioned earlier, MYOB and Reckon companies are the leading companies in the entire market of accounting software (Hoang, & Tran, 2017). These two companies maintain their lead in Australia because of their excellent services. For instance, MYOB has great features as it has released a learner browser based accounting program. It also has a very good interface that is user-friendly and easy to use. MYOB has groundbreaking ideas that have upgraded the workflow for organizations using their software. It has its smart bills that can read payable invoices emailed by clients through scanning relevant information in the invoices. Reckon on the other hand is budget friendly and effective hence attracting customers quickly (Sweeting, 1991). Its flexibility feature gives it an upper hand in comparison to other accounting software providers in Australia. Reckon software can allow a user to add as many modules and learn for a lesser fee. This feature, in particular, has boosted the effectiveness of reckoning software. Another benefit that helps it maintain the lead in Australia is its seasonal ability. An organization or individual can unsubscribe from it, and yet their data will not be lost. The data can still be accessed when they subscribe again. Reckons freshest designs also help in attracting more customers. With such features, both MYOB and Reckon companies will continue to lead the accounting software market unchallenged (Hyvönen, Järvinen, Pellinen, 2006). However, they are not perfect in providing quality services to their users. For instance, MYOB lacks an employee portal. This is a gap since the users cannot view their progress effectively while using the software. Moreover, it does not create more room for the multiple user interfaces. This pulls it back and makes it ineffective accounting software Production Company. Reckon too lacks an application programming interface where a user can interchange data with other cloud programs or users (Chung, Schmidt, & Martin, 2017). This software inclusive of J-curve and SAASU has a destitute user interface. Ideally, a user should find it easy to use accounting software than working out accounts manually. Hence, the software providers have a complicated user interface that discourages the users to install the software. SAASU, for instance, has an old user interface and a horrible mobile application. Such drawbacks create difficulties to the users who want to make use of the software hence proving inefficient and ineffective. Some challenges identified should be addressed immediately for the betterment of accounting software and packages (Hyvönen, Järvinen, Pellinen, 2006). The software developers should come up with creative ways of improving the user interfaces and making the applications much easier to use. With that done, many organizations will have an even easier time dealing with planning and estimating costs of their projects. Many projects have been failing due poor planning and poor cost estimation. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the Woolworth limited should, therefore, adopt the MYOB accounting software that is more effective and efficient in Australia. However, it does not mean that Reckon is a poor accounting software since it still has its positive sides that are effective. Being a company with various businesses like supermarkets and the rest, ERP will be the most effective system for the company to carry out its functions well with utmost efficiency. This is because ERP is compatible with accounting software. When that is implemented, a huge progress will be inevitable. References Chung, R., Schmidt, M. & Martin, E. (2017). CAPL: an efficient association software package using family and case-control data and accounting for population stratification. 1st ed. [ebook] BMC Bioinformatics. Available at: http://www.mihg.org/software_- download/download_reg.php?software=CAPL [Accessed 11 Apr. 2017]. Emmanuel, C., Gernon, H. & Gray, S. (1998). An approach to teaching international management accounting and control: Integrating corporate strategy, organizational structure, and culture. Journal of Accounting Education, 16(1), pp.65-84. Hoang, c. & Tran, T. (2017). Information system adoption. 1st ed. p.44. 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