Strategic Information Systems for Bell Studio Business Operations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic information systems employed by Bell Studio, an Adelaide-based wholesaler of art supplies. It examines the purchase and cash disbursement systems, including data flow diagrams and system flowcharts, detailing the processes from orde...Read More

Strategic Information
Systems for Business
and Enterprise

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is summarises as the different types of data flow and system flow
diagrams which are associated to purchase, cash and payroll system that is used by
Bell studio. All systems has its own weakness & risk which can hamper the performance
of business and its operational activities.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY .................................................................................................................... 1
Purchase and cash disbursement system ...................................................................1
System flow chart of purchase system: .......................................................................3
System flow chart of cash disbursement system:.........................................................4
Payroll system.............................................................................................................. 6
System flow chart of payroll system.............................................................................7
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 2
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Strategic information system is a set of guidelines that is beneficial for the
corporation to make plans & strategies as per the existing norms. It is an essential
feature in corporate and information technology. It help firms and organisations to
allocate, store, process & move the data and information. With the help of this
enterprise can get the required information which is helpful for the business expansion
and growth. To better understand this concept Bell Studio has been chosen which is an
Adelaide based wholesaler of art suppliers. This report discuss about various topics
such as: data flow diagram of purchase & cash disbursements systems, payroll system,
purchase system and cash disbursements system. Apart from this it also discuss about
description of internal control weakness in each system and risk associated with the
identified weakness.
MAIN BODY
As Bell Studio is belongs to Australia and it an Adelaide based wholesaler of art
suppliers. The manufacturing process has done in Japan, Australia, Chain & New
Zealand. There is centralised accounting system has been followed by the corporation
at its distinct locations. There are various data flow diagram and system flow chart has
been discussed which are associated to payroll, purchase and cash disbursement
system (Anand and Gnanzou, 2013).
Purchase and cash disbursement system
Data flow diagram is helpful to present flow of data in graphic manner which
provide useful information about the business. It is beneficial to analyse that how data is
being processed by systems in the aspects of input & output. With the help of diagram
relevant information has been communicated and it is easy to understand the data by
using diagrams. The symbols which are used as: box, circles, rectangles, arrows etc. It
is important that specific system has to follow so that information can be
understandable. As the data flow diagram has divided in two elements which are logical
& physical. As logical data flow diagram states the flow of data with the help of a
system which is used to execute the business operations where as physical data flow
diagram shows the execution of logical data flow. Bell Studio can use this system to
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know the data and information about its business and which is helpful to understand the
business activities more clearly.
With the help of purchase and cash disbursement system an organisation can
effectively handle the purchase and cash payment systems. A company have to
purchase raw material so that it can use this to convert into finished goods. There are
various suppliers from which Bell Studio purchase the material. In return corporation
have to make payment which is based on the cash and some times credit system is
also used by the organisations. Data flow diagram of purchase and cash disbursement
systems are describe as below:
With the help of above data flow diagram purchase & cash disbursement system
can be understood that is used in Bell Studio and it shows that purchasing clerk
evaluate inventory subsidiary to check legitimate merchandiser file (Belfo and Trigo,
2013). Through this file appropriate vendor has been chosen to place order if quantity in
ledger deems to be minimum. After that digital order has been placed and after that two
hard copies has print and from that 1 copy dispatched to vendor and another copy sent
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to the purchasing division. At the time when goods reach in the company's receiving
division then it is check by the clerk and conciliate the information in context to the
buying order. As receiving department prepares the hard copy and sent to the accounts
payable division as well as inventory warehouse. After that buying order copy has sent
to the cash disbursement department from accounts receivable division so that
settlement of payment can be possible in context to purchased goods. After that
process funds are transferred to creditors with in stipulated time period and after that
treasurer make signature & drop a mail to the vendor (Duan and Da Xu, 2012).
System flow chart of purchase system:
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System flow chart of purchase system of Bell Studio is describe from the above
diagram where clerk of corporation consider inventory subsidiary ledger so that it can
analyse the quality of items are minimum or not. If no, than it is not require to take any
action and if yes than there is further process which is need to be follow. For that
purpose vendor file has been examined and digital order has placed & a copy of receipt
is require to sent to the purchasing division. Another copy is provided to the receiving
department and one copy has deliver to the accounts receivable division. For the
payment purpose all information has provided to the cash disbursement section.
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System flow chart of cash disbursement system:
As cash disbursement system is helpful to make settlement of payment and this
system used in Bell Studio (Galliers and Leidner, 2014).
With the help of above diagram it has been shown that account receivable
division get the information about purchase through the purchase system. As the clerk
of cash disbursement department file the documents until the payment is not release.
And then cheque is being prepare and sent to the treasurer for sign and after that it
mail to the vendor in context to the payment settlement. There are all documents which
are related to the business has been updated & filled by the clerk. It includes receiving
report, ledger, buying order copy etc.
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Weaknesses of purchase system: There are various weaknesses which are
seen in Bell Studio and it can affect the performance of company. As the buying system
of organisation is complicated reason being clerks have to examine process frequently
which is a time consuming procedure. As a result other business operations does not
perform as per the requirement. As stocks are managed with the help of software so it is
require for the corporation to select skilful and knowledgable workers who can perform
their roles and duties according to the need. As another weakness is that company is
using hard copy to provide information to the vendors and it can increase the cost of
corporation (Labusch and Aier, 2014).
Risks associated with purchase system: As there are various types of risks
which are associated with purchase system and if corrective action does not taken than
business operations of Bell Studios can be affected.
 As the purchase system of corporation is very complicated because it has
various vendors and they negotiate for the buying at higher price so that vendors
can get higher price for material.
 Another risk is that company provide hard copy to the vendors so there are the
more chances it is being lost or misplace. As cost will also increase if Bell Studio
print more documents.
 If employees are not skilful than they can not operate computer system in order
to complete purchase system.
Weaknesses of cash disbursement system: As the cash disbursement system
is used for settlement of payment and Bell Studio is using this system but is has various
weaknesses which can affect the business activities of company. It is not updated time
to time so that cash disbursement division does not know how much payment they have
to make to the clients. As clerk is responsible for filling work of distinct documents &
reports so they have to perform multiple responsibilities and is not easy for them to
know about each department so chances of mistakes can increase. As a result clerks
are not able to perform as per the requirement of organisation (Labusch and Winter,
2013).
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Risks associated with cash disbursement system: There are various types of
risk which are associated with cash disbursement system and these are as describe
below:
As the systems are not updated time to time as a result all information does not
communicated as a result proper records can not maintain related to business activities.
Ledger, cheque register, accounts payable subsidiary ledger are the documents which
are needed to be updated. As a result management can not know the actual
performance of business and does not analyse properly that how much amount is
require to pay to the vendors & workers.
As the workers have to perform different roles within the organisation and they
perform multiple responsibilities at the work place such as: to fill purchase order copy,
invoice, cheques etc. It creates the risk for the corporation reason being if clerk
misplace the documents or fill it incorrectly than Bell Studios have to bear the losses
(Nofal and Yusof, 2013).
Due to the lack of proper computer knowledge sometimes they fill wrong entry as
a result proper information does not communicated to the management and they can
not take effective decisions for the business growth.
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Payroll system
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Payroll system is used by Bell Studio and it is describes as below:
As data flow diagram of payroll system defined that every employee have their
own time card where defined their working hours. These cards are check by supervisor
and cards have to connected with the data processing system where all cards details
automatic save in software. These cards on digital basis so in process system
automatic record their working hours. After checked cards all time cards are submitted
to payroll department. The account payable department can provide two copies of
cheque of their employees after that it is submitted to supervisor who can check of each
employee's cheque after that distributed to all employees. In the procedure payroll
register is provided all detailed information and payroll division to account payable
department. These information transfer to general ledger department by accounts
payable department. It can help to make cheque in order to employees salaries
(Schneider and Spieth, 2013).
System flow chart of payroll system
A well justified flow chart for payroll system of Bell studio is as follows which
depicts all the steps of procedure which is used by an organisation -
As per the above flow chart of payroll system present to time card of all
employees with their working hours. These time cards are prepared by company to
check working hours of each employees and supervisor can collect and check in
appropriate manner. After checking if data is corrected so so it will carry forward to pay
roll system with the help of terminal computer which can save all information in data
processing system. Hard copies of cheques and payroll are also printed by clerk in
subject to post them through digital employee record. After the particular step all
records can file in payroll department and send compensation cheques to those
employees who can do extra work in off season. After that a copy send to accounts
department from payroll department which can register all detailed information and
prepare disbursement voucher. These voucher can prepared on manually basis and
mark in payroll register for prepare general ledger account. At the end all cheques are
prepared by accounts payable department in order to pay salaries to their employees
(Sun and Firmin, 2017).
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Weaknesses in payroll system: Business analyst of Bell Studio has identified a
few weaknesses in payroll system of the organisation. All of them are as follows:
 Workload of clerks which are working in payroll system is very high because they
have to monitor time cards of employees that are filled by them every week.
 Monetary resources are not utilised properly because different types of hard
copies are printed that are not required.
 Procedure of providing cheques to employees is very long.
Risk associated with weaknesses: All the weaknesses that are observed by
business analyst may result in huge risks in future. Risks associated with them are as
follows:
 End number of job responsibilities can result in decreased productivity of clerks
because they have to review time cards of employees every week and prepare
report. It affects their engagement level in work and accuracy of information.
When they have a time limit to complete a task and they are not able to do it in
the given time frame then they will prefer it to finish it as soon as possible by
adding the data which is gathered by them whether its is right or wrong ( Tambo
and Bækgaard, 2013).
 Different types of unnecessary expenses are made by company because hard
copies are printed that are not required to keep a record. It can create financial
issues for business operation in future because if money is spent on such things
that are not required then there will be a situation of lack of monetary resources
for operational activities.
 The procedure which is followed by Bell Studio to provide cheques to employees
is very long. Firstly it is provided to supervisor and then they deliver it to the staff
members. If a supervisor forgets to provide cheque to a worker then it can result
in unsatisfied workforce.

CONCLUSION
As from the above report, it has been concluded that strategic information system
is helpful for the business & enterprise because it provide important data and
information related to the business operations. The data flow diagram is helpful to
present a flow of a data through the system and it shows the input and output of each
activity. A system flow charts are the combination of physical design which represents
general terms related to operations and it provide useful information about business
activities. There are various data flow diagram and system flowcharts has been
discussed which are related to purchase, cash and payroll system. Weakness and risk
which are associated with these systems has been analysed so that corrective actions
can be taken for the improvement. With the help of strategic information system
efficiency and effectiveness can be maximize which help the corporation to achieve its
objectives.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Anand, A., Wamba, S. F. and Gnanzou, D., 2013, June. A literature review on business
process management, business process reengineering, and business process
innovation. In Workshop on Enterprise and Organizational Modeling and
Simulation (pp. 1-23). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Belfo, F. and Trigo, A., 2013. Accounting information systems: Tradition and future
directions. Procedia Technology.9.pp.536-546.
Duan, L. and Da Xu, L., 2012. Business intelligence for enterprise systems: a survey.
IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics.8(3). pp.679-687.
Galliers, R. D. and Leidner, D. E., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges
and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Labusch, N. and Aier, S., 2014, July. Information provision as a success factor in the
architectural support of enterprise transformations. In 2014 IEEE 16th
Conference on Business Informatics (Vol. 2, pp. 141-148). IEEE.
Labusch, N., Aier, S. and Winter, R., 2013. Beyond Enterprise Architecture Modeling–
What are the Essentials to Support Enterprise Transformations?. Enterprise
Modelling and Information Systems Architectures (EMISA 2013).
Nofal, M. I. and Yusof, Z. M., 2013. Integration of business intelligence and enterprise
resource planning within organizations. Procedia Technology.11. pp.658-665.
Schneider, S. and Spieth, P., 2013. Business model innovation: Towards an integrated
future research agenda. International Journal of Innovation
Management.17(01). p.1340001.
Sun, Z., Strang, K. and Firmin, S., 2017. Business analytics-based enterprise
information systems. Journal of Computer Information Systems.57(2). pp.169-
178.
Tambo, T. and Bækgaard, L., 2013, September. Dilemmas in enterprise architecture
research and practice from a perspective of feral information systems. In 2013
17th IEEE International Enterprise Distributed Object Computing Conference
Workshops (pp. 289-295). IEEE.
Online
Data flow diagram. 2015. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/levels-in-data-flow-diagrams-dfd/>
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