Strategic Information System Report: Woolworths and Reckon Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic information system of Woolworths, a leading supermarket in Australia. Part 1 of the report focuses on the current organizational structure of Woolworths, identifying operational issues such as improper service design, communication gaps, HR management challenges, and supply chain inefficiencies. The report highlights the adoption of ERP systems as a key acquisition method to mitigate these issues and improve forecasting and departmental collaboration. A detailed sales flowchart is presented to visualize the sales process, followed by an analysis of control problems within the system, including inventory misplacement and potential frauds. Part 2 shifts the focus to the adoption and development of Reckon accounting software, examining its market size and leaders. It identifies the leaders in accounting software and the competitive advantages offered by Reckon. Finally, the report discusses the current challenges and gaps encountered by customers using Reckon, such as high costs, operational complexities, and time constraints.

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

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Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................2
1.1 Current structure of the organization...............................................................................2
1.2 Operational issues experienced by Woolworths..............................................................3
1.3 Most likely method of acquisition....................................................................................4
1.4 Description of sales flowchart..........................................................................................5
1.5 Determination of control problems in the system............................................................6
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Adoption and development of accounting software packages.........................................7
2.2 Current market size..........................................................................................................8
2.3 Identification of leaders and factors that helps in providing competitive advantage.......8
2.4 Identification of current challenges and gaps encountered by customers........................9
References................................................................................................................................11

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Part 1
The paper mainly focuses on the organization named “Woolworths that is one of the
leading supermarket within Australia. The main purpose of the report is to reflect on the
structure of the organization for determining the operational issues that the organization faces
(Dos, Svensson and Padin 2013). The paper also assists in identifying that ERP is the most
important acquisition method that assists in mitigating challenges that are mainly related with
the organizational operation. A proper flowchart is mainly provided for illustrating the entire
sales procedures of the organization effectively. It is identified that there are numerous
control issues that are related with the entire sales company of the system.
1.1 Current structure of the organization
Organization structure is one of the system that is utilized for defining proper
hierarchy within the organization. It generally helps in identifying job and responsibilities of
each of the stakeholders. It is identified that organizational structure is mainly developed
within an organization for establishing how the organization operates and helps an
organization for achieving the goals for allowing proper future growth. The organization
structure for the company “Woolworths” are provided below:
Figure 1: Organizational Structure
(Source: Dos, Svensson and Padin 2013, pp.107).

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1.2 Operational issues experienced by Woolworths
It is stated by Arli et al. (2013) that, Woolworths set number of specific standards of
operation in the present era which generally helps in affecting the shareholders as well as
customers. It is identified that Woolworths faces lot of operational issues due to its present
organizational structure. It is argued by Kumar and O'Reilly (2013) that under the various
perspectives that are associated with the operational management, number of issues are
generally determined that further declines the performance of the stakeholders of the
organization. It is found that declining personal performance generally assists in declining the
quality of service, design procedure, demand forecasting, human resources as well as supply
chain management of Woolworths. The other operational issues that are faced by the
organization “Woolworths” are as follows:
Improper design of the service process: It is stated by Bennys et al. (2016) that
service process design associated with the organization “Woolworths” can be affected as the
organizational structure of the organization is quite poor. It is identified that in the retail
outlet of Woolworths there are improper measuring services as well as proper quality
performance and therefore number of issues occur including poor quality of customer service
that further reduces the satisfaction of the organization (Box et al. 2015) The store managers
re not capable of handling and supervising the entire operation effectively due to
unavailability of proper processes, lack of proper interest as well as issues in forecasting.
Inappropriate communication: According to Yen et al. (2015), proper
communication is considered to be quite essential for making the operations of the
organization smooth. It is found that due to lack of proper communication within the
organization, the stakeholders faces lot of challenges and issues in managing the functions of
Woolworths.

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Improper HR management: It is argued by Friesen et al. (2014) that the human
resource management generally engages in managing job designs of the organization
effectively. The human resource management of the organization generally faces lot of
challenges in managing the functions due to the structure of the organization of Woolworths.
The sales that is related with Woolworths get affected due to poor organizational structure.
Inappropriate supply chain management: According to Dos Svensson and Padin
(2013), supply chain management of Woolworths generally helps in creating number of
issues due to absence of proper storage space, delivery of bulk order. In addition to this,
Woolworths also faces issue due to absence of proper tracking system within the
organization. It is found that the organization generally fails to give proper quality of services
due to absence of effective inventory management system.
1.3 Most likely method of acquisition
ERP is considered as the most likely method off acquisition. It is stated by that ERP
system generally assists in giving both the stakeholders as well as clients of the organization
proper tool that is very much advantageous in making proper forecasting (Arli et al. 2013).
The use of ERP system is quite beneficial in mitigating issues that Woolworths faces due to
improper forecasting due to poor organizational structure of the organization. On the other
hand, it is argued by Kumar and O'Reilly (2013) that by utilizing the ERP system, the
organization can be able to achieve appropriate collaboration between various organization
departments by reducing the conflict that occurs due to inappropriate communication
between the stakeholders as well as higher authority of the management.
According to Box et al. (2015), the ERP system assists in reducing number of
repetitive processes that further helps in minimizing the need of manually entering the
information. The system is quite helpful in streamlining lot of processes in order to make it

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much more efficient for the organizations to collect data. Furthermore, it is opined by Bennys
et al. (2016) that utilization of ERP system within Woolworths helps in providing proper
service quality to the customers. Therefore, with the utilization of ERP system, the
organization is quite able to give proper service to the customers.
1.4 Description of sales flowchart
The sales flowchart of Woolworths generally assists in providing the opportunity of
visualizing and understanding the challenges as well as issues that are associated with the
sales system of the organization. The flowchart that is provided below generally represents
the steps of the sales system by linking with the help of arrow that further assists in indicating
the workflow direction (Friesen et al. 2014). It is found that the sales procedure is generally
linked with success factor of Woolworths including knowledge about the product, sale
planning, need assessment as well as objectives of the meeting.
Figure 2: System flowchart of the sales

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(Source: Created by Author)
1.5 Determination of control problems in the system
The control challenges that occur within the sales system of Woolworths is due to
misplacement of various types of inventory items. A common issue that is related with the
sales system design is mainly occur due to the failure of incorporating methods that generally
assists in cross checking various sales items (Bennys et al. 2016). The items of the
organization can be misplaced, lost due to presence of improper system which further
enhancing labour as well as inventory costs. This it is very much necessary to include proper
design solutions with cross checking functions.
The frauds that can occur within the system are elaborated below:
False sales: The clients of Woolworths can face false sales due to this system. This is
mainly due to the fact that the inventory records can be updated from any of the false source
and then it can be matched with the inventory physical level. However no sales are mainly
recorded within the system (Friesen et al. 2014).
False purchase: It is generally dependent on the inventory purchase theft. The
customers can utilize the system for engaging in false purchasing of items.
Part 2
The paper focusses on the adoption and development of Reckon accounting software
that is mainly used by various accounting professionals in order to manage accounts and for
performing number of accounting related operations. This section of the assignment also
elaborates the leaders of accounting software, market size of reckon as well as various
challenges as well as gaps that is faced by Reckon.

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2.1 Adoption and development of accounting software packages
As per the survey that is undertaken, it is identified that reckon is mainly utilized as
per the three main sections that is done for managing the accounts. The group that utilizes
reckon accounting software includes business group, international group as well as various
account group. The division is reflected in context to the revenue that is gained from each
sections of business that utilizes reckon accounting software.
Sales
International Grooup
Busines Group
Accountants Group
Figure 3: Total Revenue Divisions
(Source: Rainer et al. 2013, pp.45)
It is opined by Murthy and Abeysekera (2015) that the business group of the
organization is mainly responsible of managing various products as well as elements that are
mainly related with the Reckon accounting software. It is identified that there are generally
more than 6000 registered business users who mainly engages in utilizing Reckon within the
market for earning huge revenues from the market. On the other hand, it is argued by Murthy
and Abeysekera (2015) that account groups of the organizations mainly utilizes reckon elite,
doc as well as reckon APS. Furthermore, it is found that the accountant groups helps in
providing large number of services up to seven thousand users.

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2.2 Current market size
After undertaking proper survey based on the popularity of Reckon in the market it is
identified that Reckon accounting software is one of the important provider of accounting
services (Robb et al. 2016). The survey that is conducted in the year 2014 reflects that the
organization have generally achieved $140 million revenue after targeting different
Australian markets whereas it has achieved $70 million in the market of New Zealand.
Reckon
78%
Myob
11% Intuit
6%
Xero
6%
Sales
Figure 4: Market share
(Source: Lim and Perrin 2014, pp.56)
There are mainly 1.3 million Reckon users in the market of Australia and New
Zealand. They have attracted more than 2000 customers and thus Reckon is found to be the
most efficient accounting software package in both New Zealand and Australia as per the
QuickBooks (Denison, Ravenscroft and Williams 2014).
2.3 Identification of leaders and factors that helps in providing competitive advantage
It is stated by that MYOB is the leader of accounting software within Australia and
New Zealand. However it is found that reckon is considered as the market leaders due to
number of competitive advantage that reckon provides to its customers It is found that the
team of reckon accounting software helps in providing services of accounting software within
the New Zealand and Australia (Brender and Markov 2013). However, Reckon is one of the
company that re-launches its accounting software in the market of Australia. The services that

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the accounting software Reckon provides in New Zealand and Australia for three continuous
years has generally gained some appropriate brand value within the Australian market. In
addition to this, it is found that Reckon also faces number of challenges in getting proper
revenue from the organization.
2.4 Identification of current challenges and gaps encountered by customers
Reckon is one of the significant supplier of accounting software packages in the
Australian market but in spite of this, the accounting software faces lot of challenges that are
elaborated below:
Price: The utilization of accounting software is quite costly as compared to other
accounting software of the organization. Moreover, technical sound elements are also
required for implementing the entire system successfully (Rich and Waters 2014)
Difficulty: It is quite complex to operate the accounting software package in context
to the utilization of manual process for collecting data as well as information of the
organization. The workers of the organization faces lot of difficulty in handling the
accounting software for the first time which is considered as one of the important issue for
the organization (Robb, Rohde and Green 2016).
Time: Time is found as one of the most important factor while utilizing reckon
accounting software. It is found that the accounting software generally needs huge time for
utilizing the software within the organization which is considered as one of the major issue
(Lim and Perrin 2014).
Security challenges: The accounting software package of Reckon is considered as
one of the accounting software that does not provide proper security to the information as
well as data to the customers of the organization appropriately. This is generally due to the

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failure of cloud that generally leads missing of confidential data as well as information of the
organization (Murthy and Abeysekera 2015).

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References
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related potentials used as biomarkers in Pleodial-I study: first evidence of a
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organization: Compensatory control and the psychological advantages of hierarchy. Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology, 106(4), p.590.

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