Analysis of Accounting Software Implementation at Macquarie Group

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of accounting software implementation at Macquarie Group, an Australian financial services company. It begins with an introduction to accounting software and its importance, followed by an overview of Macquarie Group's organizational structure, highlighting how it can create operational challenges. The report examines Macquarie's system acquisition methods, including the use of Intralinks, Manage Engine, and Synopsys, as well as its in-house software development. It details the sales procedure system flowchart and discusses the control problems and frauds faced by the organization. The report specifically focuses on Macquarie's adoption of Xero accounting software, its impact on market size, and its competitive strategies. It also addresses challenges encountered by users of accounting software and offers recommendations for mitigation. The report concludes with the importance of accounting software for organizations of all sizes. The report uses information available on the internet and provides insights on the financial and operational aspects of Macquarie Group, emphasizing the significance of accounting software implementation.

Running head: EFFECTS OF ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE AT MACQUARIE GROUP
Effects of Accounting Software at Macquarie Group
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Executive Summary
The report focuses on the importance of accounting software system implementation in
organisations of any size and operating at any field of business. To support the topic, the report
provides detailed analysis of an Australian based organisation known as Macquarie Group that
has adopted accounting software system for managing the organisational operations as well as to
improve the growth prospect of the organisation. The impact of the accounting software on the
organisation provides an idea about its importance in business. The report concludes with some
recommendations that can mitigate the issues that are faced by the users of accounting software
systems.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Macquarie and Its Organisational Structure................................................................................3
3. Structure as Operational Hindrance for Macquarie.....................................................................4
4. System Acquisition methods of Macquarie.................................................................................5
5. Sales Procedure System Flowchart of the Organisation..............................................................6
6. Control Problems and Frauds faced by Macquarie......................................................................7
7. Adoption of Xero by Macquarie..................................................................................................8
8. Current Market Size.....................................................................................................................9
9. Dominators in the Market............................................................................................................9
10. Existing Challenges Encountered by Users of Accounting Software.....................................10
11. Some Recommendations.........................................................................................................10
12. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................11
13. References................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
The report introduces the concept of Accounting Software implementation to
organisations in support of an analysis made on Macquarie Group, an Australian based
organisation that has implemented Accounting Software package for maintaining its various
financial and organisational aspects (Hall 2012). Accounting software is a tool or a service
provided by third-party vendors to organisations of any scale and competency that serves the
purpose of providing professional support in maintaining financial records electronically and
providing expert solutions in financial matters as well.
2. Macquarie and Its Organisational Structure
Macquarie is a finance-providing organisation that provides its clients with financial help
in terms of asset management, banking guidance, investment and such. The company’s
foundation dates back to 1996 and its existing managing director (MD) as well as CEO is
Nicholas Moore (Macquarie.com 2017).
The organisational framework of Macquarie is non-hierarchical and is divided into five
distinct groups. The executive committee is at the heart of the hierarchy that comprises the MD,
Deputy MD, Risk Management Head, Global Chief Operations officer and Chiefs of
Macquarie’s main operating departments. Aside the operational divisions, four service divisions
help in the support, infrastructure and framework that is needed by the operational divisions for
business management. The four service groups include Financial Management, Risk
Management, Corporate Operations, Legal and Governance Group (Macquarie.com 2017).

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Figure 1: Corporate Framework of Macquarie Group
(Source: Macquarie.com 2017)
3. Structure as Operational Hindrance for Macquarie
The organisational framework of Macquarie is the basis of the operational issues faced by
the company. Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) sued Macquarie with
compensation of 160,000 clients inclusive of old and new ones. The company is charged with
misconduct and incorrect financial suggestions provided by its financial advisers that had caused
great financial loss to the clients (Mossa and Silvapulle 2012). The accused utilised a cheat file
known as the Penske File that provides answers to questions required in professional

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development exams. The personnel of Macquarie are also accused of marking people as
sophisticated-wholesale investors deliberately for their money can be invested in risky products
avoiding the security provided to retail investors (Li, Allan and Evans 2015). The non-
hierarchical framework of the organisation makes the top management of the company
dependent on the reports provided by the service departments whose feasibility is never checked.
The organisational framework has prohibited the company from acquiring data about the
activities of the financial advisors, which has led to such operational blunders (Li, Allan and
Evans 2015).
4. System Acquisition methods of Macquarie
Three software vendors provide service to Macquarie.
Macquarie has subscribed the services of Intralinks, which facilitates the organisation
with collaboration and project management solutions (Www2.intralinks.com 2017).
The organisation has implemented Manage Engine for providing solutions to the IT
department of the same (Manageengine.com 2017).
Synopsys is another optimal software-providing service recruited by Macquarie that takes
care of the tools used by IT department of the same (Synopsys.com 2017).
Besides subscribing the services of three software vendors, Macquarie have also
developed software on premises that will help the organisation in improving relationships with
its customer. The bank has integrated a new data layer with the pre-implemented conventional
legacy system of the company. Big data, machine learning interface and open source database
are utilised to develop the data layer (ComputerWeekly 2017). The finance-providing firm is a

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completely digitised organisation besides its headquarters. The secret behind the success of a
completely digitised bank is the enhanced customer experience that is achieved by providing all
the facilities that the bank has to offer at the fingertips of the customer. So that a client while
browsing the website of the bank can find the desired option just a click away. Thus, it is
mandatory for the organisation to provide stress on improving the websites or web application
that are used by its clients, so that they can provide an effective customer experience, which in
turn will boost its business growth as well as reputation in the global market (ComputerWeekly
2017).
5. Sales Procedure System Flowchart of the Organisation
Figure 2 provided below shows the system flowchart for the sales procedure of
Macquarie Group. The operation in the flowchart starts with the customer of the bank placing an
order request; say for getting a credit card, at the dedicated website of Macquarie. The sales
department views the order and forwards it to the contracts department for validation. The
contracts department sends the order request to the legal department for approval. The legal
personnel of the organisation check the order request for validity. In case the order request meets
the requirements of the standard terms set by Macquarie, the legal department approves the order
else it is disapproved. In case the legal department approves the order, the contracts department
forwards the order to the supply department for processing. The supply facility makes necessary
arrangements for the delivery of the order to the customer. In the other instance where the order
fails to meet the standard terms of the organisation and the legal department disapproves the
order, the contract department notifies the sales department and the order is not processed
further. Necessary updates are provided to the customer regarding the failure of the order
request. (Macquarie.com 2017).

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Figure 2: Sales Procedure System Flowchart of Macquarie
(Source: Macquarie.com 2017)
6. Control Problems and Frauds faced by Macquarie
The organisation has a non-hierarchical structure, which is the basis of creation of a
barrier among various stages of the hierarchy of the organisation. Due to this framework of the

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organisation, the top management is unable to conduct an effective supervision on the various
service departments of the same and hence the emergence of control problem is seen within the
institution. The personnel within the organisation who are tasked with providing finance related
advice to their customers are adopting unfair means to achieve their goal (Ting 2014). Their
illegal activities within the organisation premises includes doing fraud with clients and using a
certain file known as the Penske file for obtaining solutions of questions asked in developmental
tests. Such fraud actions of the employees of Macquarie have cost the organisation 160,000
dollars for compensating their affected clients as per the order of ASIC (Ting 2014).
7. Adoption of Xero by Macquarie
Xero is a third-party service provider of accounting software package that is based in
Australia. Macquarie Group has incorporated the services of Xero in its organisation for availing
the account and finance related help that the service can provide (Xero Accounting Software
2017). It acts as an intermediary agent in between the bank and its client and provides financial
help to the clients on behalf of the organisation. The Xero app launched by Xero enables the
clients of Macquarie to perform transactions with the bank as well as view past transaction
reports from the same (Dimitriu and Matei 2014). Xero is responsible for providing real-time
reports and online mini statements to the customers regarding the current-status of their accounts
in the bank. Apart from providing automated financial advice to the clients of Macquarie, Xero is
also entitled to perform certain in-house operations for the organisation. The operations include
providing electronically generated reports of all the financial transactions that takes place within
the organisation. Those stored reports are utilised by the employees of Macquarie for future
reference. The system also helps the employees of the bank with various possible solutions
related to finance and accounts (Mageto 2017).

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8. Current Market Size
The graph below depicts the latest market size of Macquarie Group in comparison to
other three large Australian banks. The lines with grey colour are the graph of Macquarie, which
proves that the bank is presently dominating the market in respect to its share price that is
recorded within the period of March 2017 to August 2017. (Macquarie.com 2017).
Figure 3: Present Market Dimension of Macquarie Group
(Source: Macquarie.com 2017)
9. Dominators in the Market
The dominant co-players of Macquarie Group in the market are the Commonwealth Bank
of Australia (CBA), Scentre Group (SCG) and the Westpac Banking Corporation (WBC). Every

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organisation has some special strategies that is undertaken to achieve competitive advantage in
the market against other competitors. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia strives to provide
an excellent customer experience to its clients while the Westpac Banking Corporation provides
stress to achieve technical and operational marvel. The Macquarie Group has adopted the
strategy to provide its customers with a large diversity of facilities that is offered by none other
competitors. This strategy of the bank has provided it the required competitive advantage to stay
ahead of its competitors in the market (Bhattacharya, Romani and Stern 2012).
10. Existing Challenges Encountered by Users of Accounting Software
The most challenging issues that are faced by the users of accounting software packages
are in terms of outdated and less user-friendly software services that are provided by the service
providers (Simkin, Norman and Rose 2014). Some of the accounting software lacks sophisticated
security systems that concern its users about the protection of the data that are used while using
such accounting software within an organisation (Teittinen, Pellinen and Jarvenpaa 2013). Some
accounting software systems have poor quality of reporting service and is unable to help users to
recollect their stored business information (Mutongi 2014).
11. Some Recommendations
To mitigate the issues in accounting software usage that is mentioned above, it is
suggested to subscribe the services of those service providers of accounting software system who
have legitimate trust certificate as well as can provide software that are user-friendly. Besides,
the use of strong firewalls and sophisticated network security software within the system is also a
viable option to consider.

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12. Conclusion
The report concludes with the insight that accounting software is a necessity more than a
mere requirement to every organisation at present irrespective of the issues that the organisation
may face while and after implementation of the package within the same.