HI5019: Strategic Information Systems Case Study - Bell Studio

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic information systems utilized by Bell Studio, an Adelaide-based wholesaler. The report begins with an introduction outlining the company's centralized accounting system and its application across different locations. It then delves into detailed descriptions of the purchase, cash disbursement, and payroll systems, including their respective data flow diagrams and system flowcharts. The purchase system is examined in terms of its processes, including order management, vendor selection, and receiving procedures. The cash disbursement system is analyzed, focusing on the roles of the clerk, accounts, receiving clerk, and vendor. The payroll system is also explored, including the roles of employees, payroll clerks, and accounts payable clerks. Furthermore, the report identifies internal control weaknesses within each system, highlighting issues such as lengthy inspection processes, manual record-keeping, and inefficient procedures. The risks associated with each system, including increased response times, space constraints, employee dissatisfaction, and data redundancies, are also discussed. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and implications for Bell Studio's information systems management.

Running head: STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR
BUSINESS AND ENTERPRISE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................2
Data flow diagram of purchased system...........................................................................2
Data flow diagram of cash disbursement system..............................................................2
Data flow of the payroll system..........................................................................................4
System flowchart of purchase system...............................................................................4
System flowchart of cash disbursements systems............................................................5
System flowchart of payroll system...................................................................................8
Internal control weaknesses............................................................................................10
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................15
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................16

2STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Introduction
The report aims at describing the information system that is being used for the
organization. Bell Studio is an organization that is basically Adelaide based wholesaler
that aims at supplying the arts. The bell studio company has a better centralized
accounting system that aims at providing better services towards different locations.
The organization has developed a proper description about the purchase system, cash
disbursement and payroll system. The report will focus on describing each system
individually so that it can ensure better assessment of the risks and problems
effectively. The diagrams are developed with proper illustration that helps in
understanding the main working that is taking place within each system.
Data flow diagram of purchased system
The main aim of this diagram is to describe the different activities that are
taking place within the purchase system of the Bell studio. The purchase system of bell
studio aims at performing the task that includes receiving the goods, getting proper
details regarding the orders made digitally, developing a copy for purchase order ,
checking ledger, sending details related to purchase and choosing appropriate vendors.
The main components that are associated with the bell studio purchase system includes
vendor, receiving clerk, cash disbursement, accounts payable clerk and purchasing
clerk. The purchase system will ensure that proper support is provided towards the
system and will check whether each activity is performed effectively or not.
Data flow diagram of cash disbursement system
The data flow diagram of cash disbursement system is mainly aims at focusing
on the systems that are performed by the Bell studio organization. The main
components that are associated with the bell studio cash disbursement system are clerk

3STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
of cash disbursement, accounts, receiving clerk and vendor. The receiving clerk is
responsible for purchasing the order copy, filing the invoice, receiving proper report and
sending the cheque copy. The vendor is responsible for receiving the cheque. The
accounts entity is responsible for signing into and requesting for the cheque. The
accounts department is responsible for receiving the cheque from bell studio cash
disbursement system.
Data flow of the payroll system
The data flow diagram for payroll system includes 3 entities that plays crucial
role. The main entities related to the payroll system are employees, payroll clerk,
account payable clerk and the ledger clerk. The functions that are performed by the
system includes receiving the work hour cards, recording work hours within the cards,
time card data, digital employee records, reviewing the payroll registers, prepare
disbursement vouchers and sending the vouchers towards the account payable. In
addition to this payroll system includes files voucher, payroll register and reviewing the
vouchers. This also includes details regarding vouchers, and payroll registers.
System flowchart of purchase system

4STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The system flowchart is used for describing the main components that is taking
place within the system. The purchase system of flowchart includes better accessing of
data within the system.
System flowchart of cash disbursements systems

5STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

6STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The system flowchart is devleoped for the cash disbursements system. This
includes all the functions that are described below. With the help of this system it will
become easy to understand the functionality of the system.

7STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
System flowchart of payroll system

8STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The system flowchart of payroll system will help in addressing the system
assoictaed with the payroll. The main components for payroll is the salary and the
employees. With the help of this flowchart it will become easy to address the
requirements within the system.

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Internal control weaknesses
Purchase system
After analyzing the purchase system it can be stated that integration has not
been done effectively for the bell studio organization. The main issues that are faced
with the organization is with the internal control issues. This has turned out to be one of
the weaknesses for the purchase system. There are several weaknesses identified
within the purchase system. This are as follows:
Lengthy process for inspection: before delivering a product continuous
checking is been done on the product. The items before delivered by the vendors gets
reconciled with the help of receiving clerk. Thus the time taken in performing the
checking frequently takes a lengthy time and hence the procedure time keeps on
increasing. In addition to this a fixed amount of time is also spent by the vendors for the
purpose of examining the products that needs additional efforts and there is a need to
do proper paperwork. This involved different department and thus it leads to a longer
process. This impacts the delivery time and that is consumed by the vendors.
Manual processes and record keeping for storing hard copies:
The purchase department includes preparing different paperworks that are
maintained along with hard copies and stores all the data regarding the procedures that
takes place at the purchase department of the Bell studio. The data related to invoice,
payment cheques and subsidiary details are needed to be maintained effectively so that
it can be distributed throughout the organization. This leads to increase in paperwork
within the system.
Distributing reports to different departments: there are several departments
present within the organization. Thus it becomes essential to have proper access over
the data and it is necessary that the report is shared among all the major departments
of the organization. Thus this process tends to he lengthy and takes a lot of time to get
completed. The time required to address all the requirements keeps on increasing.
Risks related to purchase system
Purchase system is mainly concerned with controlling the cash flow within the
system. Thus it is observed that there are several internal control issues faced within
the system that are needed to be mitigated on right tome. The risks that are associated
with the purchase system are discussed below:
Response time increases: with the increase in inspection time it is observed
that the response time also gets increased that effects the working of the products. The
lengthy inspection time has the ability to impact the product review. This leads to
delaying the total time required for processing the project and to develop a project
effectively. This leads to inefficient business process.

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Space crunch: the recordings related to each activity are stored within the
hardcopies that leads to shortage of spaces within the system. The purchase process
within the organization also has the capability to impact the system. Due to individual
instructions from each team it becomes difficult to manage the storage this leads to
space crunch. This eventually leads to less availability of storage space and also effects
the financial condition of the organization.
Product development time increases: with the increase in process distribution
time it is expected that the development time also increases that leads to impacting the
performance of the organization. The time required to develop the product will also
increase and this will eventually lead to effect the costs that is associated with the
project. The implementation cost will increase along with the budget.
Payroll system
The system is concerned mainly with the payments that are made towards the
employee of Bell studio organization. The internal weakness that are faced with the
payroll systems are discussed below:
Different responsibility: with the growing organization it is observed that there
is a high need to assign different responsibility to different employees. This includes
different payroll system and hence it impacts the structure of the organization. The
supervisor of the organization is responsible tor checking and providing reviews of every
processes that is going on within the system. In addition to this the payroll clerk
undergoes a thorough checkup of the payroll account so that it can check all the details
effectively. However these turns to be an weakness as it creates differences between
the employees of the organization.
Frequent reconciliation of accounting system: the reconciliation is done for
the accounting system by the supervisors so that they can get better overview of the
payroll system. The salary related to each employee are released once the
reconciliation procedure is being completed.
Risks associated with payroll system
There are several risks faced with the payroll system for the organization. The
main risks that are faced discussed below:
Employee dissatisfaction: while providing the payroll it is observed that the
attendance of every employee is processed based on the time card. This gets
reconciled by different times by different department people. Thus the employees had to
wait until every details are checked properly. This leads to increase in dissatisfaction
rate within the employees. Moreover it is observed that the trust issues also increases
between the organization and employees . This will eventually hamper the production
rate of the organization as dissatisfied employees will not be able to provide their
maximum output towards the organization. Thus it will lead to loss of organizations
revenue.

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Data redundancies: as there are different departments thus the details gets
checked separately. These details are further stored within the system so that they can
be accessed by each supervisor of the team. This leads to creation of data redundancy
within the organization. This situation gets developed as the same data gets stored
within the system again and again. This effects the storage capacity of the organization.
This will eventually hamper the production and working rate of the organization and it
will become difficult to analyze the data on a regular basis. The system will face several
issues while removing this repetitive data and will eventually lead to hamper the
business process.
Cash disbursements system
The aim of this system is to provide proper support towards the cash distribution
actions that are performed by different organization. This are mainly used for integrating
the system within the organization. However there ate several issues that are faced with
internal control system. This are described below:
Ineffective control: the controls that are gained on the cash disbursements
system are basically developed by the use of business personnel. The board of
directors are responsible for making decision towards the organization. There are
different personnel present within cash disbursement system of Bell studio. The
organization does not have any proper higher authority for controlling the cash sections.
This turns to be one of the important weakness for the organization.
Issues with continual adaptations: it is observed that there is no proper
authorization on the cash disbursements system. There is a high need to have proper
personnel within the organization. The approval procedures has the ability to change
the working of the system. With the implementation of new technologies it will become
easy to manage the cash flow. However there are several security measures that are
faced with the cash flow within the system. This becomes one of the major weakness
for the system present within the organization.
Risks associated with cash disbursements system
There are several risks that are likely to impact the working of the organization.
The main risks that are faced with the cash disbursements system are described below:
Inefficient procedures: the process that is taking place within the organization
is unorganized and that impacts the performance of the system. This leads to a creation
of the situation in which it becomes difficult to provide proper access rights towards the
low level employees. Thus it is important to have a proper organizational structure so
that it can provide better access rights towards the staffs.
Irregular procedures: the second risk that is being addressed with these system
is the irregular process that is taking place within the organization. The continual
adaption process leads to ineffective way of managing the tasks that further leads to low
production. These impacts all the tasks that are going on within the system. Hence this
situation leads to ineffective business process.

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Conclusion
Thus from the above report it can be concluded that the report has explained all
the description and main processes related to Be studio effectively. The data flow
diagram for every system has been generated effectively so that it can help in
understanding the process that is taking place within the system. In addition to this the
report has also included detailed description regarding the internal weakness
associated with each system and the risks associated with the process. Thus the report
will help in determining the crucial points related to each system.

13STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS
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