Westpac Bank: Strategic Information System and ERP Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Westpac Bank's strategic information system (SIS). It begins by defining key business processes within the bank, including lending, customer accounting, and payment processing. The report then delves into developing business requirements, outlining crucial needs such as personal and business credit, asset base, and a concrete business plan. Furthermore, it determines the system requirements, encompassing hardware and software considerations. The report also explores software and vendor selection, evaluates the efficiency of the system, and examines potential security risks and breaches. Finally, it proposes guidelines for mitigating these risks, offering a holistic overview of Westpac Bank's SIS and its critical components.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Strategic Information System: Westpac Bank
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

1STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Strategic Information System: Westpac Bank
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note:

2STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................4
1. Business Processes definition: Westpac bank.........................................................................4
2. Developing Business Requirements........................................................................................6
3. Determination of Systems Requirements................................................................................8
4. Software and Vendor Selection...............................................................................................9
5. Determination of 3 ways for Utilizing Technology...............................................................11
6. Evaluation of Efficiency Level..............................................................................................12
7. Examination of Potential Security Risks and Breaches.........................................................13
8. Guidelines for Mitigating the Risks.......................................................................................14
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

3STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
Introduction
The Information system which has developed for the purpose of supporting the initiatives
of various types which are generally regarding the corporate business is known as the Strategic
information systems (SIS). The business initiatives can be of different types and this depends on
the type of business or organization. This are generally too fulfilled in order to make the
organization successful and for making the organization achieve all the goals and objectives that
they are having. The SIS is also associated with providing the organization with various kind of
competitive advantages that helps the organization in becoming popular along with being
significant almost all the other organizations belonging to the same field (Galliers and Leidner
2014). The delivering of the services which are typical is done by the SIS, along with the
delivering different kinds of products which are very low of cost is also provided by the SIS.
Focusing on various segments of the market is also done by the SIS. There exists another benefit
due to the adaptation of the SIS and this benefit is that they are associated with the providing the
organization with a way by which they would become more innovative along with providing of
different kind of innovations related to the different kind of operations and processes that the
organization is having. The SIS acts as an important part of the information technology. This is
mainly due to the reason that the SIS is associated with helping in the process of storing,
categorizing, processing and transformation of the information become much easy. The
integration of the various business processes of the bank is done in an efficient and effective way
by making use of the ERP or the enterprise resource planning (Arvidsson Holmström and
Lyytinen 2014). Due to this reason the ERP is also termed as the integrated management system
that is adopted by most of the large organization and is mediated by different kind of software.

4STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
The report provided below has been associated with providing a brief discussion about one of the
top banks of Australia the Westpac bank. The report would also be focusing on the selection of
the appropriate ERP that would be helping the bank in conducting its various operations. In the
report a detailed research has been done regarding the usage of the ERP for the requirements of
the business and the system along with helping in the vendor section process, mitigation of the
security risks and adaptation of specific strategies that would be favouring the bank in
conducting its business.
Discussion
1. Business Processes definition: Westpac bank
Business process can be generally defined as the set of different tasks which are
connected to each other and is associated searching the ends in order to deliver a specific product
or service to the customer. It is also defined as the collection of various kind of activities or tasks
which is associated with helping the various organizations in achieving the goals and objectives
(Van Der Aalst La Rosa and Santoro 2016). The different kind of business process that the
organization is having are generally co related with one another and all this processes are
adopted in order to achieve a specific goal that would be helping the organization is achieving
success in its own business domain. Often a flowchart is used for the purpose of depicting the
business process of a specific organization. There exists a sequences that is followed by the
organizations in order to conduct the various process or activities (Haux et al. 2013). The major
advantage that lies behind the usage of the business process is that high provisioning of the
customer satisfaction is done besides this there exists the feature of agility to react to any kind of
changes or alterations that are taking place inside the market in order to make improvements.

5STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
There exists three different business process and this includes the operational processes that is
associated with providing the definitions regarding the main processes and also for the creation
of the preliminary value streams such as the taking of orders or manufacturing any kind of
product. Secondly come the management processes which are associated with overseeing the
different operational processes and this is mainly done by the involvement of the corporate
governance, oversight of the employee and lastly the overview of the budget (Cassidy 2016).
Thirdly comes the supporting processes which are associated with providing support the major
operations of the business.
In Westpac bank there exists several business processes and the major business process that are
included in the system has been listed below:
1. Lending of personal loans: The bank has been associated with providing personal loans
to individuals for various purposes.
2. Lending of business loans: The second process that is involved in the business process
of Westpac bank is the providing of loans to certain business or to certain organizations.
3. Lending of loans related to security: Thirdly comes the providing of loans for different
kind of security purposes and this type of loans are generally provided to any kind of
organization.
4. Customer Accounting: The next important business process that is involved in the
system of Westpac bank is the accounting of the customers.
5. Processing of Cheques: This can be considered as an another important business process
that has been included in the system of Westpac Bank.

6STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
6. Processing of Other Payments: The other payment processes done by the bank are done
by this particular bank is also included in the business process of the bank.
7. Handling of Cash: The liquid cash are handled by the bank so this can be considered as
another important business process of the bank (Hoch and Dulebohn 2013).
8. Maintenance of Accounts: The customer accounts are maintained by the bank in a
proper way and this is to done in order to make sure that there exists no problem
regarding the security of the money.
2. Developing Business Requirements
The requirements of the business can be described as the different kind of specifications
which once delivered, are associated with providing of values which would be responsible for
the purpose of describing the features of the system from the viewpoint of the system (Jeston
2014). The bank consists of various various business requirements and it is also possible to
define this business requirements as the StRS or stakeholder requirements specification. Various
type of systems along with the products, processes and software are included in the proper
methods and this methods mainly helps the bank in determining the various procedures which
are generally related to the delivering of the business requirements along with satisfying and
meeting all the requirements that is business is having (Cassidy 2016). In order to develop and to
procure the system or the software in a proper way there is an essential need of various kind of
business requirements which are often referred as well as utilized.
Three major reasons are responsible for the acquiring of the different kind of business
requirements. This business requirements mainly includes the understanding of several business
needs along with fulfilling the various business outputs which are associated with satisfying the

7STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
customers as well as the stakeholders. The business requirements are to be looked into properly
for the purpose of obtaining high level products along with services (Majchrzak and Malhotra
2013).
The different kind of requirements of the business for the Westpac Bank has been
provided in the section listed below:
i) Personal Credit which is good: The good credit can be considered as one of the major
business requirement that the Westpac Bank needs. The evaluation of the personal credit is done
with respect to the application of loan (Laudon and Laudon 2016). Being better than any other
bank with respect to the providing of the personal credit can be acting as one of the most
effective and important feature of the Westpac bank which is associated with operating within
entire Australia and New Zealand.
ii) Good Business Credit: This has been acting as the second business requirement of
Westpac Bank. The time when the business is associated with starting its operation in a year, the
business will be associated with gaining credit score which is generally associated with the legal
incorporation of the name along with the tax ID number (Amrollahi Ghapanchi and Talaei-Khoei
2013). The credit report is associated with showing the obligations along with the debts that are
solely associated with the bank and are associated with showing the records of payments. A good
credit is generally required by the Westpac Bank for the purpose of getting better amount of loan
for the business.
iii) Base of Larger Asset: The various kind of larger assets are considered as the third
important business requirement of the organization. The securing of the business loans are
eventually done against any certain asset (Bryson 2018). Along with this the Westpac bank also

8STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
makes use of the various kind of assets in order to proceed with their business so as to become
much better and this generally done by receiving loans from the parent bank. This has been
associated with helping the bank in acquiring the business processes in a proper way.
iv) A concrete Business Plan: The business plan is generally considered as the fourth
business requirement that Westpac Bank is having. All the profits are reflected by the business
plan that and this generally refers to the profits that would be coming in the future years (Leon
2014). The business plans are also responsible for providing help to the for the purpose of
obtaining the finances that are subsequently related to the organization. Besides this the business
plan is also predicting the rate of interest for each and every capital.
3. Determination of Systems Requirements
Each and every computer present inside the bank requires different kind of hardware
components as well as software components in order to conduct the various type of operations.
The requirements are generally known as the systems or the requirements of the computer are
considered as the requirements for any kind of business. The utilization of the resources is done
as the guidelines which are generally opposed by the basic rules that exists. There exists two type
of requirements and this mainly includes the minimum as well as the sets which are
recommended (Monk and Wagner 2012). Along with this the newer versions of the software
consists of high processing power and are also having the availability of new resources which is
helping in increasing the various business process. The business requirement can also be defined
as the requirements that are associated with fulfilling all the designs that are present in as
particular design or any other sub system. At the time of initiating the business the organization,
has to maintain its systems requirements in order to get success in the various operations or
processes of the business.

9STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
The bank is associated with dealing with the customers as well as with their money and
from this it can be understood that the systems requirements of the bank are extremely important
in order to make the bank operate in a proper way (Hartmann 2012). There exists different kind
of system requirements by the Westpac Bank and the several systems requirements of Westpac
bank has been listed below:
i) Requirements related to Hardware: HCL or hardware compatibility list can be
considered as the basic set of requirements which are related to the hardware. The hardware
requirements are mainly needed for the purpose of making the OS work in order to help the
bank. The different kind of hardware requirements of Westpac Bank have been provided below:
a) Architecture: The designing of the each and every computer operating system is done
according to the computers architecture. The application of all this software has been restricted
in order to specify the OS that has associated with running on the computer architectures (Shaul
and Tauber 2013). In case of absence of the architecture, the operating system would not be
capable of working.
b) Power of Processing: The central processing unit also known as CPU are associated
with having a basic processing power in order to make the systems work in a proper way.
Besides this the speed of the clock present inside the CPU is also responsible for providing of
definitions of the power related to processing.
c) Memory: The nest hardware requirement of the Westpac bank is the random access
memory or RAM (Bansal 2012). The major function of the memory mainly includes the
stringing up of various information and data which are generally confidential with the

10STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
requirements. The operating system as well as the various types of applications are also checked
along with the requiremnts.
ii) Software Requirements: The second business requirement mainly includes the
requirements of the various kind of software (Sustainment 2014) . This is associated with
defining all the prerequisites which are generally installed on the system in order to make the
system function in a proper way. The major software requirements of Westpac Bank have been
listed below which mainly includes the
a) Platform: This is considered as the major software requirement of the organization
Westpac bank which mainly includes the computing platform that would be responsible for the
providing of various kind of framework related to the software that are to be used. Operating
systems can also be considered as one of the software requirement.
b) Web Browser: The need of web applications along with software which is generally
dependent on the Internet. The bank is associated with the utilization of the default browser.
4. Selection of the Software and the Vendor
The Westpac bank would become capable of making all their business processes better
by making use of the enterprise resource planning or ERP software. The ERP software that is to
be used is the SAP. SAP is considered as one of the most important vendor of the ERP which can
be applied by any of the organization. The ERP system that the bank would be having would be
the major one for performing all the business processes in an easy way and this processes mainly
includes the finance, production, accounting, and sales. The business process also includes the
human resources which are generally present in the integrated environment that is very much
significant for the organization (Hoch and Dulebohn 2013). The various types of integration that

11STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEM
are conducted are associated with helping in the process of flow of information form a
component of SAP to the corresponding component which is mainly done even without the
presence of the any kind of need for the redundant entry of data. This is mainly responsible for
helping in the processes which are generally related to the enforcement of the facts related to the
legal, finance and processing control (Seo 2013). Along with this the important advantage that
SAP is having is that the Westpac Bank would be including an effective utilization of resources
which might include the capacity of production, capacity of machines and even manpower.
The various advantages or benefits of the SAP that is present within the organization of
Westpac Bank have been listed below:
i) Competition: SAP would be very much useful for the organization because this would
be helping in the enhancement of the competition that the organization is having in the market
and this would be associated with providing a competitive advantages to the organization
(Seethamraju 2015).
ii) Efficiency: The repetitive business processes are eliminated by making use of the ERP
software by the organization Westpac bank along with this the ERP is also implemented in order
to reduce the basic requirements which are needed for the purpose of manual entry of the
information (Chofreh et al. 2014). Besides this the streamlining of the business processes are also
done with the software.
iii) Collaboration: This is the third significant advantage that the organization is having
by making use of the SAP software. This is associated with helping in the collaboration that
amongst all the departments which are associated with functioning in a separate way. The data is
also centralized by making use of the SAP software.