St.George Bank Strategic Information System: Challenges and Solutions

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic information system (SIS) at St.George Bank. It begins with an introduction to SIS and its importance, followed by a discussion of St.George Bank's background and services. The report identifies and contrasts the challenges the bank faces, including risk management, competition, and technological advancements. It then evaluates St.George Bank's IS adaptation, suggesting updates and improvements. The report also explores how St.George Bank can facilitate innovation through new ideas, including mandate creation and stakeholder collaboration. The report also discusses outsourcing vs. end-user computing in the context of St.George Bank. The final sections emphasize how SIS can add value through IT/IS strategies and critically discuss good internal control. The report concludes with recommendations for St.George Bank to leverage SIS effectively.

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

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

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Introduction
Strategic information system defines a set of guidelines for the organisation. The
organisations can make appropriate plans and strategies following the guidelines. The
strategies will help the companies to enrich their business operations. The organisations can
even get the competitive edge due to the adaptation of the strategic information system. The
organisations can store data; the organisations can access data and process data better easily
and effectively with the aid of the information system (Kamariotou and Kitsios 2018). The
strategic information system provides several scopes to the organisations so that the existing
business operations can get enhanced.
The report chooses St.George Bank as the case study. The bank is being suggested to
take up the strategic information to enrich their business functionalities. The bank with the
help of strategic information system can serve customers well (Asare and Conger 2018). The
customers can get enhanced security, and they can enjoy St.George Bank’ banking service.
St.George Bank can store data; can access data and process data in the agile and effective
way. The strategic information system can help St.George Bank to accompany Westpac in
conducting the financial activities (Baird 2018). The report illustrates the strategic
information system's six major components. There are several risks and challenges associated
with the project activities. The planners have faced several challenges while implementing
the strategic information system on their premises. The report illustrates the challenges. The
components like end-user computing, outsourcing has been defined in the report. The IS
strategy definitely adds value to enterprises. The report elaborates on details how St.George
Bank should use strategic information system for the betterment of the bank. The strategic
information has the capability to bring innovations in the bank premises. The strategic
information system also helps in evaluating the internal control.

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Discussion
St.George Bank
St.George Bank is one of the banks of Australia, headquarter of the bank is located in
Sydney. St.George Bank merges with Westpac Banking Corporation in the year 2008. The
bank provides services to the customers of New South Wales. St.George Bank also offers
service in Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland. They also conduct business activities
and financial activities in Northern Territory and South Australia under Bank SA, Bank SA is
a division of Westpac well (Asare and Conger 2018). St.George Bank has a large number of
subsidiaries in Australia. The bank has also many ATMs based in Australia. St.George Bank
conducts back office operations in India as well.
In the year 2007, Paul Fegan was appointed as the CEO of St.George Bank. Gail
Kelly was CEO of St.George Bank earlier. He departed St.George Bank in the year 2007 and
became CEO of Westpac Banking Corporation group (Baird 2018). In the year 2008, both
St.George Bank merged with Westpac.
St.George Bank is known to provide customer friendly and customer oriented
services. The bank competes with the ‘big four’ banks of Australia, though they are part of
Westpac. St.George Bank at one time was identified as the customer service leader, but they
failed to retain their position. The big four’ banks of Australia grab the top position.
However, recent survey illustrates that St.George Bank is trying to regain their position. They
are trying to fill up their loopholes (Kamariotou and Kitsios 2018). St.George Bank provides
specialisation in home and customer lending, however, the bank now provides funding
service to the specialist industries. They also provide funding services to various market
segments which include trade finance, invoice discounting, commercial property

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construction, automotive finance and foreign exchange. The Automotive Finance division
works under St.George Finance Limited.
St.George Bank planned to shift their back office job operations in India. St.George
Bank conducts cards and loan services work at IBM in Bangalore.
1. Comparing and contrasting the issues and the challenges that can St.George Bank
faces
The financial organisations including the bank face several issues and challenges
while implementing the strategic information system on their premises. The report will
elaborate the challenges in details. The report has compared and contrasted the challenges in
details (Bryson 2018). The public sector banks as well as the private sector banks while they
try to adopt the IT strategy on their premises. The banks have also struggled to maintain the
IT strategy on their premises.
i) Private Sector: The private sector banks have struggled throughout because of all
the risks and the challenges in their sector and they are-
a) Risk Management: the private sector bank has struggled due to the issue of risk
management. The government banks tend to get more security but the private sector banks
cannot avail such security (Hassan and Mathiassen 2018). That is why they are more
concerned about the security. For the security loopholes, the bank can face heavy losses.
b) Additional banks’ emergence: Many new banks have emerged in recent times and
so the private banks compete with each other all the time. The involvement of other banks
can be a threat to the private sector banks (Baidya et al. 2018). The private sector banks can
face heavy losses due to the involvement of other banks.

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c) Launching new items: The private banks always focus on innovation. They always
try to bring in new features and new schemes in the enterprises. The customers and the clients
can dislike the new approach and the new schemes. In this case, the bank can face heavy
losses.
d) Interest Rate: The private sector bank can suffer from the high-interest rate
challenge (Hassan and Mathiassen 2018). The bank offers many services, but it is of no use if
the customers are not able to afford the bank services.
The company planners can face issues while adopting the IT strategy. The private
banking sectors also face issues while maintaining the IS strategy on their premises.
St.George Bank is a private sector faces all these kind of issues (Baidya et al. 2018). The
issues have been discussed n details in the report.
ii) Public Sector: The public banking sectors face several challenges and risks like the
private banking sector while adopting the IS strategy. The business planners will have to face
several challenging scenarios while carrying out the business activities. The probable
challenges that they can face are-
a) Capital Base: The public sector bank can suffer due to the poor capital base. The
banks collect the capital base through a public offering. The public sector banks earn
relatively low capital base in comparison to private sector banks.
b) Less number of bank branches: The public sector banks have less number of bank
branches (Foote and Halawi 2018). The public sector banks contain a minimal number of
branches. The less number of branches can prove to be a threat or challenge for the public
bank. Moreover, they have fear of losing subsidiaries.

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c) Technology gap: Technology gap can be a serious threat to the public sector bank.
The public sector banks are using technologies which are obsolete, the technologies they use
contain security concerns and at the same time, the technologies are inefficient.
d) Poor quality service offered: The public sector banks offer services that are of poor
quality. They are heavily criticised for the poor quality (Peppard 2018). The banks are not
offering the desired service; also the banks are not meeting the demands of the customers.
The report illustrates the challenges the public banking sectors are suffering from.
2. St.George Bank’s IS adaptation and critical Evaluation of IS Strategy
St.George Bank can implement the IS strategy for their own benefits and they must
undertake-
i) Updating existent St.George Bank’s IS strategy: St.George Bank must take the
responsibility to make necessary update in the system (Foote and Halawi 2018). The updated
system will be fast and effective; it will include the security patches so the bank will not have
to worry about the security breaches.
ii) Assigning new workers: St.George Bank must discard the prevalent information
system. St.George Bank will have to take up the new management system. The management
body can be benefitted with the aid of the latest IS strategy (Peppard 2018). They will have to
hire talented, diligent and creative individuals, these individuals will improvise the business
operations if the bank.
iii) Appropriate maintenance of St.George Bank’s system and database: St.George
Bank can manage the financial services and the business activities with the help of advanced
IS strategy (Wu and Raghupathi 2018). The advanced IS strategy can be helpful in
maintaining database and system.

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iv) Managing Security: The IS strategy can assist in ensuring the privacy and security
in St.George Bank premises. Security is an important aspect that every organisation must
consider and they should not compromise at any cost. Security can help St.George Bank to
gain customer trust (Bergamaschi 2018). The customers can feel safe while conducting online
internet banking, mobile banking with the help of the information system.
3. St.George Bank’s facilitates after adaptation of new and innovative ideas
St.George Bank can enhance the financial activities of the bank with the aid of the
strategic information system. There are seven approaches associated that can improvise the
business activities and they are as follows-
i) Mandate creation: Creating mandate is one sort of approach. The approach can be
beneficial for St.George Bank to enrich their business activities. A mandate paves the ay by
which St.George Bank can implement changes in their bank premises. the mandate contains
certain strategies and these strategies can improve the bank operations of St.George Bank.
The top-level management of St.George Bank will have to respond to create the mandate
(Bergamaschi 2018). The top-level management will have to take the initial step. The
management body will have to assign people having passion for creating mandate. The new
employees will have to take initiative for the improvement of the bank.
ii) Be any Model: Be any model is an initiative and St.George Bank following be any
model can bring innovation in the bank premises. The top-level management must choose
appropriate methodologies so that that can work smoothly for the bank (Wu and Raghupathi
2018). St.George Bank should give priority to the creative thinking that can facilitate the
business activities.
iii) Discuss issues and challenges with workers as well as stakeholders: St.George
Bank should make use of information system effectively so that it can analyse and mitigate

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the issues. St.George Bank will have to fill up the existing loopholes and must focus on the
problem solving methodologies. They must make critical decisions so that the business
operations can get enhanced. St.George Bank should train their employees in such a way that
they can resolve the issues (Mao et al. 2018). The employees must have the expertise and the
skills so that they can mitigate issues and come up with some best solutions.
iv) Developing diligent dedicated team: St.George Bank must have a dedicated team
that is capable to analyse the issues, in this way St.George Bank can acknowledge the best
possible ways by which the issues can be minimised (Vom Brocke and Mendling 2018). The
team can find out any other alternate solutions by which St.George Bank can improve their
business operations.
v) St.George Bank catering access to the users and customers: St.George Bank
works with the customers. St.George Bank must provide the customers with proper login
access. The feedback of the customers is absolute necessity for running the business (Mao et
al. 2018). The bank can only improve or can make further progress in business on the basis of
the customers’ feedback.
vi) Designing Systems and Building System: St.George Bank must modify the
existing system in such a way so that the bank makes profit. The new management system
will give St.George Bank the competitive edge so that they can stay ahead of all other banks.
The management team will provide the best solutions by which they can be benefitted.
vii) Implementing a business network with all employees of the bank: The
employees working in St.George Bank must establish a business network (Carugati et al.
2018). The employees must discuss with each other and make appropriate plans so that the
business activities as well as the financial activities can be carried out smoothly and
effectively.

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4. Outsourcing vs End-User Computing in St.George Bank
Outsourcing is the approach following which St.George Bank can offer numerous
functionalities to the service partners. St.George Bank can get the scope to work with the best
partners or the best employees in the business (Kasemsap 2018). The outsourcing also
involves the transfer of employees from one organisation to another organisation.
End-user computing offers a platform to the non-programmer, there the non-
programmers work with various applications. The end-user computing engages the end-users
into the computing environment.
Outsourcing has been chosen for this report. The IS/IT strategy adaptation can be
turning point for St.George Bank. The Director can deploy it in their premises to gain huge
profit (Hajrullahi, Idrizi and Rahmani 2018). The report explains how the Director can be
benefitted with the aid of the IS/IT new strategies and they are-
i) St.George Bank should focus on Basic Actions: St.George Bank can embellish
their business activities with the aid of the information system. The outsourcing activities can
ease the financial activities of the bank. St.George Bank should focus on the basic activities
to attain the maximum profit (Kasemsap 2018). St.George Bank must focus on outsourcing of
financial operations as well as the business operations of St.George Bank.
ii) Expenses Savings and Efficiency in St.George Bank: St.George Bank must focus
on the outsourcing activities and all these activities can assist in expense savings. The
efficiency of St.George Bank can get enhanced (Baporikar 2018). St.George Bank can gain
maximum profit via savings expenses.
iii) Reducing Overhead: Outsourcing activities assist in reducing the overhead cost.
The approach of lessening cost overhead can be beneficial for St.George Bank (Demertzis,

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Iliadis and Anezakis 2018). The overhead cost to conduct the back-office operations is quite
expensive at times.
iv) St.George Bank Control in Operations: St.George Bank’s financial activities can
go beyond control, the outsourcing activities help in maintaining those business operations.
There are several departments of St.George Bank; those departments can struggle as a result
of poor administration (Ding, Jiang and Su 2018). The outsourcing activities can cater
St.George Bank the best solution by which they can furnish the business activities. the bank
can get cost-effective service as well.
v) Flexibility of staff in St.George Bank: The adaptation of new management system
can create problems for the organisations irrespective of the financial organisations.
St.George Bank is one of them. The flexibility in staffing is one of the aspects that must be
taken into consideration related to outsourcing (Havakhor, Soror and Sabherwal 2018). The
employees working in the bank contribute to large extent. All the departments of the bank can
be managed well with the assistance of outsourcing.
vi) Risk Management in St.George Bank: The risk management is another aspect
that must be taken into considerations by all the organisations. St.George Bank risk
management team must look at the potential risks for which the bank can suffer (Demertzis,
Iliadis and Anezakis 2018). The employees and the management team of St.George Bank
must analyse the risks well, the outsourcing activities can help to mitigate those risks.
St.George Bank after minimising risks can be able to invest more to the business.
vii) Develop Internal Staff in St.George Bank: Each and every project can become
successful if the employees and the staffs work well in the project. In St.George Bank, the
management team must provide appropriate training to the staffs (Baporikar 2018). The
training will assist the workers so that they can sharpen their skills and deliver their best

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(Chan, Mo and Moon 2018). The employees can bring innovations within the bank premises
and the St.George Bank can acquire several advantages due to the innovative approaches
taken by the employees.
5. Strategic Information adding value to St.George Bank with the help of IT/ IS
Strategy
i) Establishing Strategic Information Role: Strategic information system adaptation
definitely adds value to each and every organisation. Strategic information system is capable
to provide multiple benefits to St.George Bank and all these strategy aspects have been
explained in details in the report (Agola 2018). The strategies have been elaborated below.
They are-
a. The first phase provides the appropriate information that is needed to investigate
the business operations. The first stage includes the management staffs’ behavioural traits
(Karajeh, Maqableh and Masa’deh 2020). The stage also includes the expenses that the
management team of St.George Bank must pay. In this stage, St.George Bank can
acknowledge who are their competitors.
b. the second stage involves the specific strategies-
The strategic decisions depend on –
i. To target the relevant market
ii. Location of the office premises
iii. Designing new items (Song, Arnott and Gao 2018)
iv. Launching new items
v. Promoting the products

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vi. Budget allocated for the project
ii. Identifying customers’ needs: St.George Bank must fulfil all the demands of the
customers. The bank must give priority to the customers. St.George Bank should cooperate
with the customers and will have to listen to the queries, in this way they can serve the
customers well and can gain customer support. St.George Bank can increase their customer
base. The bank can enhance their market share as well (Weinman 2018). St.George Bank can
get competitive advantage as well due to adaptation of the information system strategies.
iii. Market segmentation: Market segmentation is another aspect of the running the
business operations. The market segmentation can help St.George Bank in segmenting the
business process and office departments (Chan, Mo and Moon 2018). The market segment
helps in creating a group of customers.
6. Critically discussion of Good Internal Control
Each and every organisation must consider the Good Internal Control. The report
explains the characteristics of good internal control. The business activities can get furnished
with the aid of the effective internal control (Song, Arnott and Gao 2018). The business
assets can be made secure with the aid of the internal control.
Control Environment: Control environment involves the company’s approach
towards internal control. The report illustrates St.George Bank’s initiative towards the
internal control of the business activities (Tahir 2020). The mishaps can occur in St.George
Bank if the bank’s management system overrides the controls that are in place. The internal
control can be at risks as a result of management override of controls.
Risk Assessment: Risk Assessment can measure the threats and the risks associated
with the bank. St.George Bank via implementation of effective risks management can

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acknowledge the threat beforehand. This can help the bank to identify the threats earlier and
they can take initiative based on the threats (Shen 2018). St.George Bank thus can safeguard
their branches from challenges and threats.
Communication: The communication elements analyse components that are
associated with the internal control. The communication elements are helpful for the workers;
the workers can be able to perform efficiently due to all these communication components.
Monitoring: The effective monitoring can assist St.George Bank in various ways. The
management body of St.George Bank can manage the business and the financial activities
with the help of the effective monitoring. The management body can track the ineffective
control within St.George Bank premises (Sassen 2018). St.George Bank can acknowledge the
changes made in the system and they can be able to accomplish the business activities within
the given time period with the help of effective monitoring.
Control Activities: The management body of the organisations generally carries out
the control activities. St.George Bank’s management team must implement the internal
control efficiently. The control activities can assist St.George Bank to know the problems
which they are facing (Chan, Mo and Moon 2018). The analysis result is prepared and the
analysis result can help the employees, the management body and the stakeholders of
St.George Bank to design the system. Thus the internal control can help St.George Bank in
performing the business activities.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discourse that the strategic information system is
helpful for organisations to enhance the business activities. St.George Bank can be similarly
benefitted by the help of the strategic information system. The bank with the help of

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innovative approach and effective decision making can earn maximum profits. St.George
Bank with the implementation of strategic information system can meet the business
deliverables. St.George Bank must adopt the strategic information system and should
improvise the existing management system. The strategic information system will change the
prevalent system and the database. They can gain the competitive edge with the help of the
help of the strategic information system. The stakeholders, the customers and the employees
of St.George Bank can be facilitated with an adaptation of strategic information system.
Enterprise Resource Planning is the option St.George Bank should adopt for their bank
premises. St.George Bank can become famous and can become one of the top four banks in
Australia. The report explains about end-user computing activities and outsourcing activities.
The report illustrates the internal control too.

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