Strategic Information Systems 1: Accounting Software Packages Review

This report provides an analysis of strategic information systems, specifically focusing on accounting software packages within the context of a company review. The study examines the importance of accounting departments and the increasing adoption of accounting software to improve business operations. It delves into the structure of a company, its operational challenges, and its interaction with accounting information software. The report explores the role of strategic information systems, discussing different business structures like functional, divisional, and matrix structures, and recommends the adoption of ERP software to enhance efficiency and reduce errors. It includes a sales flowchart and discusses various accounting software packages like QuickBooks, analyzing the challenges of implementation, such as compatibility, user-friendliness, and security concerns. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for an ERP system that is compatible, secure, and customizable to improve productivity, accounting management, and overall organizational performance.

Strategic Information Systems 1
STRATEGIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE PACKAGES (A
COMPANY REVIEW)
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Strategic Information Systems 2
Introduction
It is not common for businesses to operate without having accounting departments. The success
of a business in most cases depends on the organizational structure of that company, which also
often keeps on changing as the business grows. With an increase in business transactions,
accounting has continually to become a very important aspect of an organization or business
since the financial success or performance of the business is measured by the information
provided in the company financial statements (Peppard and Ward, 2016, p. 2). It has led to
development, adoption, and implementation of accounting software packages by many
businesses or companies in a move to improve their operations and services to their clients. One
of the companies recognized for the use of accounting packages in Australia is the Greenberg
and Co. Chartered Accountants which are known for offering quality financial solutions to their
clients. This study, therefore, seeks to provide an understanding of strategic information systems
employed in this company with a focus on the accounting information packages by
understanding the current company structure and some of their operational challenges as well as
understanding its interaction with accounting information software.
Part one
Accounting information software’s are business applications software that has been developed or
designed to record as well as process accounting transactions within a business by use of
functional models. Some of the common modules include business trail balance, company
payroll, billing, accounts payables and accounts receivable as well as a company or business
general ledgers. Such accounting software functions as accounting information systems or
strategic information systems (Cassidy, 2016, p. 3). The strategic information systems function

Strategic Information Systems 3
as systems which merge business technology and business strategic planning to bring about a
change in an organizational structure to a better on as well as help the company or business to
execute its objectives as well as improve to meet the responses of the dynamic market
conditions.
The success of any business is dependent on its structure. Business structures are developed to
help the company achieve its goals and objectives. Greenberg & Co Company is dedicated to
providing its clients with solutions to their business problems as well as help to come up with
effective planning strategies for their prospective creditors. Organization structure defines the
hierarchy as well as the scope of acceptable behavior within an organization (Lim and Perrin,
2014, p. 3). It can as well help or hinder the progress of a business towards accomplishing its
goals. The common business structures used by many companies include functional, divisional
as well as matrix structures.
The functional structure allows each portion of a business to be grouped according to its purpose
and it’s found to work well for the small businesses. The divisional structure is used mostly by
large companies which operate in a wide geographical area. It helps meet the needs of the
company more rapidly and specifically, however, it’s costly because of the size and scope of the
business. On the other hand, a matrix structure is a hybrid of both the divisional and functional
structure (Broida and Flora, 2015, p. 47). It provides the organization to enjoy both the benefits
of the functional structure as well as those of the divisional structure. The Greenberg & Co
Company therefore due to its size and scope of its operations employs the use of the divisional
structure. This allows the company to perform its activities and meet the demands of their
customers as well as their employees.

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However, the company is experiencing some operational problems in providing services to their
clients resulting from inefficiencies and financial errors due to its extensive nature of its business
operations and its client base. In most case, the business has failed to meet the specific demands
of its clients due to the large data especially the financial data and therefore enhancing room for
errors in their service provision (Chang, 2016, p.1). A good company structure would allow the
company make efficiency gains, poses the ability to poses or facilitate business restructuring as
well as become flexible in rewarding and monitoring its key employees.
For the company to achieve more efficiency and reduce common errors, the company needs to
acquire an information system that will help them integrate their services. It can either obtain
commercial software, custom software or ERP software. However, the decision of the
acquisition of information system is depended on the existing structure of the company or
business. Based on the structure the company needs therefore to modify the application for the
employees as well as integrate it to create a systematic and coherent information system structure
for the company. The commercial software is usually designed or developed for commercial
purposes for sale to end-user and therefore may not meet the needs of the company to improve
efficiency as it may not customize to the needs of the company.
On the other hand, the custom software is specifically designed to company, organization or end
user-specific needs (Starinsky, 2016, p. 4). However due to the nature and size of the operations
of the Greenberg Company which involve different clients the software may not be efficient to
meet the client’s needs efficiently. The company, therefore, needs to adopt ERP software which
allows the company an opportunity to use a system of company integrated applications to
manage the business and automate the company back office related functions, services, and

Strategic Information Systems 5
human resource functions. The company will be in a position, therefore, to integrate specific
needs of the clients into the structure, automate some of the repetitive functions of the company
such as some financial inquiries by clients on their financial reports or even overall business
client services.
For the Greenberg & Co Company to achieve success in selling its financial products to their
clients, it needs also to develop a system flowchart of the sales procedures in order to achieve
maximum effectiveness to meet the demands of their clients. A flowchart represents some
organizational steps, tasks, and decisions which the organization or company needs to take to
achieve maximum effectiveness and success in its service provision to their clients. The figure
below is a sample of a sales flow chart that can be developed or adopted by the Greenberg
Company.
Product knowledge Sales approach Need assessment
Follow up
Gaining
commitment
Meeting
objections
Presentation of
products

Strategic Information Systems 6
The product assessment step gives the company an opportunity to evaluate the product after
production and see whether the product qualities meet the demands of their customers or clients.
The company will then develop a sale approach focusing on their prospective markets and
develop the strategies to enter new markets (Mas et al. 2014, p. 98). It then assesses the different
needs of their clients; if they meet the needs of their customers, the products are presented to
their clients as well as meeting their clients objections and also commit themselves to the clients
by offering to offer more services if called upon and lastly the company conducts a follow-up to
get feedback from their clients on effectiveness of the product to the clients and the market at
large. However, the system is subject to departmental control where the sales department may
seem to make most decisions about the company products. Most decisions may seem to rely on
the top management and not involving the employees. This may end up being frauds in sales
returns and proceeds.
Part two
Due to the growth of the company’s operations and frauds which may result from lack of clarity
on sales returns the company, therefore, needs to develop or adopt an accounting software
package that will help the company to record and process its accounting transactions using
functional financial modules. The company can develop modules including accounts payables,
general ledgers, payroll modules, billing as well as trial balance modules (Mueller et al. 2014,
pg. 651). A company can have an option to choose from a variety of accounting packages
including Quick Books, MYOB, Cash flow managers, Zero-online, sage among others. However
the choice of the accounting package is depended on the ability of the system to calculate all

Strategic Information Systems 7
payroll requirements, the ability to track the records of stocks, work in progress, the job orders
and other tasks management requirements, the ability to handle multiple bank accounts as well as
ability to separate financial records for each business or departments (Blount et al. 2016, pg.
190). Based on the operations of the company as well as the scope and size of the company the
company can adopt the use of Quick books which has been rated as one of the best accounting
software due to the collections of the features it offers to its customers or users. The company
can develop a number of company accounts; keep a track of company stock, debtors, creditors,
suppliers, purchases as well as financial reports among other features.
The growth of the company has however not been great as compared to her competitors in the
market. However, the company has a relatively large market share with its services being
provided to over 54 countries. It has relatively over 500 000 employees and controls a few other
companies through partnerships. The company faces stiff competition from other firms dealing
with similar products and offering nearly the same services with the greatest challenge and
competition arising from the Walker Wayland chartered accountants company which has been
the most growing company over the past years in Australia (Hafeez and Andersen, 2014, p. 3).
The company has over 70 percent growth rate since 2011 and has a network of over 10other
accounting firms. The acquisition of the regional accounting firms has been the source of its
success in the industry which has provided the company with a great competitive advantage over
her competitors. Acquisition of the small regional accounting firms reduced the competition the
company was facing in the market as well as improved or increased the company client base or
coverage and therefore increasing the company economies of scale (Geary et al. 2014, pg. 701).
It also acquired the skills from other companies and integrated them to its operations leading to

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excellent service provision to their clients. The ability to meet diverse client needs in the market
has also increased the company competitive advantage; however, the firm enjoys a competitive
advantage due to the low cost of operation which also allows them to offer relatively cheaper
products to their clients.
The development and adoption of an accounting software package by the company have also
brought some challenges to the employees and other users of the packages. One of the challenges
has been lack of compatibility with the company programs. Since the system is not customized in
most case the company uses the ERP system which only integrates the different applications
modules of the company (Seethamraju, 2015, p. 490). Therefore in some businesses or
departments, the system has not been effective due to this challenge of compatibility. The other
common challenge has been the software has not been user-friendly to the employees. It is
affected by the number restrictions of access to the software and the users cannot customize them
according to their preferences and lastly the system has provided a challenge of security as many
users are concerned since all these services are offered online or on the internet where the data
can be accessed by foreign users (Starinsky, 2016, p. 12).
Conclusion
From the analysis above, it is evident that the company should seek to integrate these functions
by adopting an ERP system. The ERP system adopted needs to be compatible with their current
program as well as contains appropriate security features to enhance the security of the company
data. It should also allow customizing features so that the system can be more users friendly. It is
hence a system that will ensure the productivity, accounting management, and the general
performance of the organization improves.

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List of References
Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a
digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.
Starinsky, R.W., 2016. Maximizing business performance through software packages: Best
practices for justification, selection, and implementation. CRC Press.
Mas, J.F., Kolb, M., Paegelow, M., Olmedo, M.T.C. and Houet, T., 2014. Inductive pattern-
based land use/cover change models: A comparison of four software packages. Environmental
Modelling& Software, 51, pp.94-111.
Blount, Y., Abedin, B., Vatanasakdakul, S. and Erfani, S., 2016. Integrating enterprise resource
planning (SAP) in the accounting curriculum: a systematic literature review and case study.
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Lim, N. and Perrin, B., 2014. Standard Business Reporting in Australia: Past, Present, and
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American businesses. Journal of Small Business Strategy, 1(1), pp.44-51.

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Mueller, D. and Mousseau, C.A., Bmc Software, Inc., 2014.Method for customizing software
applications.U.S. Patent 8,832,652.
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Starinsky, R.W., 2016. Maximizing business performance through software packages: Best
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Hafeez, A. and Andersen, O., 2014. Factors Influencing Accounting Outsourcing Practices
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Chang, J.F., 2016. Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC
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