ZircoDATA Business Report: Industry Analysis, Strategy & Accounting

This business report provides a comprehensive analysis of ZircoDATA Pty Ltd, an Australian company in the information and document storage industry. The report begins with an industry analysis, utilizing Porter's Five Forces to assess competitive threats, the potential for new market entrants, substitution risks, buyer bargaining power, and supplier dynamics. It identifies ZircoDATA's competitive differentiation strategy and target niche market. The report then delves into the company's primary activities, value chain, and use of information technology, particularly its document management system. Furthermore, it examines performance measures, cost-volume-profit analysis, service costing, budgetary control, and sustainability efforts. The report evaluates ZircoDATA's management accounting systems and techniques, culminating in recommendations for improvement. This detailed analysis offers valuable insights into ZircoDATA's operational and strategic positioning within its industry.

Running head: BUSINESS REPORT
Business Report
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................3
a. Industry Analysis:...........................................................................................................3
b. Porter’s Five Forces:.......................................................................................................4
Threat from the Competitors:.............................................................................................4
Threat of New Entry:.........................................................................................................5
Threat of Substitution:........................................................................................................6
Bargaining Power of the Buyers:.......................................................................................6
Bargaining power of the Suppliers:....................................................................................6
c. Competitive Strategy:......................................................................................................7
Target Market (Niche Market):..........................................................................................7
d. Justification on the suitability of the organizational strategies:......................................7
Part B:.........................................................................................................................................8
Introduction................................................................................................................................8
Discussion..................................................................................................................................9
a. Overview of the Organization.....................................................................................9
The document management service industry in Australia...............................................10
Business Activities...........................................................................................................10
The value chain Analysis.................................................................................................11
Value Chain Analysis of ZircoDATA..............................................................................13

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Use of Information Technology.......................................................................................14
The document management system in ZircoDATA........................................................14
b. The performance measures....................................................................................14
Cost Volume Profit Analysis...........................................................................................15
Service Costing................................................................................................................15
Budgetary Control............................................................................................................16
The sustainability.............................................................................................................17
c. Evaluation of Management Accounting systems and techniques.............................17
d. Recommendation..............................................................................................................19
Conclusion................................................................................................................................19
References:...............................................................................................................................21

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Introduction:
The paper is focused in the elaboration of the various aspects of the business
conducted by an Australian organization in the form of ZicroDATA Pty Ltd. The paper is
divided into three parts. The first part of the paper is dedicated in the elaboration of the
industry in which the chosen company is currently operating. The paper discusses the various
aspects of the industry and at the same time, it produces an analysis on the competition that
the company faces in the industry with the application of the porter’s five forces model.
Along with that, the paper discusses the current competitive strategy that the organization is
able to implement, with a precise focus on the dynamics of the industry and also provides a
personal opinion on the appropriateness of implementing such strategy.
Part 1
a. Industry Analysis:
The chosen organization is one of the pioneer company in the information and
document storage industry of the country, Australia. The modern business world is seen to be
significantly inclined towards the digitalized process of the record keeping and the
information management. Under such situation, the mentioned industry is seen to have a
notable growth in the Australian business market. The urge of the Australian companies for
inheriting the process of digitalization is observed to be a major factor responsible for the
increased growth of the mentioned industry. Along with that, the formation of the urgency
among the modern market leaders regarding the incorporation of the digitalised process to the
business conduction of their organizations for the achievement of the wide range of benefits
that it offers, is seen to be influential in the higher growth of the industry. The list of benefits
includes professional handling of the important information, the scope of the effective and
urgent sharing of the information along with the reduction in the concern of losing the data.

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The entry of the significant number of competitor organizations such as Iron Mountain,
Ellyard Enterprises and CTI Records management into the market is significant in stating the
growth of the organizations. Along with that, the industry is currently developed in such a
manner that is able to create a revenue of 528 million US dollars with an annual growth of
2.2% in the time span of 5 years from 2014 to 2019 (Australia.gov.au. 2019). Apart from the
revenue and the opening of the number of new organizations, the significant amount of job
creation that the industry is able to conduct, is of great significance in stating the potential of
the industry. In addition to this, the significant amount of new openings in the industry is able
to confirm the fact that the industry will be subjected to increased growth in future as well.
However, the increased competition in the industry can pose considerable amount of
challenges to the new organizations entering the market, but the intense competition will also
indicate that the market is filled with the opportunities.
b. Porter’s Five Forces:
Threat from the Competitors:
The analysis of the industry is conducted with the application of the porter’s model
where it is found that the company is subjected to notable amount of threat from the
competitors. It is pretty visible that the Australian market of the information management and
the document storage is having notable representation of the companies like the Iron
Mountain, Ellyard Enterprises, CTI Records management. One of the major competitors of
the company, CTI Records management, is seen to produce the services like Records
Management, Document Storage, Open Shelf File Storage, Cora Sample Storage, Controlled
Climate Data Storage, Data Retrieval and Delivery, Imaging and Scanning Solutions and On-
line Inventory Management (Ctirecordsmgt.com 2019). Majority of the operations of CTI
Records management and Doc Stores is in alignment with the operations of the chosen
company. Hence the organizations face notable amount of competition from the part of the

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CTI Records management. In addition to this, the mentioned company is seen to face tough
competition from Iron Mountain, a market leader of the Information Storage and Enterprise
Information Management industry. The competitor organization is based in Boston, USA and
operates in more than 1400 number of locations including Australia. The excellent leadership
of the Chief Executive Officer of Iron Mountain, William Meaney, was significant in the
generation of 3.5 billion US dollar as revenue in the year 2016 (Ironmountain.com. 2019). In
addition to this, the excellent operations of the 24000 numbers of employees of the
organization were crucial in the generation of 501.6 million US dollar as the net income of
the company in the year 2016 (Ironmountain.com. 2019). Apart from this, with the total
assets of 9.5 billion US dollar and total equity of 1.9 billion US dollar in the year 2016, the
mentioned organization was one of the market leaders of the mentioned industry and the
significant growth of the company had the potential to produce notable amount of
competition to the chosen organization (Ironmountain.com. 2019). Ellyard Enterprises is one
of the notable organization for the production of the services such as the Desktop Scanning,
Document Editing, E-signing, Outlook Integration and Sharing documents for the
organizations of a wide range of industries starting from Accounting, Age Care, Education,
Financial Planners, Legal, Real Estate, Manufacturing to Engineering
(Documentmanagementsoftware.com.au 2019). Hence it is pretty visible that the chosen
organization will be subjected to a significant amount of the competition from the Ellyard
Enterprises.
Threat of New Entry:
As mentioned earlier, the information management and the document storage industry
is seen to experience entries of notable number of new organizations. As the market is
expanding in significant manner, the continuation of entries of many of the modern
organizations into the mentioned industry is expected. The growth of the industry is key

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influential factor in this case for those organizations as it has the potential to increase their
growth rate.
Threat of Substitution:
The industry consists of many of the renowned organizations like Ellyard Enterprises,
CTI Records management and Doc Stores and Iron Mountain. Along with that, many of the
modern organizations, entering the market with notably competitive pricing and discount are
having the potential to substitute the mentioned organization in long run.
Bargaining Power of the Buyers:
As mentioned earlier, the chosen company operates in such an industry which is
currently experiencing significant number of new entries. Along with that, the existing
market dominating companies like Iron Mountain, Ellyard Enterprises, CTI Records
management are instrumental in providing considerable amount of options to the customers
in choosing the company for the services. The pricing policy, discount policy and the data
security are the three main factors which are well covered by these organizations in making
sure that they be able to provide the customers with multiple numbers of quality options.
Hence it is pretty visible that the bargaining power of the buyers is notably high.
Bargaining power of the Suppliers:
In the modern business world, the power of the suppliers is significant in the growth
of the companies. The information management services and document storage industry is
not exceptional as well. Australia, being a notable user of the technological systems and one
of the pioneer countries for inheriting the process of digitalization, is able to experience
considerable numbers of the organizations supplying the materials of the mentioned industry
to the local and international customers. Hence the mentioned company is expected to face

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significantly limited supplier’s power as it has considerable number of options for the
required materials and logistics.
c. Competitive Strategy:
The chosen organization is an established company for the mentioned industry in
Australia. The company is in limited need of implementing the low cost strategy as it has a
number of competitive advantages to build on. The chosen competitive strategy is the
differentiation strategy. The company is seen to be significantly focused in differentiating
their products through the incorporation of the innovations and the technological
advancement for gaining the competitive advantage over the organizations, producing the
same services and the products (Zircodata.com.au 2019). The company’ s focus in integrating
the technology and the innovation into the design of the products, features of the products,
quality and the customer service associated with the products along with the formation of the
brand is significant.
Target Market (Niche Market):
The company is seen to be focused in delivering the needs of a specific section of the
customers. The differentiation strategy of the organization is significant in helping the
organization to aim their products for a subset of the industry rather than the large or broad
market. The specific pricing of the products and the production quality are two of the major
influential factor that enables the company to target a specific section of the market along
with the demographics (Zircodata.com.au 2019).
d. Justification on the suitability of the organizational strategies:
The chosen strategies are significantly justified from the part of the company, as it is
determined in providing quality services to the customers. The company is able to make sure
that they have a strong brand in the industry which is able to attract considerable number of

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customer. Hence even under the described intense market competition, the pricing for
penetration is not a viable option for the company. This is significant for the company in
choosing the differentiation strategy for their growth in the organization. Along with that, the
services are provided against a specific compensation that acknowledges the organization’s
costing of the services and the products. Hence the organization’s strategy of following Niche
market for the mentioned industry is justified.
Part B:
Introduction
In the modern management, decision making is an important part and the rational
decision making is considered to be a primary function of the management (Anderson et al.
2015). In an organizational context, a manager takes care of hundreds of decisions either
consciously or unconsciously as it is the key component of the role of a manager. Both the
organizational and the managerial activities are made part of the decision making process and
can be defined as a course of action selected from a fixed set of alternatives in order to
achieve the business goals (Cook 2017). It can be said that the decision making is a
continuous process that helps in managing the business and organizational activities (Cordray
et al. 2015). In the highly competitive industry, the wrong decisions can lead towards failure
as the right decision at the right time can bring in abundant success. In an organization,
decisions are made at every level in order to ensure that the business goals are achieved.
As scholars suggested, the decision making process covers the selection of the right strategy
or process from among more options to resolve a given problem (Dumais et al. 2016). The
purpose of this particular report is to analyze the management accounting information used to
assist the management decision making in an organization. The chosen organization is
ZircoDATA Pty Ltd that deals is delivering the records and information management services

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in the Australian market. The report will consider the management accounting system in the
organization ad recommends towards conclusion in how the organization can further enhance
the aspects of strategic management accounting. The recommendations will be based on the
considerations of the resources of the organization, the cost-benefit analysis and the size of
the organization.
Discussion
a. Overview of the Organization
The company ZircoData has achieved 25long year of experience in delivering the
services related to the records and the information management to the huge market of
Australia. ZircoData is an independently owned firm which has proved itself as an innovative
provider of such services. There are almost 19 facilities in across Australia and more than
1,650 customers depend on their services and trustworthiness. The services they provide
includes the power of information related to the office management of any other in an
organization (ZircoDATA 2019). The company believes that appropriate information at the
right hands help to curve out amazing results.
The company has achieved the reputation being an innovative service provider putting
the focus on the problems related to the information management. The company invests on
developing the services which meets the requirements of the customers and attracts the best
talents existing in the industry (Ingram et al. 2015). The company has been identified as the
quality management partner as per the views of its potential customers. The ZircoData’s
suite of the records and information management consists of a single source partner that helps
to address all the records management, data protection, digital access and secure the needs of
the document destruction needs. The mission of the company is to provide a superior service

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to the customers with innovation and reliability in order to earn the value of the customers
and provide proper growth and opportunities to the members of the team.
The document management service industry in Australia
In Australia, the document management service consists of the digitization of the
paper based records, the outsourced records storage (Lamego, Cercacor Labs 2016). The
industry has become highly profited by the government legislation and safekeeping of the
organizational records such as the tax, medical or client use. The requirements have sustained
the demand in the services if the industry from various fields such as the professional and
financial service firms, the government entities and the healthcare providers too (Laudon and
Laudon 2015). It is to be noted that the growth of this particular industry is suffering from
certain constraints due to the development of the in-house digital document and storage
managements systems through the last few years. It has been found that the key success
factors for the document management services are the easy access to the recently available
and efficient technologies, maintaining a high profile in the industry and leveling the security
used. In the Australian context, it has been found that Iron Mountain Acquisition Holdings
Pty Ltd, ZircoData Information Holdings Pty Ltd and Grace Worldwide Pty Ltd are the best
performing firms.
Business Activities
The company is focused at working in a collaborative way and provides smarter
information management systems that is suitable for the clients. The company’s mission is to
provide the reliable and professional service in order to manage all the information adding
value to the expertise and holding the position of leader in the market. The services of the
company help to store the necessary documents of the company building a digital storage
system (Lamego, Cercacor Labs 2016). The services they provide are highly scalable and
can be tailored to the requirements of the industry and the customers.

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 The information managements system helps to scan the files to initiate legally
achieved digital documents and can be accessed whenever required. The copies of the
files are kept on a web –based repository that are available on –demand.
 The backfile scanning helps to scan with a highly active physical records which are
convertible into the searchable electronic forms. The records are then uploaded on the
web-based platform that is an easy alternative to the physical archiving system.
The value chain Analysis
The value chain analysis is a tool that recognizes the primary activities of an
organization along with the support activities which adds value to the final products or
services in order to increase differentiation, reduce the costs and fulfill the customer demands
(Cordray et al. 2015). The value chain describes the internal activities an organization
involves in while transforming the inputs into the outputs. The primary activities of the value
chain contribute to the physical establishment of the service or the products, the sales in order
to transfer to the buyers. It also consists of the operations, the inbound logistics, the
marketing and sales, outbound logistics and the services (Laudon and Laudon 2015). On the
other hand, the support activities comprise of the activities of the value chain which are added
through the relationships with the support and primary activities. It includes the procurement,
human resource management, the technology development and general administration.