Strategic Information System: Wesfarmers Business Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic information system employed by Wesfarmers. It begins by examining the company's organizational structure, highlighting its conglomerate model and its impact on operational efficiency and competitive advantage. The report then delves into the operational issues faced by Wesfarmers, including risks associated with its retail expansion and challenges related to accounting expertise and innovation. The analysis further explores the system acquisition methods, particularly the adoption of software technology and its influence on sales processes and control mechanisms. The report also discusses the implementation of accounting software, its benefits, and the current market size and trends for Wesfarmers. Key leaders within the company are identified, and their roles in achieving market success are assessed. The report concludes with a discussion of the current gaps and challenges in accounting software and the competitive landscape, emphasizing Wesfarmers' position in the Australian market and its primary competitors.

Running Head: Strategic Information System
Strategic Information System

Strategic Information System 1
As per the survey report, it has been evaluated that organizational structure has been amended on
the basis of technological adaptation in the workplace for enhancing the effectiveness of
organizational structure. From the perception of an organization, adaptations of strategies are
done for a long period of time and to could be able to cope up with the market requirements.
Further, as per the Hunter (2010), strategic management techniques are adopted in order to
enhance the efficiency of the organization. Strategic information system helps the organization to
develop the competitive advantage. This is the main objective of the information technology.
Various activities of the organization could be operated with the implementation of the strategic
information system. In a business organization, unique functions are involved in order to attain
the objectives set up by the organizational management and this would be more feasible through
effective strategic management policy.
Organizational Structure
As per Zafar, Babar & Abbas (2013), Wesfarmers is an American Company involved in
chemical business, coal mining, etc. and they have adopted the conglomerate type of
organizational structure for performing the functionalities of the business entity. This type of
organizational structure is the amalgamation of two business entities with the same corporate
background. With the effect of the mixture of few organizations together with the same primary
company, this kind of structure has been formed and all of them have the unique subsidiary
companies. The organizational structure practiced by the Wesfarmers is a unique combination of
different functionalities of organizations of different industries and along with this; this is also
practiced by multinational corporations. Policies and the rules adopted by Wesfarmers is the
formation of competitive organization and it helps the organization to develop its significant

Strategic Information System 2
place in the business environment. Along with the competitive advantage, this type of
organizational structure is also useful in the developing the effective ways for the organization to
reach towards the success (Cassidy, 2016).
Operational Issues
According to an analysis made by Hunter (2010), organizations are facing unique kind of
calamity through which their performances are getting declined. Recently, retailers moved
towards the field of food and the liquor drinks in order to achieve the goals of the organization as
well as to enhance the profitability but dealing in these products, huge risk factors are available
due to which organization may face losses. Author has described the importance of the
organizational structure adopted by Wesfarmers while a negative aspect of the same has also
been described by the author. With the implementation of this type organizational structure, it
has led to the enhancement in the size of the operational as well as managerial expense. Apart
from the above crisis, numerous issues have been faced by the organization such as lack of
accounting expertise and lack of improvements in the innovation and the development is also a
big concern in terms of organization. Besides these aspects, taxation benefits will also be reduced
with the implementation of this structure. This will impact the business activities as lack of focus
and lack of managerial control will be the main reason or decreasing performance of the
organization (Cecez-Kecmanovic, et. al., 2014).
System Acquisition method
Software technology has been adopted by the Wesfarmers in order to manage the activities of the
organization and integration of various applications in the software will help the organization to

Strategic Information System 3
utilize its resources in an effective manner. The adaptability of software technology in the
workplace will help the organization to attain its desired goals. Due to the adaptation of
advanced technology for performing the organizational activities, various functionalities of the
organization will ease such as back office work, HR operations, etc.
The aforesaid picture shows the sales flowchart of the Wesfarmers Limited and this describes the
procedure of sales followed by them. Below are the details of the activities performed within this
procedure:
 In the first stage of the sales process of Wesfarmers Limited, customers take the entry on
the premises of the store. After that, all the products are tied with a label under which all
kind of details is written such as a price of the product, bar code, quantity, etc. Customers
can select the product as per their requirements, budget (Galliers & Leidner, 2014).
 Customers are offered with price quotations and on the basis of those quotations,
customers can sign the contract for in relevance with the particular product. After

Strategic Information System 4
agreeing to the contract conditions and by depositing the advanced money customer can
ask the manufacturer to start working on their order.
 After a certain period of placing the order, delivery of goods will be attempted. Along
with the delivery of the goods, receipts will be provided to the customers in relation to
the order. After delivering the goods and receipts of the goods, the second stage of the
sales starts i.e. after sale service (Willcocks, 2013).
 But if the consumer denies the offer from the manufacturer at the time of quotations
showed by them, sales process ends there (Greenblat, 2015).
Control Issues
The person giving the responsibility of maintaining the ledger and the other account books needs
to fulfill the requirements in order to maintain the transparency amongst the physical stock
available as well as the stock showed by ledgers (Kavanagh & Johnson, 2017).
Following is the description of issues which could be occurred in the lack of managerial control:
 It is often noticed that responsibility of choosing the supplier is on the shoulders of
warehousing manager and after the selection process, orders are being placed. Due to
lack of control over the warehousing manager, an organization may face the situation of
the inferior quality of raw materials.
 The manager could also lead to the fraudulent activities due to lack of control over their
activities.

Strategic Information System 5
 Adequate security techniques need to be adopted with the adaptation of advanced
technologies, this will help the organization to secure its consumers’ data (Morecroft,
2015).
Development of accounting software
Accounting software will help the organization to record the financial transactions with ease.
Previously, the method adopted by the organizations for recording the data was the manual
method and manually recording data may increase the chances of errors. Hence, accounting
software was adopted in order to remove these issues and meeting with the objectives of the
organization in relation to the accurate recording of financial transactions, accounting software
was introduced. This software helps the organization to show the clear picture in the financial
terms. As per the evaluation made by Realitysoftware (2017), Wesfarmers Limited has adopted
the accounting software encompasses with various sections of accounting standards in order to
match up with the quality standards set up by the management. According to the author, an
organization is enjoying various benefits with the implementation of the accounting software
(Pearlson, Saunders & Galletta, 2016). Accounting software is consisting of various accounting
methods and the standards which could help the organization in maintaining the transparency
between the consumers and the company in order to disclose the financial statements. Following
are some of the accounting techniques which are included in the accounting software:
General Entry: All the organizational transactions are recorded.
Accounts Receivable: All debtors are included under this.
Accounts Payable: All creditors of an organization are recorded here.

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Size of Market
The description regarding the current size of the market as well as the latest trends followed by
the Wesfarmers Limited has been conducted. Wesfarmers Limited is a multinational brand and
they are in the peak position in their industry as per au.finance.yahoo (2017). In the same year,
Wesfarmers Limited has achieved a growth rate of 4.3% and with this growth rate, overall
revenues were recorded at $34.9 billion with the profitability of $1.6 billion and profits are
increased by 13.2% from the last effective year. There are a number of retail stores and
supermarkets are available but Wesfarmers Limited which are dealing in Coal and the mining
industry and the Woolworths Limited which are dealing in household items are enjoying the
peak positions in the Australian market (Peppard & Ward, 2016). Since a very long time period,
they both are the primary object of the retail industry and they both have covered approximately
70% market share across the globe in the retail industry. Amongst this share, Wesfarmers is
carrying the market share of 35%.
Leaders in the market
Wesfarmers Limited is attaining the competitive advantage in the retail industry and behind this
success, there are numerous leaders’ hard work is hidden. The first key employee of the
organization is the current CEO of the Wesfarmers Limited Richard Goyder who was appointed
as the Managing Director of the organization in 1993. He is very potential and with his efforts,
an organization is enjoying the peak position today. With the mixture of leadership skills of CEO
and the available resources, an organization has achieved the desired position in the global
market. Despite Richard Goyder, Rob Scott is also one of the great leaders who has contributed a
lot to Wesfarmers' success. He is the current Deputy CEO of the organization. Apart from these

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two officers, an organization has a number of leaders who have the capability to take the
organization on next level. The workplace of the Wesfarmers Limited is quite effective and
impressive as the organization is performing its duties under the guidance of two most important
person as well as effective leaders of the organization (Rainer, et. al., 2013).
Reviewing performance of the current CEO, it has been evaluated that they have adopted the
policy of retention of the key employees. According to the policies adopted by them, employees’
requirements and their demands are fulfilled regularly to motivate them for enhancing their
performance. Along with the fulfillment of their demands, an organization has adopted the policy
of training and the development in order to update its employees' information regularly and to
keep them aware in relation to the latest trends followed in the market. Retention of key
employees is very crucial from the perception of an organization because replacement of new
candidate does not provide the assurance of positive results and it may lead to the loss situations
but retention of key employees assures the organization of positive results (Sarker, Xiao &
Beaulieu, 2013).
Current Gaps and Challenges in Accounting Software
With the implementation of the ERP framework in the organizational workplace will help them
to perform numerous activities with ease but still there will be some activities which need to be
conducted manually. The basic motive for the adaptation of ERP framework is to attract its
clients through showing the transparent image of the organization through financial statements.
Statements made with the ERP software are error free as well as they show the clear picture of
the organization hence; it will help the organization in order to gain competitive advantage
(Readyratios, 2017).

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Wesfarmers Limited is the top multinational brand in the Western part of the Australia in terms
of retail and supermarket industry. It has been concluded from the above discussion and views of
various authors that they are involved in numerous types of businesses such as liquor, coal
mining, chemical products, etc. They have primary competitors from the Australia itself i.e.
Woolworths Limited is also the leading supermarket chain store in the Australia and New
Zealand. In order to analyze the competitive position of the organization, various methods were
used. Type of organizational structure followed by the Wesfarmers Limited and the strategies
adopted by them in order to gain some competitive advantage was also executed under this
report. Apart from these issues, advanced accounting software, controlling factors of the
accounting software, size of the market and the market share across the globe as well as in the
local market were discussed in the report.

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References
au.finance.yahoo, 2017, Yahoo finance, Assessed on 12th September 2017,
https://au.finance.yahoo.com/quote/WES.AX/analysts?p=WES.AX.
Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., Galliers, R.D., Henfridsson, O., Newell, S. and Vidgen, R., 2014. The
sociomateriality of information systems: current status, future directions. Mis Quarterly, 38(3),
pp.809-830.
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Greenblat, E, 2015, Wesfarmers restructure to streamline operations, Assessed on 12th
September 2017, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wesfarmers-restructure-to-
streamline-operations/news-story/415bab7720bb6d61ade215957048d276.

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Hunter, M. G., 2010, “Strategic Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and
Applications”, University of Lethbridge, Canada, vol. 1, pp. 315-332.
Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics,
applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.
Morecroft, J. D. 2015. Strategic modelling and business dynamics: a feedback systems approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information
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digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.
Rainer, R.K., Cegielski, C.G., Splettstoesser-Hogeterp, I. and Sanchez-Rodriguez, C.,
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Readyratios, 2017, Conglomerate, Assessed on 12th September 2017,
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Realitysoftware, 2017, Accounting software development, Assessed on 12th September 2017,
http://www.realitysoftware.ca/services/software-development/accounting/
Sarker, S., Xiao, X. and Beaulieu, T., 2013. Qualitative studies in information systems: a critical
review and some guiding principles. MIS quarterly, 37(4), pp.iii-xviii.
Willcocks, L. 2013. Information management: the evaluation of information systems
investments. Springer.

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Zafar, F., Babar, S. & Abbas, H., 2013, “The Art Of Strategic Management- A Key To Success
In Corporate Sector”, European Journal of Research and Reflection in Management Sciences,
vol. 1 (1), pp. 15-24.