Strategic Information System: Woolworths

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM: WOOLWORTHS
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM: WOOLWORTHS
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STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM: WOOLWORTHS
INTRODUCTION
Woolworths is one of the major organisations of the Australia and one of the most
significant reason for its sustainability is the organisation’s strategic information system
(SIS). Hence, it becomes a necessary action to evaluate the organisation’s SIS and many
literary work have done the same. The discussed paper has also added to the literary work, for
which the report has discussed the organisational structure of the deemed organisation and
identified the potential errors that the organisational operations may face. The most readily
system acquisition method has also been suggested along with a flowchart of the sales
procedure. The paper will also discuss potential fraud and control issues that are possible in
system before moving to the second part where the development & adoption of an accounting
software package is done. Identification of the market size, market leaders and the challenges
of the accounting software will be done before concluding the paper with appropriate
recommendations. The details presented in the paper have been collected by reviewing the
literary work that had been done in the past over the same topic.
PART 1:
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The organisational structure of an organisation defines the working pattern of the
organisation and in the process its sustainability. The subject of the paper follows the
functional organisational structure where the board of directors are at the top of management
chain followed by the management board and so on.
The IT management structure of the organisation is presided by a central computer
that links all the electronic cash registers. The data of the offerings (goods such foods,
groceries and others that are offered by Woolworths) of the subject are in the barcode form.
The contributors to the information system (IS) of the organisation are the staffs who inputs

STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM: WOOLWORTHS
the data into the system by scanning the organisational offerings. Another notable fact about
the IT management structure off the organisation is that it is hierarchical, which means that if
one information process is halted than the others will too face difficulty.
Potential Operational Problems:
The centralisation of the power in both the organisational structure and the IT
management structure can offer significant challenges to the organisation. First, in the case of
the of administration, the board of members can introduce some organisational change which
the internal stakeholders may consider unfit and the difference of opinion may result in some
undesirable results for the subject.
Secondly, as stated earlier all the systems of the organisation are linked to a central
computer and in case of the failure of that central source, the whole operation of the
organisation may get halted which will cite some impactful negative results on Woolworths.
The halting of the system will generate discomfort for the external stakeholders which will
ultimately affect the sustainability of the organisation in long run. Another notable, fact is
that Woolworths have a geographically distributed network and hence, to sort the problem at
one of the divisions, the central system must be informed which can prove to be time and
effort taking task. Instead of having a centralised system, the organisation may decide to have
two or more systems attached parallel to act as the central computer which will ensure the
functionality of the organisation even if, there is failure of one of the central system.
SYSTEM ACQUISITION METHOD
Acquisition of the ERP system is one of the most complex issue, because of the cost
factor and the care it demands. Post implementation of the system also, it will have to offer
the same amount of care and cost that are associated with the maintenance. The discussed
procedure takes place in steps. The initiation phase is the phase where the team is formed for

STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM: WOOLWORTHS
the acquisition and they are shouldered with the responsibility of identifying & solving the
problems associated along with defining the process of caring out the process. Woolworths in
this phase can formulated a team consisting of its IT staff along with general staff to help the
IT team in identifying the problems and formulating the plans accordingly.
The second step involves identification of the most suitable system for acquisition.
The market offers various ERP system which offers almost same features but suitable for
different environment and structure. Hence, depending on the structure of the Woolworths,
the team should identify, the most suitable ERP vendor and adopt the system. The
identification of the most suitable ERP system for the system can be done by gathering the
organisational information and analysing them to conclude on the need. The final phase of
the involves verifying and justifying the selection of the ERP system. The stage takes
consideration of the functional, technical and economical aspects of the selected ERP vendor
and their offering. Pursing the discussed step will ensure the suitability of the system for the
organisation while meeting other requirements of the organisation. Another notable thing that
is evaluated in the final stage is the vendor. The reason for doing so is based on the fact that
depending on the vendor’s evaluation the sustainability of a system can be predicted. The
technical verification involves integration of the proposed system with the existing
infrastructure of the organisation, comfort that the database offers, development language,
system architecture and others. The functionality verification involves the comfort that the
stakeholders enjoys with the system and similar others. The economical aspect measures the
budget proposed by the organisation and whether or not the system fits within it. The
evaluation of the vendor involves measuring the market of the vendor and the customer
satisfaction it is offering. Following the deemed measure can verify the suitability of the
system after which, the findings about the system should be submitted to the management of
the Woolworths as a report to justify the selection.