Strategic Information System for Qudos Bank: A Comprehensive Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic information system (SIS) implemented at Qudos Bank, an Australian mutual bank. It begins with an introduction to SIS and its importance in providing a competitive edge and facilitating business activities. The report then delves into a discussion of Qudos Bank, its financial services, and its current challenges related to data storage, access, and processing. The core of the report examines key components of SIS, including comparing and contrasting the issues and challenges Qudos Bank faces, evaluating its IS adaptation and strategy, exploring the adoption of new and innovative ideas, assessing outsourcing versus end-user computing, and analyzing how strategic information adds value to the bank through IT/IS. Furthermore, the report critically discusses the importance of good internal control in enhancing business activities. The report highlights both the private and public sector challenges including risk management, involvement of other banks, new item launches, interest rates, capital base, technology gap, and quality of service. The report concludes by summarizing the findings and offering recommendations for Qudos Bank to improve its SIS and gain a competitive advantage in the financial services industry. The report uses several approaches to improve business activities like mandate creation, discussing issues, developing a dedicated team, and providing customer access.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Strategic Information System: Qudos Bank
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Qudos bank.............................................................................................................................3
1. Comparing and contrasting the issues and the challenges that can Qudos Bank faces......4
2. Qudos Bank’s IS adaptation and critical Evaluation of IS Strategy..................................6
3. Qudos Bank’s adopting new and innovative ideas............................................................7
4. Outsourcing vs End-User Computing in Qudos Bank.......................................................9
5. Strategic Information adding value to Qudos bank via IT/ IS.........................................11
6. Critically discuss Good Internal Control..........................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
References................................................................................................................................15

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Introduction
Strategic information system is developed to facilitate business activities of
organisations. The strategic information system is capable to offer a competitive edge to each
and every organisation. Besides that, it offers cost-effective service. The strategic information
system is helpful for the organisations for storing, accessing and processing sensitive data
(Kavanagh and Johnson 2017). It helps the organisations to apply several tools so that the
business activities can get enriched (Marabelli and Galliers 2017). The strategic information
system provides several opportunities so that the business operations can get improved.
Qudos bank has been chosen as case study for the report. Qudos bank is currently
suffering from issues like storing, accessing and processing data of the database. They have
struggled to implement the strategic information system appropriately in their premises. The
report will suggest Qudos bank how they can improve their business with the help of
information system in appropriate manner. The report explains the six main components of
the strategic information system. The report explains various components of the strategic
information system and the including outsourcing, end-user computing with respect to Qudos
banking (Andersen and Andersson 2017). The information system strategy adds value to the
organisation. The internal control in the can enhance the business activities of any
organisations including Qudos Bank. the report will illustrate all the management aspects of
Qudos bank in details in the report. The report will compare and contrast the issues and
challenges, it will also critically evaluate the information system strategy. The strategic
information system can bring innovations to Qudos bank. The strategic information adds
value to Qudos bank. The report critically evaluates internal control. Qudos bank can get the
competitive edge

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Discussion
Qudos bank
Qudos Bank is an Australian mutual bank. The bank is popular providing various
financial services. The financial services include the credit cards, savings, home loans, car
loans. Qudos bank provides the financial planning assistance to the Australian citizens (Yang
2017). The bank deals with foreign exchange products. Qudos Bank is a public sector bank.
The bank has eleven subsidiaries all over Australia. The bank acquires its registration in the
year 1959 and began operating on 1 November of the year.
Qudos bank was previously known as the Qantas Credit Union. The bank is the
customer owned bank. Now, Qudos Bank has about one lac member. The financial
organisation is known to offer retail banking products. Qudos bank offers membership
facility to the current as well as the former employees (Barata and Cunha 2017). The
employees’ families and relatives are also given the opportunity so that they can register with
Qudos bank and can get the membership facility. The bank offers various ranges of products
and the services. The services they offer are-
Deposit Accounts- Loan offset accounts, fixed interest rate term devices and savings
accounts are some of the facilities that fall under this category (Moran and Morner 2017).
Payment services- BPAY, debit card, telephone banking fall under this category.
Retirement savings account- superannuation accounts and varied interest rate fall
under this category (Jali, Abas and Ariffin 2017).
General insurance- Qudos Bank offers the general insurance service for home and
household components, CTP insurance, caravan and motor vehicle.

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Managed investment schemes- the managed investment scheme consists of the
portfolio services directed by the investor (Wildavsky 2018).
Life insurance- Qudos bank offers life insurance to the individuals who are disabled;
it offers services to the customers who are suffering from critical illness.
Qudos Bank also offers credit products like the home loans, personal loans, credit
cards and overdrafts facility to the customers (Jali, Abas and Ariffin 2017). Qudos Bank
caters cost effective flexible home loans to the clients and the customers. The customers
registered with Qudos Bank will not have to pay annual fee, no establishment fees and other
package fees. The bank also provides free monthly transaction allowance so to use ATMs.
Qudos Bank also gets numerous benefits like the financial as well as the training
assistance from their business partners (Nambisan et al. 2017). The staffs also get numerous
benefits; they get incentives from the business partners.
1. Comparing and contrasting the issues and the challenges that can Qudos Bank faces
There are several challenges and issues associated with the strategic information
system. All these challenges have been showcased in the report. The issues and the
challenges have been compared and contrasted in the report (Sroufe and Joseph 2017). Both
the public sector and the private sector have faced several challenges while trying to adopt
and maintain IT/IS technology in their sector.
i) Private Sector: the private sector bank has faced several risks and challenges and all
these risks have been detailed as follows-
a) Risk Management in the private sector: The private sector bank suffers mainly
from the risk management issue. The government banks generally receive more security

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compared to other private banks (Nambisan et al. 2017). That is why the private banks are
also concerned about the security features. The security issues can lead to heavy losses.
b) Other banks’ involvement and association: The private sector banks suffer due to
the involvement of the other bank. Thus the involvement of other banks can prove to be a
serious challenge for the private sector bank.
c) New items launch: The third challenge that the private banking sector can face is
the introduction of new features, new scheme or new items. The new items or the new
scheme can contain the security risks (Jali, Abas and Ariffin 2017). The customers can dislike
any feature the bank has implemented and can simply reject the feature, the bank can suffer
heavy losses due to this reason.
d) Interest Rate: The high rate of interest is another challenge for the private banking
sector (Moran and Morner 2017). The customers may not be able to afford the services that
the bank offers.
The strategic information system planners can face several issues while adopting and
maintaining the IT/IS in a strategic way all these issues have been highlighted in the report.
ii) Public Sector: The public banking sector like the private banking sector can face
risks and challenges while dealing with the strategy development (Barata and Cunha 2017).
The strategic information planners have to perform several operations and they will have to
take go through several challenging situations. The challenges that they can face are:
a) Capital Base: The poor capital base is one kind of challenge that the public sector
bank can face. The capital base is acquired in general via initial public offering. The public
banking sector generally earns very low capital base compared to other private banks

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(Schulze and Heidenreich 2017). Qudos Bank is no exception, they also suffering due to the
low capital bases.
b) Comparatively less number of subsidiaries: The public sector banks, unlike the
private sector bank, contain relatively less number of subsidiaries (Ertek et al. 2017). The less
number of bank branches can be a threat and challenge for the public bank. They have fear of
losing branches as well.
c) Technology gap: The technology gap can be a serious threat to the public sector
banks (Tarafdar and Qrunfleh 2017). These banks are using technologies which are of no use
today, besides those technologies are ineffective and are full of security threats.
d) Quality of service offered by the public bank: The public sector bank is often
criticised to provide poor quality service (Kamariotou and Kitsios 2017). These banks are
struggling for not offering the quality services and not meeting the customers’ demands.
The public sector banks suffer from the challenges described above.
2. Qudos Bank’s IS adaptation and critical Evaluation of IS Strategy
The information system strategy for Qudos Bank has been illustrated as follows-
i) Updating prevalent Qudos Bank’s IS strategy: Qudos Bank must act responsibly
and must take the responsibility to update the system. The bank should update the system on
a constant basis.
ii) Appointing new employees: Qudos will have to change the prevalent management
system and will have to adopt a new management system. The new management system has
planned to incorporate IS strategy to the management system (Aguinis, Edwards and Bradley
2017). They will have to appoint talented, hardworking and creative people. These people
have the capability to bring innovation to the bank premises.

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iii) Maintenance of Qudos bank’s system and database: Qudos Bank with the aid of
the newly adopted management system can manage the business and the financial operations
(Ertek et al. 2017). The IS strategy can help Qudos bank to maintain their system and the
database.
iv) Maintaining Security: The IS strategy can also help Qudos Bank to ensure
security and privacy within the bank premises. Security is one important aspect of the bank,
and Qudos should not compromise at all.
3. Qudos Bank’s adopting new and innovative ideas
Qudos Bank with the help of information system can adopt certain strategies by which
they can furnish the business and financial activities of the bank (Ertek et al. 2017). The
seven most utilised approaches that can improvise the business activities are defined below-
i) Mandate creation: Mandate creation is one kind of approach and this approach can
be helpful in improvising the business activities of Qudos Bank. A mandate generally
provides direction so that changes can be implemented within the organisation. The mandate
is associated with distinct strategy and the strategy is expected to bring innovations to the
bank premises (Seidel et al. 2017). The top level management's role is to create a mandate.
The top-level management is the initiators of the mandate adaptations and improvisations
(Ertek et al. 2017). They also approach towards the people with a similar passion for the
creation of mandate.
ii) Be any Model: Be any model is one kind of approach following which Qudos
Bank can become innovative. The top-level management should adopt all the strategies so
that they can work effectively and successfully (Kamariotou and Kitsios 2017). Qudos bank
should prioritise the business thinking as well as business thinking.

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iii) Discussing issues and challenges with the stakeholders and the employees:
Qudos Bank must ensure that the information system should analyse the issues aroused in the
system and should make sure that there exist no loopholes in the decision-making procedures
and the problem-solving techniques (Kamariotou and Kitsios 2017). Qudos bank should
provide train with their employees in such a way that they can analyse the issues and sort out
the issues themselves with ease (Seidel et al. 2017). The employees can be able to find out
the best solution by which they can mitigate the issues effectively.
iv) Development of dedicated team: Qudos Bank’s dedicated team must analyse the
issues or the problems well, Qudos bank can get to know about various solutions by which
the issues aroused can be well mitigated (Tarafdar and Qrunfleh 2017). The team will get to
know about any other alternative solutions by which Qudos bank can improve their business
activities.
v) Qudos bank providing access to the people: Qudos Bank deals with the customers.
The customers should be provided with appropriate login access. The customers’ feedback is
essential for the business (Abdelwahed, Mahmoud and Bdair 2017). Qudos Bank must
consider the feedback from the customers as that can help the bank to know where they
should make improvements.
vi) Designing Systems and Building System: Qudos Bank should design and build
system in such a way that the system the new management system can provide effective
service in a profitable manner (Lapsley and Rekers 2017). The new management system can
provide them with the solutions so that they can get the competitive edge.
vii) Establishing a business network with other workers of the bank: The workers
working in Qudos bank must discuss with each other and they must consider the business

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networking (Ba and Nault 2017). The workers can discuss with each other the issues that can
occur in the bank and based on that they can take critical decisions for solving the issues.
4. Outsourcing vs End-User Computing in Qudos Bank
Outsourcing is one kind of approach by which any company provides important
functionalities to effective and specialised service partners. This approach can give the
opportunity to Qudos Bank to work with experienced and effective partners in the business
(Deresky 2017). In some cases, the outsourcing involves the employee's transfer from one
organisation to other.
EUC or end-user computing defines a platform where the non-programmers get the
opportunity to work with numerous applications (Wheelen and Hunger 2017). The end user
computing is one sort of computing that incorporates the end users into the programming
environment.
Outsourcing is the best among all. The IS/IT Strategy can bring immense benefits to
Qudos Bank. The IS/IT Director must adopt the IS strategy and must deploy it effectively to
get the maximum benefits (Tucker et al. 2017). The report has highlighted how the Director
can be benefitted by the usage of IS/IT Strategy and they are as follows-
i) Qudos Bank focusing on Basic Actions: Qudos bank can enhance their business
operations with the help of IS Strategy. The financial operations and the business operations
can get enhanced and the bank should focus on these basic operations to gain the desired
profit they want (Wheelen and Hunger 2017). Qudos Bank must also focus on the
outsourcing of financial and business operations.
ii) Expenses Savings and Efficiency in Qudos Bank: Qudos banking must choose the
outsourcing activities. The outsourcing operations help in expense savings. Alongside

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expenses, the bank’s efficiency also gets increased (Tucker et al. 2017). The savings
expenses, as well as the effects, are helpful for Qudos bank as the bank can gain profit.
iii) Lessening Overhead: Outsourcing assists in lessening the cost of overhead, this
approach can prove to be beneficial for the bank (Wu 2017). The overhead costs for the
carrying out the back-office operations are comparatively very high.
iv) Qudos Bank Control in Operations: The business operations can go out of
control; however, the operations can be controlled by means of outsourcing (Tjemkes, Vos
and Burgers 2017). Any department of Qudos Bank can suffer as a result of the poor
controlling and poor administration. Qudos Bank as a result of outsourcing can acquire the
best possible outcome. The bank can get cost-effective service due to the outsourcing
(Rahimi and Kozak 2017). Thus outsourcing can help them to gain numerous benefits.
v) Qudos Bank’s Staffing Flexibility: The adaptation of new management system can
be problematic for any organisations and Qudos Bank is no exception (Serenko and Bontis
2017). The flexibility in staffing is a vital aspect with regards to outsourcing. The staffs
contribute to the success of the bank (Rahimi and Kozak 2017). Various kinds of business
operations can be managed with ease with the aid of outsourcing.
vi) Risk Management in Qudos Bank: Risk management is another important aspect
that must be considered by all the organisations. Qudos bank’ management team and the
Qudos bank’s workers must consider the risk management as well in their premises (Durand
et al. 2017). The outsourcing can help the bank to manage the risks involved in the business
operations; the risks can be managed to invest a minimal amount.
vii) Developing Internal Staff: The large projects can only become successful or can
be successfully accomplished is the staffs and all the employees work well in the project

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(Durand et al. 2017). Similarly, in case of Qudos bank, the management team must train their
employees well (Wolf and Floyd 2017). the internal staffs and the workers of the bank stay in
charge of managing the business operations and outsourcing the business operations. The
training will help the employees to hone their talents and skills. The employees can bring out
any new innovative approach.
5. Strategic Information adding value to Qudos bank via IT/ IS
i) Implementing Strategic Information Role: The adaptation of information system
technology in the organisation premise always adds value to any organisation and Qudos
Bank can acquire several benefits with the aid of information system strategy (Ayabakan,
Bardhan and Zheng 2017). The strategies have been illustrated below. They are-
a. The first phase provides the relevant information required to carry on the
investigation of the business procedures. The first stage involves the behavioural traits of the
management staffs and approaches towards employees and the business tasks (Harris 2017).
The first phase also deals with the expenses that must be paid. In this stage, Qudos bank can
learn about the competitors.
b. the second stage deals with mission and strategies-
The strategic decisions depend on -
i. Targeting the appropriate market
ii. The location of office premises
iii. Development of new products (Ayabakan, Bardhan and Zheng 2017)
iv. Launching of new products
v. Promoting the products