Strategic Information System: Analysis of Woolworths' Structure

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Woolworths' strategic information system. It begins with an introduction to accounting software and its importance for businesses, followed by an overview of Woolworths' organizational structure, highlighting operational issues such as reliability, coordination, accountability, and flexibility. The report then explores different system acquisition methods, recommending the use of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for Woolworths to improve accounting efficiency and address operational challenges. A sales system flowchart is also discussed. Furthermore, the report examines control and fraud issues within Woolworths, including separation of duties, policy frameworks, and access to information systems. Finally, the report discusses various accounting software packages, their market size, and their benefits for organizations like Woolworths, emphasizing their role in streamlining financial transactions and decision-making. The report concludes by highlighting the significant market share and financial performance of Woolworths.

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Strategic information System

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Introduction:
There are number of big and small corporations which are operated in Australia and use
accounting software system. Accounting Software is considered as the equipment which is used
by the company for facilitating the information related to the financial transactions of the
organization. Numbers of elements are present on which accounting software’s are based and
these elements include nature of the transactions, financial stability, etc. However, needs of both
big and small organization are completely different, and it is not possible to use similar
software’s for both the organizations (Salmon, 2014). This is the equipment which is also used
for ensuring the adequate administration of the operations of the organization. Before choosing
any accounting software for the company, management must understand and the different types
of software’s and their use in the organization. This essay is divided into two parts and both the
parts define different areas of the accounting software. The main aim of this paper is to state the
literature review in context of the accounting software. Information related to the Woolworth is
used for this assignment. Lastly, brief conclusion is stated which state key points related to the
paper.
Part 1
Organizational structure:
Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain of the Australia which operates almost 995 stores
across the Australia, and this company depends on the 115,000 team members working in their
stores, distribution centers and support offices for the purpose of providing best services to the
consumers. Woolworths mainly works with the growers of the Australia and farmers for the
purpose of ensuring the best products for their consumers, as they get 96% of all fresh fruit and
vegetables and 100% of fresh meat from Australian farmers and growers (Woolworth, n.d.).
This company is considered as the most innovative retailer of the Australia, as they understand
that consumers want new and easy ways to shop. Woolworths also launch their products through
online website and facilitates home delivery, as this make shopping more easily for the
customers (Woolworth, n.d.).

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Management structure of the Woolworths includes different stages, and this structure is stated
below:
Operational issues:
Those organizations which have strong and effective structure can gain number of benefits and
these benefits mainly include proper hierarchy, better communication, accountability, etc. It must
be noted that everything has benefit as well as issues. Similarly, organizational structure of
Woolworths imposed number of issues also and some of these issues are defined below (Awa,
2016):

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 Reliability- humans are considered as error machines, and while making the reports they
make number of errors. In other words, reports made by humans cannot be considered as
100% reliable reports because there are more chances of errors, but in case of accounting
software, this is not the situation. It can be said that reports made by accounting software
are more authentic as compared to reports made by human because chances of errors are
less.
 Less co-ordination: reduction in the coordination is the another big operating issue off the
present organizational structure of the Woolworths, as present structure fails to ensure
effective coordination between different departments of the company and this reduce the
effectiveness of the functions conducted by the organization (Woolworths, 2016).
 Accountability- Generally, top managers of the company are held accountable under this
type of structure, which means they bear the complete obligation related to the
profitability of the company. This cause extra burden on the top management and free the
departments from their obligation.
 Flexibility- organizational structure of Woolworths reduces the flexibility of the
departments, and it becomes difficult for the organization to ensure changes if required.
 Time consuming- generally, traditional approaches in this context are considered as time
consuming activity (Woolworths, 2011).
System Acquisition Method:
For the purpose of confirming the effective and efficient accounting related to the transactions of
the organization, there are number of system acquisition methods which can be used as
equipment. This section of the paper defines different types of methods and it also defines most
suitable method which can be used by Woolworths.
Commercial software’s- this type of software is designed and developed by the organizations
for facilitating the sale of this software’s to the ultimate consumers, which means commercial
software’s are considered as those software’s which are mainly used for the commercial
objective. This software is available in the market from number of years, and it also provides
large number of functions related to the computers and helps in increasing the organization’s
productivity at large scale. These types of software’s also facilitate the fulfillment of complex
operative objectives of the organization (Vetter, 2009).

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Customer Software- this software is designed for any specific task or business and it is used by
different kinds of users. In other words, it facilitates the fulfillment of particular objective of the
user. Generally, it is compared with the use of those software’s which are made by the experts
for large and commercial markets.
ERP system- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the tool which facilitates the information
flow in the organization, and helps in managing all the resources and functions of the company
by ensuring coordination between them. In other words, it is the tool which helps the company in
integrating and managing its resources in different areas of the business such as planning,
purchasing, inventory, sales, etc (Oracle, 2018).
Woolworths must use ERP system in context of accounting because this system not only ensures
the valuable accounting in the organization but also provide solutions related to the operating
issues in the organization. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is the equipment which ensures
the effective information flow in the system, and also helps the management in managing all the
resources and functions of the company by ensuring coordination between them. With the help
of ERP, organization can develop significant relationship with their customers, because this
system facilitates the customer relationship management functionality. ERP help the
management by centralize their database system because it mainly relies on the common
computing platform. Another big advantage of this system in Woolworths is joint, reliable, and
even surroundings to those who are working in the organization. Woolworth can offer different
types of solutions in context of accounting issues with the help of this system.
Sales System flowchart:
Sales process flowchart defines this procedure as the stages and possible arrangements which
ensure connection with the sale of any goods or service. System flowchart in context of sales
procedure can be used by any organization for facilitating the training to the new employees and
groom the existing one.

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Issues related to control & Fraud:
Control is another important tool of the management because it is the only tool which ensures
effective working in the organization. In other words, it is the important part of the management
cycle because it facilitates the operations management in efficient manner and resolve different
issues. Management system of Woolworths face number of issues related to controlling such as
separation of duties, policy framework, etc. All these issues are defined below:
 First control issue related to the Woolworths is the deviation of responsibilities, which
means it is necessary to make each and every employee accountable for the functions of
the organization and for this purpose dividing responsibilities in proper manner is
important. Generally, management faces issues in held the person accountable for
particular job because no particular person is held responsible for particular job (Ahmad,
2012).
 Another big challenge for Woolworths is ineffective procedures and policy framework in
the organization. In other words, Woolworths does not ensure any particular framework
which manages the policies and procedures of the organization and it results in confusion
between different department while taking their actions to follow the policies and
procedures. For resolving this issue, organization must ensure effective framework which
regulates the policies and procedures of the organization for fulfilling the business goals.

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If framework fails to regulate the policies and procedures in proper manner then it can
result in issues which cause severe harm to the organization.
 More access of the information system to the employees then they required is considered
as another big issue related to the control system. In other words, employees must
provide only that much access of the information system which is necessary for
performing their task, as extra access of the information cause severe threat to the
confidentiality of the business (Antsaklis & Gao, 2005).
Ineffective structure of the organization can result in different types of frauds in the organization,
and some these frauds are financial transaction fraud, fraud related to the misuse of asset, and
theft of cash. Some other frauds are also there but these frauds are more common in nature.
Financial transaction fraud is the fraud which causes most severe damage to the company and
this type of fraud happens when revenue of the organization is overstated, earnings and assets are
hided, etc. Misuse of assets in the organization by the employers or employees of the company is
another fraud and it includes most common types of frauds, but these frauds are generally
susceptible. Last but not the least; cash theft is the fraud under which cash is withdrawn by the
company employer or employee even before such cash is updated on the accounting system of
the company. However, this fraud is difficult to find because there is no sign of the fraud.
Part 2
Packages related to accounting software:
Accounting software’s are the application of computers which not only record and process the
financial transactions, but also record the functions related to the accounting transactions. This
software involves number of modules related to the functions such as trial balance, accounts
payable, etc. Accounting software is the equipment which falls in the class of the accounting
information system and considered as the tool which is used for recording and processing the
financial transactions of the company within the handy modules. These packages are not same
and used by organizations as per their requirement. It must be noted that these packages can be
differentiated on the basis of the cost and difficulty faced by the company (Machera & Machera,

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2017). Currently, this software’s are used by the organizations for multiple purposes such as
these tools not only record and process the financial transactions but also make sure that the
decision making process of the organization is effective. These tools also help the organizations
in getting the competitive advantage over their competitors.
This software’s reduce the work load of the organizations by providing easy way to record and
process the transactions. Many Australian organizations adopting the accounting software
packages as this decrease the paperwork of the organization and provide them time to focus on
the other important areas of the business. This also reduces the errors which cause because of the
paperwork such as omission of important transactions, etc. (Goldstein & Fernald, 2009). It must
be noted that, number of transactions are involved in the accounting and it is considered as the
complex task because single error can provide complete wrong results at the end, and manual
accounting involves the risk of errors and chaos. Therefore, it is necessary for the organization to
use accounting software’s because it help the organization in saving their time and cost and also
reduce the risk related to the errors. This software is effective in nature because it only need
figures to be submitted and once correct figures are submitted reports are automatic generated.
Market size:
Woolworths mainly focus on the food division of the Australia and this can be witnessed through
the reduction of price for competing in better way. In 2016-17, Woolworths gain high market
share for the first time in different years, and it is expected that this continue in the 2017-18. In
2017-18, it is projected that Woolworths forecasted to account for 36.8 per cent of industry, and
it remains largest supermarket of the Australia.
It is reported by the group of Woolworth that company earns $1.5 billion profit for its 2017
financial year. This result can be considered as big turnaround because in 2016 company bears
loss of AUD $1.2 billion. 2017 can be considered as rebuild year for the Woolworths. Food sales
of the Woolworth in Australia is increased by 4.5% in comparison of food sales of Woolworth in
2016, as it can be said that food sales perform really well in the fourth quarter because it shows
increment of 7.2% (Ausfoodnews, 2017).
Sales growth of this company was driven by the transactions occurred with the consumers
because items increased in per basket contributes at high level (Westbrook, 2017).

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Leaders & competitive advantage:
The most important part on which performance of the company relies is efficient its strong base
of customers and effective workforce. Employees and workforce of the organizations are
considered as the base of the organization on which company relies, and customers are
considered as those pillars on which company is stand. These two factors are the main source
through which companies can get competitive advantage over their competitors. It can be said
that if workforce of company is effective then it became easy for the company to fulfill their
objectives, and strong base of customers ensures profitability and long term sustainability of the
company. Woolworths own both talented workers and strong customer base which help them in
leading the market and ensures more profitability for their investors. This can also considered as
the competitive advantage of the company (Lazenby, 2012).
Challenges & Recommendations:
Accounting software is mainly used in different companies and some the challenges related to
this are stated below and recommendations for the same are also stated:
 Data security is the biggest threat of accounting software’s, as data of the company is
available on the software’s and this cause threat to the confidentiality of the business.
However, there are number of security software’s which can be used by the company
because it has capability to solve this issue and number of times this issue can cause loss
to the company.
 Many times weakness in context of accounting software’s are reflected and this cause
threat to the efficiency of the functions. This can be understood through example, there
are number of software’s which fails to provide the facility of the data receiving.
Conclusion:
Accounting software is the equipment which falls in the class of the accounting information
system and considered as the tool which is used for recording and processing the financial
transactions of the company within the handy modules. These packages are not same and used by

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organizations as per their requirement. It must be noted that these packages can be differentiated
on the basis of the cost and difficulty faced by the company.
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