Strategic Information System Solution Assignment

STRATEGIC
INFORMATION SYSTEM

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................1
1. Objectives and overview of company .........................................................................................1
2. Organisational chart for Commonwealth bank ...........................................................................2
3. Specifications and control drawbacks of existing information system of CBA..........................2
4. Primary features of proposed system ..........................................................................................4
5. A Technology platform for the system ......................................................................................5
5. (b) Financial and non financial data attributes........................................................................6
5. C User views................................................................................................................................7
d. Examine potential risks, data breaches and provided discussion of the appropriate
accounting controls for the new system......................................................................................8
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11
Day of starvation' as CommBank online customers unable to access funds, 2018 [Online]
Accessed through < https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/commbank-online-
customers-locked-out-visa-transactions-down-20180820-p4zyjk.html >.....................................12

INTRODUCTION
Strategic information systems are known as the systems which are designed and
implemented with the aim to corporate competitive advantage and changing business
environment. This strategy provide methods and tools to organisations so that they can achieve
their growth objectives by improving cost, management, innovations and other organisational
aspects. Strategic IT systems serves the purpose of integrating rapidly changing technology and
business goals (Galliers and Leidner, 2014).
The report will identify the success elements and objectives of Commonwealth Bank of
Australia (CBA). The organisation has its headquarter in Sydney and provides finanical services.
CBA is the largest listed company in ASE. This document will analyse the existing system of
company and drawbacks associated with it. It will explore the new solutions for these drawbacks
and advantages of implementing newer technologies. The report will describe technological
aspects, entities in ER diagrams and security risks for the proposed system. It will also focus on
accounting control aspects of strategic information systems.
1. Objectives and overview of company
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is one of the most successful and largest bank organisation
with multinational operating region. The information technology plays a crucial role in providing
secure and quick services related to banking operations.
Factors contributing success of CBA:
There are several factors which have contributed in the successful journey of the
company. The foremost factor is its brand value. The organisation is well known brand and has
been serving Australian financial sector from years. Thus, trustworthy image is the highest
dominating factor in its growth and success. Another factor which ensures the continuous growth
is the acceptance nature of CBA. The bank is always ready to adopt positive technical
advancements. For example the net banking, mobile application support, card-less payments are
just few methods adopted by the company to enhance the quality of its services. To improve its
work culture it regularly works on requirements and feedbacks of its consumers. Thus factors
like customer satisfaction, higher brand value and innovations in technical aspects are key
success factors for bank (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016).
1

Primary objectives of the company:
With the technical advancements CBA has analysed the growing opportunities in global
market segment. The primary objective of the company is to increase its market share by
building new customers. However, the increasing competitive business environment make it
challenging and essential for the company to retain its existing clients as well as to build new
one. For achieving these objectives CBA regularly urge for improving the quality of its services
which can make customer services very easy and less time consuming, as required by its
customers (Customer service contribution key objective of Commonwealth Bank's new IT
approaches, 2003).
Information required to achieve organisational objectives:
In order to achieve the organisational goals CBA must analyse its information assets. It
will help company to develop appropriate strategy for its business. Commonwealth bank must
acquire information regarding the practices of is competitor banks and the expectations of its
consumers. It will help bank to make changes in its information system for managing its
business. The information regarding technical advancements is also necessary for sustaining long
term growth. This knowledge will enable company to gain competitive advantage. The
administration of CBA must also have awareness about security policies and job roles of its
employees so that it can monitor their performance and desired outputs can be obtained.
Mission statement for CBA:
The commonwealth bank works with great effort to achieve its missionary goals of
improving financial well being of its stakeholders. The team members of CBA are highly
focused on the interests and benefits of their customers so that they can access safe, secure and
quick services for their capital. In order to achieve the mission workplace culture of CBA always
implements advancements so that it can provide finance related solutions to its valuable
customers with accountability, excellence and diversified life experiences and skills.
2. Organisational chart for Commonwealth bank
2

Above presented is the organisational chart of Common wealth bank of Australia. The
managing director selected is one of the most senior and experienced candidate of the
organisation. They held the most responsibility for the performance of the firm. Various
responsibilities are managed and executed by them. It involves designing and evaluating policies
of the company. They are also in charge of making strategies towards increasing the revenue of
the bank and managing operation effectively. Managing directors are also responsible for
building strategic operating plans that are directly linked with objectives of the company and
priorities which are set up by the board of management (Arvidsson, Holmström and Lyytinen,
2014). The director is also responsible for managing various employees working under them like
marketing, finance, operations directors.
Common wealth bank has also hired a well qualified team of marketing directors who are
expected to design and implement the marketing and promotion campaigns for the bank. They
also connect with advertising agencies to promote the new policies implemented by the company
(Altameem, Aldrees, and Alsaeed, 2014). They are also in charge of building effective marketing
communication in order to link with old consumers and attract new one. This also support
company in building a brand value in the market.
Illustration 1: Common wealth bank organisation chart
Source: Organizational Chart. 2018

In common wealth bank, operation directors has the most important duty of carrying out
administrative and accounting duties by developing and coordinating services of banks. They
also assess, evaluate and monitor the duties performed by various other staff members. They also
ensure that the targets set by the organisation are maintained by all the employees. Operation
managers are also liable to provide mentorship to the new workers who have joined the
operations team. They will make sure that all the policies, procedures, rules and regulations of
the bank are being adhered by every employee in the organisation for the smooth working
(Organizational Chart, 2018.).
In common wealth bank of Australia Production team leader has provides training and
learning to the other team members in order to enhance their efficiency. They are also
responsible to check the quality of work given by peer members. They make sure that the
employees in the company make use of safety equipments and emergency procedures (Park and
Lee, 2014). The leaders ensure that the workers working in the company is motivated
experienced, enthusiastic, so that they can provide their best performance. They also support
them by encouraging them, discussing problems with workers and solving them (Whittington
2014). This also help in building a relationship of trust and honesty. Managers also perform
administrative tasks like keeping a keen track on the budget and other activities going in the
organisation. This support company in being more effective and productive. They are also
responsible to make regular communication with the employees and support them in their worst
condition (Altameem, Aldrees and Alsaeed, 2014,).
3. Specifications and control drawbacks of existing information system of
CBA
Features of current information system of bank:
The existing information system of the bank provides facility to its administration to
manage and store its sensitive data on its application specific system. Being provider of financial
services it is very important for the company to consider the security aspects. The current system
of CBA provides features of remote access to customers through websites or mobile based
application. The bank is also providing services to its customers so that they can interact with
bank authorities regarding their queries. The customers can access the existing system anytime
for making payments or accessing details of their bank accounts.
2

Drawbacks of the system:
The existing system of the bank is entirely based on online platform. Its records are
stored and processed via online application software. However, the security concerns are major
problems associated with the present system. With the increasing number of customers the
existing systems are not capable to manage huge data load (Ogiela, 2015). It leads to system
crash, data loss as well as encouragement to the incidents like data breach, unauthenticated
access to account details and frauds in transactions. Thus, there is a demand of new advanced
system which improves security concerns and is more transparent in managing big data.
Data flow diagram of CBA network:
Source: (System Flow Chart Template Best Of Software Engineering Salon Management System
For Coiff It Up Salon, 2018)
The data flow diagram of banking information system consist of various authentication paths.
When customers request for checking amounts or updating their account status then the requests
is first verified from bank server. Only authorised individuals are granted permissions to update
3
Ill
ustration 2: Data flow diagram for CBA

the records. The above network lacks the security advancements. Thus, there are possibilities that
the authentication security and data privacy can be easily breached.
4. Primary features of proposed system
The key feature of new proposed system is to enhance the security of Commonwealth
bank of Australia. It will emphasis on improving the resource utilisation efficiently so that risks
can be minimized and it can establish itself as a leading bank organisation. The new system
focuses on encryption feature which will make it strict for all employee to manage data privacy.
The activities like data breach and stealing will be regularly monitored and managed. The
information system will consist of various technological improvements such as MRP and EDI.
These technical features will help CBA to protect its financial data from unauthorised
access. They will also automate the processes like database update, data back up facilities,
message notification to their customers on withdrawals and timely execution of services
provided to customers. As compare to the existing information system the proposed strategic
information system are capable to analyse the risk and capacity planning. They are able to make
strategies according to the competitive aspect so that quality of services can be improved. The
CBA can implement following technologies for its information system:
Material requirements planning (MRP):
This software system can be used by bank for improving its work accuracy and quality.
This system is capable of managing the tasks such as forecasting the demands, capacity
scheduling of machines and maintenance of bill records. Thus, the accounting and financial
records of the bank can be easily stored and retrieved with these applications. The primary goal
of this technique is to manage the bank resources in accordance with the requirements of
customers. For example with digital payments customers requires getting notifications for each
of their transactions on mail or SMS. This will allow identifying such needs on the basis of
feedbacks and errors so that organisations can make efforts to fulfil those needs.
Manufacturing resource planning (MRPII) :
This integrated system technology integrates the records of employees and financial
statistics so that effective decisions can be implemented. The aim of these techniques is to reduce
4

the operational cost of bank. These tools are capable to analyse the requirements of bank for
sustaining its growth and to achieve its long term business goals. These detailed information can
be implemented by Commonwealth bank of Australia in making strategies (Galliers and Leidner,
2014). The pre analysis of the outcomes on the basis of statistics and planning effectiveness this
technology provide guideline to minimize the risk failure. For example if bank plans to abolish
the facility to update account details via website then this technique can analyse the previous
records. This analysis will be helpful to conclude that if bank will implement this decision then
what impact it can have on the overall performance and how its consumers will take this step.
The elimination of risk failure also provides benefits of operational cost reduction.
Electronic data interchange (EDI):
This technique will allow bank to exchange the information and records instantly by
using electronic media. The business documents of CBA such as its audit reports, bank
statements of its customers and performance evaluation records of its employees can be easily
transferred by generating their electronic format. It eliminates the need of printing document and
then sending them to other systems. This feature will make the operational activities very fast.
The customers can access their account description in few minutes. The convenience in
managing accounts and facility to access details at any instant will encourage them to use high
quality and satisfactory services of bank.
5. A Technology platform for the system
The proposed information system cannot give desired outputs without support of
technical platforms. These tools are vital for making the information system effective. As per the
current innovations in digital technology social media platforms and online platforms are the
most dominating tools for IT systems. Commonwealth bank will require social media tools so
that it can create brand awareness among large section of community without limiting its
activities to a particular demography. Social media platforms also provide opportunities to
regularly interact with customers and to understand their requirements (Galliers and Jarvenpaa,
2018). The CBA can lead other banks by keeping its customers update regarding its
achievements and policies.
The consumers are less inclined towards the traditional methods of transactions. There is
huge increase in customers who prefer online banking. Proposed system will provide excellent
5

solutions to provide customers theses services. The online banking must follow certain legal
regulations such as data protection and privacy. Thus, in order to gain the attention of consumers
with the help of digital payment security structure of these online information system must be
highly effective. The integration of security tools such as encryption, passwords, biometric
recognition, back up services of data and antivirus for its hardware resources can be considered
as essential element for its long term growth.
5. (b) Financial and non financial data attributes
Illustration 3: Er diagram of common wealth bank
Source: (Key Attributes Assessment Methodology for the Banking Sector, 2016)
The financial attribute of common wealth bank of Australia includes making effective
and efficient policy on interest rate to the consumers who have deposited money in the bank.
They impart them with various other benefits like FD's, insurance and giving a huge financial
benefit to the consumers. They also have a good commercial, financial and business instincts.
The company has been involved in hiring global finance leaders who take the most productive
6

decisions in improving the revenue as well as the profit of the company. The bank is also been
involved in opening various branches across the regions. The financial attribute serve by them
will be same as the head branch like they would provide good interest to the deposit made by
consumers (Altameem, Aldrees and Alsaeed, 2014).
Non financial attribute of bank and bank branches includes they would provide a benefit
of using schemes which are linked with credit and debit card facilities that has been given by the
bank. An assessment must recognise that a jurisdiction’s bank resolution regime should be
proportionate to the size, structure and complexity of the jurisdiction’s banking system. They
also indulge in providing various other advantages like cashback on purchasing any product from
the banks debit or credit card (Qrunfleh and Tarafdar, 2014).
The financial attribute of loan is bank is indulged in giving low interest rates to workers
who have taken loan from the organisation. The non financial attribute is also, it would be
provided to them easily and with less of paper work. Financial attribute of account is that they
would be opened at less amount of security deposit in common wealth bank of Australia. Also,
amount deducted for opening bank account will also be low. The non financial attribute will be
that the account can be opened online as well offline easily. Less or no paper work would be
require in this (Key Attributes Assessment Methodology for the Banking Sector. 2016). The
financial attribute for the customer involved in company would be that they would be provided
with the advantage of pension fund, low interest rate. Also, non financial attribute will be that
they can open and close account very easily. This will also help company in expanding their
market as well as attracting new consumers.
5. C User views
The perspective of the consumers is essential for every business. The security and other
management aspects regularly demands for the implementation of strategic information system.
The various events which leads to customer dissatisfaction can be considered as the strong
supporting evidence for this proposal. Some examples of users view are as follows:
 According to Datacentre issue to blame for Commonwealth Bank outage, 2018 on data
centres of the commonwealth Bank Australia were completely crashed. Due to heavy
7

load of data traffic the sytems were completely interupted. It causes greater
dissatisfaction among its customers. The proposed new system can managed the big data
issue by implementing resource planning and management.
 As per the another point of view by Cba contacts customers regarding incorrect email
addresses, 2018 the incorrect email addresses can compromise the privacy of customers.
Thus, the above proposed information system can minimize such errors by regularly
monitoring the system performance. The current system is not capable to accomplish this
hence new system needs to be develop.
 The dependency of customers on online platforms and digital payment modes is raising
day by day. The current system has various technical drawbacks which causes system
failure (Commonwealth Bank customers continue to be affected by an outage of the
NetBank online banking system and another issue for CBA payment terminals, 2018).
The inability to access these online platforms make it very difficult for customers to
resume services and can create dissatisfaction.
 The existing information systems are not capable to manage the increasing load of data. It
restricts various users to use their log in details for accessing data. The new strategic IT
system will make it easy for the bank to avoid such network traffic and system crash
issues (Day of starvation' as CommBank online customers unable to access funds, 2018).
d. Examine potential risks, data breaches and provided discussion of the appropriate accounting
controls for the new system.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia, have to aware about threats that might affect the
system activity in their organisation. Breakdown in system is not something new that occur
around the world, but it has been start occurring since the existence of computers. One of the
threat exist named Data breach enables the data and information to move out from the system
and making it viewable to others. It is a very well known phenomenon where it involves highly
sensitive & private data that might be viewed, stolen and might be used by person or institution
without being authorised to do so. It occurs when there are loopholes in the banking system,
which allows those unauthorised individual to acquire access to the system itself. The
information may lost its privacy when these unauthorised persons view, change it or steal it.
8

Another potential risk may affect this new system is Malware. It is defined as a software
program that has been designed to alter & modify the computer's system without the control of
its owner. It includes viruses, script attacks, worms and also rogue internet code. In privacy,
malware attacks include capturing passwords, keystroke & even credit card numbers.
Commonwealth Bank is an example for a malware attack, as the attackers had fully access to the
rest of the system. The outcomes may lead to a loss of worth millions, and also it affects
customer's trust & loyalty.
Authentication mechanism is considered to be very important in ensuring the data in the
new system is protected from any unauthorised access that could hinder with the state of the
banking system. It also makes sure that the system is working well & trusted by any parties.
Furthermore, to improve authentication the bank has increase their security performance by
having two level authentication. Another appropriate control for new system is firewall, which is
placed between a network & the internet and it works like a guard to a private network or
computer system. It basically controls a kind of traffic that can access through the web.
Unauthorised attack from the internet to network gets block with the help of it. Additionally, it
assists to block uninvited guest from trying to connect to any files sharing that commonwealth
bank has set up. It further restricts the access to new information system. Another system
protector is Intrusion Prevention System, it not only able to detect harmful invasion but also
important to ensure prevention of private data & resources in bank. McAfee Network System
Platform, not only protect the banking system network, servers & desktops but also offers other
advantages. These stable solutions have improved performance of the web by protecting from
attacks and risk of interruptions to online banking. This intrusion prevention system is the only
system controller that prevent encryption attacks.
CONCLUSION
From the entire report, it has been summarised that Common wealth bank of Australia
has set up various critical success factors and primary objectives. They will help the company in
achieving their targets and increasing their revenue. Further it also consists of the organisation
flow chart which has discussed the roles of various directors. All these managers support
company in linking the objectives with strategic plan. They are also responsible to assess the
performance of all the employees performing with them. Also, they would check if workers
9

working are working in the safe and secure condition or not. Report also consists of financial and
non financial attributes of the er diagram. It shows that banks provide certain benefits like row
interest rate in opening the account. Huge cashback by using facilities of banks like credit and
debit card. These features also attract consumers.
10

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Altameem, A.A., Aldrees, A.I. and Alsaeed, N.A., 2014, October. Strategic information systems
planning (SISP). In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer
Science .(Vol. 1, pp. 22-24).
Arvidsson, V., Holmström, J. and Lyytinen, K., 2014. Information systems use as strategy
practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and
use. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems.23(1).pp.45-61.
Galliers, R.D. and Jarvenpaa, S.L., 2018. Welcome to the first issue of Volume 27 of The Journal
of Strategic Information Systems.
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Ogiela, L., 2015. Advanced techniques for knowledge management and access to strategic
information.International Journal of Information Management, 35(2), pp.154-159.
Park, J.G. and Lee, J., 2014. Knowledge sharing in information systems development projects:
Explicating the role of dependence and trust. International Journal of Project
Management.32(1). pp.153-165.
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.
Qrunfleh, S. and Tarafdar, M., 2014. Supply chain information systems strategy: Impacts on
supply chain performance and firm performance. International Journal of Production
Economics.147.pp.340-350.
Whittington, R., 2014. Information systems strategy and strategy-as-practice: a joint agenda. The
Journal of Strategic Information Systems.23(1).pp.87-91.
Online
Commonwealth Bank customers continue to be affected by an outage of the NetBank
online banking system and another issue for CBA payment terminals. 2018 [Online]
11

Accessed through < https://www.sbs.com.au/news/commbank-login-issues-drag-into-
evening >
Cba contacts customers regarding incorrect email addresses, 2018 [Online] Accessed through
<https://www.commbank.com.au/guidance/newsroom/email-domain-issue-201806.html
>
Customer service contribution key objective of Commonwealth Bank's new IT approaches, 2003
[Online] Accessed through <https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/news/media-
releases/2003/220503-news-customer-service-contribution.html>
Datacentre issue to blame for Commonwealth Bank outage, 2018 [Online] Accessed through <
https://www.zdnet.com/article/datacentre-issue-to-blame-for-commonwealth-bank-
outage/ >
Day of starvation' as CommBank online customers unable to access funds, 2018 [Online]
Accessed through < https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/commbank-
online-customers-locked-out-visa-transactions-down-20180820-p4zyjk.html >
Herigemblong, System Flow Chart Template Best Of Software Engineering Salon Management
System For Coiff It Up Salon, 2018 [Online] Accessed through
<http://dailyrevshare.com/system-flow-chart-template/system-flow-chart-template-best-
of-software-engineering-salon-management-system-for-coiff-it-up-salon/>
Key Attributes Assessment Methodology for the Banking Sector. 2016. [ONLINE] Available
through: <http://www.fsb.org/2016/10/key-attributes-assessment-methodology-for-the-
banking-sector/>
Organizational Chart. 2018. [ONLINE] Available through:
<https://www.smartdraw.com/organizational-chart/>
12