Strategic Information System Report: MYOB Accounting Software Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of MYOB, an Australian accounting software company. It begins by examining MYOB's organizational structure, highlighting potential operational problems stemming from it, and suggesting improvements. The report then explores suitable system acquisition methods, with a focus on the advantages of using ERP systems. A system flowchart of sales procedures is presented, followed by an identification of control problems and potential fraud risks within the system. The second part of the report discusses the development and adoption of accounting software packages, the current market size of MYOB, and its competitors. The report concludes by identifying current gaps and challenges faced by users of accounting software, offering recommendations for improvements, particularly concerning data security and reliability.

0Introduction
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Executive summary
The aim of this report is to discuss about the organizations which use the accounting software.
The accounting software takes an important role in the organizational management. The
organizational structure of MYOB is discussed and the challenges regarding the organizational
accounting software is also discussed in this report. It is concluded that the software should be
designed in order to maintain the security of the organization and users.

2STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
1. The current organizational structure........................................................................................3
2. Operational problems due to the present structure...................................................................5
3. Suitable system acquisition method.........................................................................................6
4. Describes and prepare a system flowchart of the sales procedures for the chosen..................8
Organization.................................................................................................................................8
5. Identification of the control problems in the system and possible frauds in the system..........9
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
1. Development and adoption of the accounting software packages.........................9
2. Current market size................................................................................................................10
3. Leaders in the market and competitive advantage among them............................................11
4. Current gaps or challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software and
recommendations.......................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................14

3STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Introduction
This report deals with the strategic information system of an organization. In today’s
world information technology takes an important role to manage many big projects related to
human welfare and advancement of technology. This kind of evolution in the information
technology brings a new era in the security and the structure of the information system. Public
information is most important and should be given highest priority in order to maintain their
security and reliability.
MYOB is an Australian organization which deals with various accounting software (Arvidsson,
Holmström and Lyytinen 2014). It mainly helps to deal with the accounting related to the
organizational as well as individual need. This organization is one of the biggest information
technology companies in Australia.
In this report the organizational structure of MYOB is discussed along with the issues
caused by the present organizational structure of the company. The outline about the suitable
system accusation method and the system flowchart of the organization are drawn in order to
find out the control problems regarding the present system structure. Development and adoption
of the accounting software packages and the market details along with the leaders in this field are
discussed in this report to find out the challenges and their possible solutions.
PART 1
1. The current organizational structure
MYOB is one of the biggest organizations in accounting software and Information technology. It
is an Australian company that helps to calculate tax and accounting for several services and
business organizations (Boonstra 2013). Christopher Lee founded MYOB in the year 1980. This

4STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
company deals with big amount of data of many organizations as well as individuals. The
organizational structure of this company is well designed in order to maintain the proper
functioning of the organization and it is shown below (Boulianne 2014 ).
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Justin Milne Independent Non-executive director, Chairman
Tim Reed Executive director, Chief Executive officer
Andrew Stevens Independent Non-Executive Director
Anne Ward Independent Non-Executive Director
Craig Boyce Non-Executive Director
Edward Han Non-Executive Director
Fiona Pak-Poy Independent Non-Executive Director
Executive Management
Tim Reed Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer
Richard Moore Chief Financial Officer
Andrew Birch Chief Operating Officer
Helen Lea Chief Employee Experience Officer
John Moss Chief Strategy Officer
Luke Rattigan General Manager, Clients and partners
Alla Keogh General Manager, People and Performance
David Weickhardt General Manager, Product
Carolyn Luey General Manager, Enterprise Solutions & New
Zealand
Hugh Fahy General Manager, Engineering
Natalie Feehan General manager , Marketing
Nick Burkett General Manager, Operations and Service

5STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
2. Operational problems due to the present structure
There are many operational problems which can be caused due to the present organizational
structure of the company (Galliers and Leidner 2014). Those are given below in details.
 There are many departments in an organization and the main strength to increase the
efficiency of the organization depends upon the communication among this
department. As there are many members in the board of directors and in the board of
manager, there should be a flow of fast response in the boards. Sometimes taking a
decision is harder due to the lack of communication among the directors and
managers.
 Another cause of inefficiency comes due to several opinions and ideas of the directors
and managers. These should work in a particular direction in order to solve an issue.
Different opinions can distort the motion of a project many times. It is important to
make the discussion regarding the solution in a particular direction.
 As the volume of the work and projects increases with the growth of the organization,
it is natural to increase the number of employees in the organization. For this reason
the organizational structure of the organization should be flexible. Sometimes the
rigid organizational structure can lead to internal politics which is not good from the
organizational point of view.
 The organizational structure should be designed in such a way that the new
employees are motivated to work hard to fulfill their individual goal. The present

6STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
organizational structure can be better by creating the post on the basis of the
performances.
 Proper tutorials and plans should be created in order to manage the organizational
structure from the point of view of mitigating and solving different problems.
 Sometimes errors may come in the activity of the organization that can lead to failure
of projects and the management should be designed in such a way that can overcome
these types of errors.
3. Suitable system acquisition method
There are many methods that can be used in system acquisition. Commercial software, custom
software and ERP are some of the operating software that can be used in order to maintain the
system acquisition (Godfrey 2014). There are several system acquisition software and functions
which operate fast and are designed with advanced algorithms. These kinds of software consist
of several drivers and are designed with different modules that help to conduct different system
acquisition methods. Custom software is also used to apply in different critical issues related to
the system acquisition process (Gögüs and Özer 2014). The main application of the command
driven or commercial software is critical from the learning point of view for the newcomers in
the organization. It can be overcome by using the custom software. ERP or Enterprise Resource
Planning is another tool that is used for advanced system acquisition method (Kelly 2016). The
main advantage of this system is to maintain the organizational planning and management. ERP
is used to deal with several activities like inventory management, materials management,
marketing and sales and production planning (Kelly 2017). In an organization there are many
departments like Human resource, customer services, accounting distribution, corporate
performance, customer services, sales, procurement, production and production. The ERP model

7STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
deals with these departments regarding the business intelligence, enterprise asset management
and e-commerce (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The main advantage of using the ERP system is
that it integrates the whole system and as a result the system production is more in terms of
response time and quality. ERP also works as a real time operator and a common database which
supports every application. From this discussion it is easy to understand that the ERP system is
more advanced and suitable for the system acquisition method.

8STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
4. Describes and prepare a system flowchart of the sales procedures for the chosen
Organization
Customer
Orders
Orders enter and logs
of the orders
Reviews order
Standard terms?
Approve Order
Changes
required??
Cancel orders
Request
approvals
Sell Order
YES
NO
YES
NO
Figure: Sale Flow Chart
(Source: Author made)

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5. Identification of the control problems in the system and possible frauds in the system
There are many cases of control problems in the organizations due to the use of system
management methods (Machado 2016). These system requires business owners who takes an
important role in the decision making process and the system needs proper guidance for those
people. Sometimes the owners lack proper information in controlling these types of systems and
it leads to internal control problems. In some cases the audit department also excuses to avoid
ERP implementations (Pearlson Saunders and Galletta 2016). Also the new practitioners are
from classical accounting background and they lack the technical knowledge about using the
systems acquisitions like ERP. In some cases of external trades with the customers it also faces
many control problems due to the lack of knowledge of those users. There are lack of in-house
skills and knowledge and between the organization and the customers lead to many control
problems. Frauds can be also caused for purchasing using corporate credit card for individual
profit, collision and difference of opininion among the employees. The organizational data and
security measures are also important to be maintained in order to overcome those risks.
PART 2
1. Development and adoption of the accounting software packages
Before using the new well developed system acquisition software and the accounting software
there was a huge demand for this type of software and system. MYOB is itself a big organization
which brings a revolution in this system advancement by utilizing many accounting software
(Machado 2016). The main need of this software is that it can bring a new era to the
organizational accounting response and the need of this software can create a large move to the
advancement of the system. With the introduction of the cloud computing organizations are

10STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
interested to utilize the powerful processing unit of the cloud in various functions of the
organizations (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). In this way the information and the
organizational operations are synchronized in order to provide a better service. Xero, MYOB and
Quck Books have brought a lot of software that helps to find out the solution of the tasks related
to the accounting of the organization. These kinds of software are also taking an important role
in the business management (Rahman et al. 2015). The facilities provided by the software are
increasingly making the service of this organization faster and as a result the organizations are
using these kinds of software to attract more consumers. Easy invoicing, smart reports and
mobile software accessibility are the important applications of such software.
2. Current market size
MYOB is one of the biggest organizations in the market of accounting software and it is growing
day by day (Sampaio and Bernardino 2016). This organization is producing accounting software
and other system management products in a faster rate that is shown in the below figure.
Figure 2: PRODUCTION AND SHARE GRAPH
(Source: Investors.myob.com.au 2017)

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3. Leaders in the market and competitive advantage among them
There are many competitors in this market in order to make the system acquisition
software. The amount of need for the accounting software is increasing day by day. Leadership
in the market is recognized by the largest production, profit and the introduction of new
innovations by the organizations (Schiff and Szendi 2014). MYOB is undoubtedly one of the
biggest organizations in this market and it generates a huge amount of accounting software. Xero
and Quick books have also introduced a lot of accounting software in this market.
4. Current gaps or challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software
and recommendations
There are many advantages of using the accounting software in the organizations and with the
use of these applications the system software is facing lots of challenges regarding the software
(Wali, Sadq and Rasheed 2016). The issues and challenges regarding the accounting software are
discussed below.
 The data security is an important issue in the organization that is important to be well
maintained. There are many possibilities of hacking and theft of information in the
accounting software. In many cases encryption is not done properly and the firewalls
are also not acting properly in order to secure information.
 Sometimes reliability is an important issue for the organization point of view. The
data which is used in the organization can be from wrong sources. The output of the
software can contain wrong information.
 Sometimes the software which are used in the organization for accounting, are not
updated. This can cause failure of some projects also.