Supply Chain Collaboration in Retail

This assignment examines the critical role of supply chain collaboration in the retail industry. It delves into how retailers leverage collaborative strategies to optimize processes, enhance efficiency, and gain a competitive edge. The analysis encompasses various aspects of supply chain collaboration, including information sharing, joint planning, and risk management. Students are expected to evaluate the benefits and challenges associated with these practices, drawing upon relevant academic literature and real-world examples.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Strategic Information System: Accounting Software Package MYOB in Woolworths
Limited
Name of the student:
Name of the university:

1STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Table of Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 The current organizational structure......................................................................................3
1.2 The operational problems that Woolworths Limited is facing due to their organizational
structure.......................................................................................................................................3
1.3 The most likely system acquisition method used by Woolworths Limited...........................5
1.4 Description and preparation of the system flowchart of the sales procedure of the company
.....................................................................................................................................................5
1.5 Identification of control problem of the system....................................................................7
Part 2................................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Development of accounting software package......................................................................8
2.2 The current market size.........................................................................................................8
2.3 Identification of the leaders that gives competitive advantages............................................9
2.4 Identification of the current gaps and challenges encountered by the users of the
accounting software...................................................................................................................11
2.5 Related recommendation.....................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13

2STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Part 1
1.1 The current organizational structure
Figure 1: current organizational structure of Woolworths Limited
(Source: Arli et al. 2013, pp-10)
1.2 The operational problems that Woolworths Limited is facing due to their
organizational structure
According to the represented diagram it has been found that the organizational chart of
Woolworths Limited is well organized. Starting from the non-executive directors the chart ends
up with the general manager and fellow team members (Bailey 2017). In order to gain
competitive advantages from the competitive market place it is very much necessary for the

3STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
organization to maintain correct organizational chart or model. With the application of cloud
contact centre, the head of the management team is willing to change their organizational chart
from the existing one (Mertens et al. 2016). It has been found that, the chief executive director
and the financial officer of the company are responsible to take the necessary responsibilities to
meet the requirement of the consumers. Lack of operational excellence and functional
requirements are the main issues those are associated to Woolworths Limited, and are needed to
be optimized for gaining competitive advantages and measurable revenue from the competitive
market. The digital business platform of Woolworths Limited is not at all advanced and due to
these reasons the Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management of
Woolworths Limited is getting affected tremendously (Arli et al. 2016). However, from both the
business and consumer’s aspect the organizational chart of the company is not profitable. Again,
the open communication approach of the company is not correct due to this reason the
interaction between the management authority and the management is not perfect. For lack of
open communication they fail to share their point of views with the management authority.
The growth strategy of the company is getting affected badly due to the external
environmental condition of the company. There are many competitors of the company are
present and thus they fails to adopt correct data protection mechanism and security approaches as
well (Das Nair and Dube 2017). As Woolworths Limited does not have proper security
approaches thus, the company is failing to acquire consumers. The company has currently
implemented online selling approaches but in online selling security is the most important thing
that every enterprise should consider. After adoption of online digitized approach they raised the
price of their products (Ma 2015). Even, their storage also does not proper security codes thus

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the data could be accessed by any external users. The governmental intervention is another
important issue for the Woolworths Limited.
1.3 The most likely system acquisition method used by Woolworths Limited
Based on the identified issues proper digital issue mitigation mechanism are also required
to be adopted by the management authority. For developing the business operational excellence
suitable application are needed to be adopted by the company (Rose, Hawryszkiewycz and Kang
2015). The identified rather recommended applications for the company include commercial
software, consumer management software, enterprise resource planning etc. As it is identified
that the management issues associated to the company is their data management approach. The
data management system of the company is very much backdated thus, they fails to management
information automatically (Steele, Smith and Steele 2015). The company has traditional data
management thus auto data insertion, update and delete options are not there.
After identification of current market position of the company it is recommended that the
company should utilize SAP based ERP system and accounting software package for managing
their financial data (Wang and Tan 2015). Security towards the financial information is very
much important to keep for accessing data with the permission of the authorized users.
1.4 Description and preparation of the system flowchart of the sales procedure of
the company
From the above diagram it is found that, every single factor is maintaining properly by
the sales flow process of Woolworths Limited. After gathering information from different
resources, proper campaigning is required to be done by the management authority to gain
competitive advantages (Yigitbasioglu, Mackenzie and Low 2013).

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Figure 2: System process flowchart for Woolworths Limited
(Source: created by author)

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If the campaign is found to be successful then the number of sales opportunity will
increase however if the campaign is not resulted as successful then, the management will be
required to rethink about the development of the business strategy (Madurapperuma 2015). On
the other hand, if the sales opportunities get increases then, the consumers will be able to buy
products with both online and offline payment.
1.5 Identification of control problem of the system
It has been identified that possible level of frauds could be generated from the system and
challenges faced by the Woolworths Limited thus these are required to be minimized by the
management authority to gain competitive advantages. The control level problems can be
optimized with the help of ERP solution (Klettner, Clarke and Boersma 2014). The components
of control issue solution include business intelligence, financial management, and manufacturing
as well as distribution solution. However, among all of these challenges, the most identified
solution for accounts or financial structure is the accounting software packages (Culley et al.
2017). Different accounting software packages are available in Australia and among them the
recommended solution for Woolworths Limited is the MYOB accounting software package.
Over multiple numbers of challenges the ERP system could reside, therefore, for data
reliability, data availability and for reducing the technical complexity MYOB accounting
software package implementation is referred to as helpful.

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Part 2
2.1 Development of accounting software package
Management of confidential information is referred to as one of the most important thing
that every company are required to be considered by the management authority to gain
competitive advantages and measurable revenue from the marketplace (Klettner, Clarke and
Boersma 2014). However, with the help of proper accounting software package the company
will be able to manage large set of data without any error. The accounting software package
provides effective platform to the consumers with the help of the internet service. The high level
maintenance cost, IT infrastructure, purchasing expensive are the main issues that the company
is widely facing (Ma 2015). For managing the employees and consumers of the company, it is
necessary for the Woolworths Limited to work properly. Through the help of cloud based
accounting system all the devices could work effectively and efficiently. During the data
processing phase, different issues might occur. The roadblock level errors could be completely
mitigated with the help of the accounting software packages.
2.2 The current market size
Most of the medium and large companies are currently using the accounting software
packages for managing large set of information or data in an organized manner. Regardless of
the location and time the users will be able to access information from the server. With the help
of the accounting software package the company will be able to gain competitive advantages
from the marketplace (Yigitbasioglu, Mackenzie and Low 2013). Most of the business
organizations are currently relied on the accounting software packages. Even the manual data
process is also possible with the help of the accounting software package. The design control

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approach could operate the system appropriately within the estimated budget and time as well
(Steele, Smith and Steele 2015). More than 1000 companies are currently there those are using
the concept of accounting software package.
In Australia, many accounting software package providers are there and based upon the
type of the business the most appropriate accounting software should be adopted by the
management authority of the business organization. Implementation of MYOB accounting
software package helps to manage data in a well organized and managed manner (Rose,
Hawryszkiewycz and Kang 2015). The Australian security exchange will be able to gain proper
return from the system. Considering the initial value or share price of MYOB it has been found
that, the business of MYOB is worth a more than $2.5 Billion. After opening of the company
from the business functionalities it is determined that, it will be able to gain a 1.3 Billion
throughout (Alfred 2014). However, over only 2 to 3 years the initial share value price of the
company will be increased from $800 million from $3.67.
2.3 Identification of the leaders that gives competitive advantages
MYOB has identified as a huge competitor to the company such as Xero, QuickBooks,
Reckon, Saasu etc (Madurapperuma 2015). However among these companies the biggest threat
to MYOB is Xero. The leaders that give competitive advantage to the company are demonstrated
below:
MYOB
1. The accounting software package benefits their administrations through online
applications.

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2. The membership charged by MYOB is ranged $29 and $65 and in view of the operational
administration and the memberships are chosen by the associations.
3. Then again, MYOB provides live record access to the clients. This excellent software
enables more than 50 clients to get to the server at once with no sort of blunder.
4. MYOB serves appropriate sense of duty regarding secure data processing from the outer
assailant (Mertens et al. 2016). None of the unauthenticated clients can access the data
from the server without legitimate authorization.
5. MYOB also provides appropriate data reinforcement to the users (Ng, Harrison and
Akroyd 2013). It enables the clients to make reinforcement office so that, if any sort of
disaster occurred, the organization might recover data from the backup server.
Xero
1. Xero likewise gives online administrations to their shoppers and the trial adaptation is
particularly useful for the users.
2. As per the offered membership Xero charges $19, $49, $64 every month. In any case, for
the little and medium business, Xero offers the membership of $49 (Rose,
Hawryszkiewycz and Kang 2015).
3. The clients of Xero enable the clients to get to the server through login points of interest.
4. No such data security issues are resolved with Xero. With the assistance of SSL every
data will be secured from the outer assaults. Because of abnormal state security as far as
encryption innovation, unapproved clients would not be capable to access data those are
put away in the data server (Wang and Tan 2015). It has legitimate encryption keys to
shield data from the outer attackers.

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5. Because of the severe security strategy no such data reinforcement processes are
accessible in the event of Xero. However, offsite backup approaches are accessible in
Xero.
2.4 Identification of the current gaps and challenges encountered by the users of the
accounting software
After the analysis of the system services and practices that is served by MYOB, it has
been found that there are different security and management level issues associated to it those are
needed to be mitigated by the management authority of the business organization (Yigitbasioglu,
Mackenzie and Low 2013). The challenges and gaps associated to MYOB are as follows:
Security level issues: Security is referred to as one of the biggest issues that have been
identified. In some cases due to lack of security, the attackers are hijacking data from the server
and misusing them widely (Daru 2015). After the utilization of accounting software packages it
has been found that, the chances of data theft and data fraud might occur widely for the security
level risks.
Data utilization: The other risk associated to the accounting software package is the data
utilization. The system architecture developed by the organization is very much complex and
thus, the users do not friendly with the designed system architecture (Culley et al. 2017). For
reducing the user level system complexity it is very much necessary to enable the system
operations and functionality.

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2.5 Related recommendation
In order to mitigate the issues it is very much necessary to recommend over the issues
associated to MYOB accounting software package. The recommendations for MYOB system are
as follows:
Training and development program: In order to mitigate the system complexity it is
very much necessary to arrange proper training and development program for the organization.
Encryption: For mitigating the functional and operational issues associated to MYOB it
is necessary to install proper firewall and encryption mechanism in the organization.

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References
Alfred, B., 2014. Impact of Computerized Accounting on Performance of Payroll Accounting:
Case Study of Urban Water and Sewerage of Authorities(Doctoral dissertation, The Open
University of Tanzania).
Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R. and Soldo, E., 2013. Woolworths Australia and
Walmart US: Best practices in supply chain collaboration. Journal of Economics, Business &
Accountancy Ventura, 16(1).
Bailey, M., 2017. Absorptive Capacity, International Business Knowledge Transfer, and Local
Adaptation: Establishing Discount Department Stores in Australia. Australian Economic History
Review, 57(2), pp.194-216.
Bailey, M., 2017. Absorptive Capacity, International Business Knowledge Transfer, and Local
Adaptation: Establishing Discount Department Stores in Australia. Australian Economic History
Review, 57(2), pp.194-216.
Culley, B., Graham, J., Kay, G., Norberry, J. and Wilson, S., 2017. Digital Marketing Plan:
Naked Wines Australia. Newcastle Business School Student Journal, 1(1), pp.68-89.
Daru, M.U., 2015. Role of computerized accounting in banking sector. International Journal of
Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 4(2), pp.26-34.
Das Nair, R. and Dube, S.C., 2017. Growth and Strategies of Large, Lead Firms-Supermarkets.

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Dunbar, K., Laing, G. and Wynder, M., 2016. A content analysis of accounting job
advertisements: Skill requirements for graduates. The E-Journal of Business Education &
Scholarship of Teaching, 10(1), p.58.
Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2014. The governance of corporate sustainability:
Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible business
strategy. Journal of Business Ethics, 122(1), pp.145-165.
Ma, X., 2015. The adoption of cloud computing for small and medium accounting firms.
Madurapperuma, M.W., 2015. The impact of embedding information and communication
technology content in accounting courses and its effect on overall students’ performance.
Mertens, W., Recker, J., Kummer, T.F., Kohlborn, T. and Viaene, S., 2016. Constructive
deviance as a driver for performance in retail. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 30,
pp.193-203.
Ng, F., A. Harrison, J. and Akroyd, C., 2013. A revenue management perspective of
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Steele, A., Smith, L. and Steele, A., 2015. Web and Social Media Adoption in the Manawatu
Retail Clothing Sector.

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Wang, W. and Tan, F.T.C., 2015. A Benefit Expectation Management Framework for Supply
Chain Management Systems. In Enterprise Systems. Strategic, Organizational, and
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Yigitbasioglu, O., Mackenzie, K. and Low, R., 2013. Cloud Computing: How does it differ from
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