HI5019 Strategic Information Systems - Bell Studio Case Study Report

This report presents a case study of Bell Studio, a wholesale art supplies company, examining its business processes, including purchasing, cash disbursement, and payroll systems. The report details the company's data flow diagrams and system flowcharts, highlighting the traditional methods employed and their associated internal weaknesses. The analysis identifies risks related to these weaknesses, such as system failures, human errors, and potential fraud. The report also covers the purchasing system, cash disbursement system, and payroll system, and discusses the weaknesses and risks associated with each. It explores potential risks like system crashes, human errors, and data breaches. The conclusion emphasizes the role of a business analyst in addressing these issues and suggests improvements for the company's operations.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Strategic Information for Business and Enterprise
Name of Student-
Name of University-
Author’s Note

1STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Executive Summary
The report states the details business procedure of the Bell Studio company which
deals with the materials of art. It is the whole seller of art supplies and impart materials
from different countries like Australia, New Zealand, japan and China. This is one of the
largest company of art supplies whole seller. But this organization follows traditional
way of handling the business processes. All the transaction process are explained in
this report stating their data flow diagram and their system flowchart. There are many
internal weakness that are associated with the internal workflow of the organization.
Those internal weakness are defined in this report stating their associated risks in the
organisation.

2STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Table of Contents
1. Introduction....................................................................................................................3
2. Data Flow Diagram 1.....................................................................................................4
3. Data Flow Diagram 2.....................................................................................................5
4. System Flowchart 1.......................................................................................................6
5. System Flowchart 2.......................................................................................................7
6. system Flowchart 3........................................................................................................8
7. Internal Control Weakness and Risk Associated..........................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................10
References.......................................................................................................................11

3STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
1. Introduction
This report consists of the case study that deals with the working procedure of
the Bell Studio. The Bell Studio is one of the leading organization of supplying art
materials and imports their raw materials from different countries like Australia, New
Zealand, Japan, and China. The system of Bell Studio that are explained in this report is
purchasing system, cash disbursement system, and payroll system. As the organization
follows central system for conducting the payroll system and uses computer based
system for conducting other processes. The organization also follows manual ledger
and reporting system for storing the data of the organization.
There are many other ways of conducting the business of Bell Studio. The
business process that are conducted in the organization has many faults and internal
weakness that might lead to some risks in the organization. The process that is
conducted in the organization is human based and there are many chances of occurring
human error in the process of organization. All those internal flaws are explained in this
report stating the risks that the company might face while dealing with the business
process (Haynes 2015). This report states the data flow diagrams of the transaction
process, the financial reporting system, and the reporting system is shown in this paper.
This report also shows the system flowchart of the sub-systems in the Bell Studio. The
internal weakness of the system are also explained in this paper that are faced in
operating such processes.

4STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
2. Data Flow Diagram 1
Figure 1: D F D of Purchasing System and Cash Disbursements Systems
(Source: Created By author)
Description: The data flow diagram shown above shows the details of the
purchasing process that is carried out in the Bell Studio. There are many different
processes that are carried out for completing the purchasing process. There is checking
of inventory process, ordering the products process, purchasing of order process,
process of receiving report, checking of all the reports, and making the payment
procedure as well as updating the bills associated with the process of payment. The
DFD shown above shows the details of the all processes and the flow of processes for
carrying out the purchasing process in the organization. The process of cash
disbursement is also shown in the diagram above. Cheque is first signed up and the
cheque is then mailed to the vendor who has supplied materials to Bell Studio.
3. Data Flow Diagram 2

5STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Figure 2: D F D of Payroll System
(Source: Created By author)
Description: The DFD above shows the payroll procedure of the Bell Studio.
The payroll process includes the ledger department to sign cheque consisting of entire
payroll amount that is needed for the organization. The diagram above shows 8
processes that are to be carried out in carrying out the process of the payroll system. All
the process of the system are shown along with the flow of data in the process. There
are three data storage where the data are stored in the system.
4. System Flowchart 1

6STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Figure 3: Flowchart of the Purchases System
(Source: Created By author)
Description: The flowchart of the system shows the system workflow for the
system. The flow of the system includes the inventory, selecting the vendor, purchasing
of different items, and sending order to the vendors, receiving of orders and vendor slip,
inspecting the products, receiving the products, sending the documents to the accounts
department, checking the documents, and lastly sending the final documents to the
cash disbursement department. The flowchart shows the flowing of processes in the
department and all the decisions that are related with the processes involved.
5. System Flowchart 2

7STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Figure 4: Flowchart of the Cash Disbursements System
(Source: Created By author)
Description: The system process of cash disbursement system shows the input
output of all the processes that are included in the system. The payment due date of the
documents are checked in the system and then the following process shown above is
carried out. The clerk prepares the check for the system and the cheque is mailed for
the vendors for the invoice they have sent to the company. All the documents are filed
accordingly in the centralized system of the information system.

8STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
6. System Flowchart 3
Figure 5: System Flowchart of the Payroll System
(Source: Created By author)
Description: The payroll working system of the Bell Studio is shown in the
system flowchart designed above. The working process of the payroll system consists
of different processes and the decisions that are to be taken by the system. The working
process consists of many different input/output decisions that are to be taken in the
working process of the system. This process ends with the paying of money in the bank
imperest account and distribution of cheques in the account.

9STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
7. Internal Control Weakness and Risk Associated
For purchasing system:
Weakness associated:
1. The purchasing system of the Bell Studio gets initiated only when the purchasing
clerk checks the inventory and at low inventory the clerk orders materials from the
supplier and if the clerk does not order materials, the system of purchasing will not start.
Therefore, the system is only dependent on the clerk (Hockerts 2015).
2. With the centralized accounting system, the working procedure is too slow as manual
process is carried out in the system.
3. The purchasing receipt, the supplier invoice, the receiving receipt are stored in files in
the purchasing department.
Risks associated and mitigation process:
1.1 The system failure risks might occur in the purchasing department. The documents
related to purchasing are updated in the central information system and the whole
network is connected with single network. If this network crashes, then risk of stopping
the working procedure might occur in the enterprise (Korableva and Kalimullina 2016).
2.1 There is risk of losing the business market if the purchasing process slows down.
The risk of losing customer can occur in the market because of the purchasing system
that is carried in the working process of the system.
3.1 The documentation of the system is done manually and that might bring a risk of
human error and fraud case in the Bell Studio.
For Cash Disbursement System:
Weakness associated:
1. The cheques in the cash disbursement process that are sent to the suppliers are
written manually. This can result in weakness of the system and can also result in
monetary loss of the system (Luftman, Lyytinen and Zvi 2017).
2. Cheques are provided to the suppliers and enchasing the cheques is a long process
that the suppliers may face. This might result in losing the suppliers from the company.
3. Files from one department to another is transferred and the receipt and invoices are
also transferred. This can lead in misplacing the file accidently or even might lead to
fraud risk of vanishing the file deliberately.
Risks associated and mitigation process:
1.1 Risk of losing the business as there is monetary risk and fraud detection risk in the
cash disbursement. The company can face risk of having loss in the market (Quirke
2017).

10STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
2.1 Risk of security and data breach might occur. This is because the cheques are sent
to the suppliers through email. The emails might get hacked by the attackers and the
suppliers might not get money from the company and that might lead to fraud detection.
3.1 The calculation in the ledger might done up to the date and there might be mistake
in doing the calculation. This might disturb the budget calculation of the company
(Safari, Faraji and Majidian 2016).
For payroll system:
Weakness associated:
1. For conducting the payroll system, the clerk of the payroll system needs write cheque
for the imperest account of the bank (Thompson 2017).
2. The payroll clerk needs to complete the payroll register and make copies of the
register. Copies of payroll register is to be made which initiate a mistake for the clerk.
3. Risk of getting data breach and human fraud detection might occur in the business
operation of Bell Studio (Upward and Jones 2016).
Risks associated and mitigation process:
1.1 The payroll system is a log time procedure that takes time to complete. Reviewing of
time card and then signing with the cheque needs more time (Van Woerkom et al.
2016).
2.1 There is always a risk of human risk in the business process. There is also a risk of
staff dishonesty at the time of writing time cards for the working hours (Wellin 2016).
Conclusion
From the perspective of business analyst, it is the duty of the business analyst to
interact with the business stakeholders, and also with the experts who are involved in
the business program and can deal with the business problems. This report consists of
the business operations that undertaken in the Bell Studio and those operations are to
be taken care off so that the business process get advanced. As a business analyst, it is
the duty of the business analyst to gather the documents related to the business
problems and the needs of the business. The business problems that are related to the
business problems are discussed as per the business analyst of Bell Studio in this
report.
This report mainly highlights the facts that are related with the business process
of Bell Studio. The business process of the Enterprise is handled with the help of
centralized information system and thus the system has many security issues that might
occur in the business operations. All those problems related to Bell Studio operations
are included in this report along with the risks that the problems might include in the
business along with technical problems in the system.

11STRATEGIC INFORMATION FOR BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
References
Haynes, P., 2015. Managing complexity in the public services. Routledge.
Hockerts, K., 2015. How hybrid organizations turn antagonistic assets into
complementarities. California Management Review, 57(3), pp.83-106.
Korableva, O.N. and Kalimullina, O.V., 2016, September. Strategic approach to the
optimization of organization based on BSC-SWOT matrix. In 2016 IEEE International
Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Applications (ICKEA) (pp. 212-215). IEEE.
Luftman, J., Lyytinen, K. and Zvi, T.B., 2017. Enhancing the measurement of
information technology (IT) business alignment and its influence on company
performance. Journal of Information Technology, 32(1), pp.26-46.
Quirke, B., 2017. Making the connections: using internal communication to turn strategy
into action. Routledge.
Safari, H., Faraji, Z. and Majidian, S., 2016. Identifying and evaluating enterprise
architecture risks using FMEA and fuzzy VIKOR. Journal of Intelligent
Manufacturing, 27(2), pp.475-486.7
Thompson, J.D., 2017. Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative
theory. Routledge.
Upward, A. and Jones, P., 2016. An ontology for strongly sustainable business models:
Defining an enterprise framework compatible with natural and social
science. Organization & Environment, 29(1), pp.97-123.
Van Woerkom, M., Mostert, K., Els, C., Bakker, A.B., De Beer, L. and Rothmann Jr, S.,
2016. Strengths use and deficit correction in organizations: Development and validation
of a questionnaire. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 25(6),
pp.960-975.
Wellin, M., 2016. Managing the psychological contract: Using the personal deal to
increase business performance. Routledge.