Strategic Information Systems

Question: Discuss about theStrategic Information Systems. Answer: Introduction and Overview of Accounting Software Industry: The significance and usage of accounting softwares in Australia is widespread. Either the small enterprises or large a multinational business firms, each of them has adopted various accounting softwares for maintaining the inventory and accounts of the company in a regular and accurate manner. The development and distribution of accounting softwares in Australia have significantly changed from the last few decades. Since the development and increase in technology, the usage of computerized accounting softwares and packages has devastatingly increased. Various companies providing the accounting softwares are now competing with each other for obtaining a higher market share and a healthy public image. There are some amazing features which the accounting softwares come with nowadays (Papulova Papulova, 2006). Inventory Management: The most important feature that is provided by the accounting softwares is inventory management. These softwares keep a track of the products or services details. From the production to the distribution everything about the product is stored and managed in the system. The raw materials, the equipments and tools, the machineries, the sales information everything is managed profoundly in this system and is easy to access (Muoz Strotmeyer, 2010). Time Tracking and Billing System: The products and services are billable and the billing regarding the purchases and sales made is done efficiently in the system. The system shows the calculations and expenditures made on several materials used for the production and development. Payroll Management Payroll is an extensively huge part of any company. Payroll system has a lot to manage from the employee details to the payment details (Leng Parlar, 2009). The manual payroll was used in the previous eras but some computerized system was needed through which the details can be managed in a systematic manner. Data of huge companies which has numerous workers and employees has to be managed delicately and this can be done by using the accounting softwares. The accounting softwares are very useful for huge companies as the data to be managed in these companies is also very huge and unmanageable. After the usage of such high end accounting softwares the companies are able to manage its accounts and inventories with ease and simplicity. History of Accounting Softwares in Australia: The accounting softwares started in the 1955 which was developed by a privately owned company for an electronic appliance factory. The softwares at that time were huge time consuming processes in which the transactions (Jones, 2009). These softwares were quite cumbersome and needed some development (Lee et al, 2008). With the development in technology, the softwares started getting equipped with tools with some rules and programming languages. The designs made by using the programming languages were quite efficient and were proven useful in speeding the accounting process. The first language was developed by IBM where the relational databases were formed and the computers did store structured data and the accessibility of data became much easy. In 1973, a revolution named SAP occurred which gave a product line of modular systems which were capable of performing computations very smoothly. The aim was to develop systems which were easy to store data, access data and solve the huge com putations and store the data in a sequential and sorted manner. In 1981, Peachtree offered the first integrated office suite in which a word processor, an excel sheet were included. Intuit got establishes in 1983 when it launches its Quicken application which gave the company a huge market share and a new dimension and methodology to develop accounting softwares. Now the need was to prepare better user interface and a smooth and attractive design. This kind of software was developed by Teleware Inc which was quite innovative and unique in terms of its GUI and features. Nowadays accounting softwares like tally are widely used and are filled with amazing features which can be needed by ideal accounting software (Issa-Salwe et al, 2010). From the sales, purchases, transactions, inventories to the assets, liabilities etc, everything is contained in these softwares along with attractive GUI and easy operations. Spreadsheets or excel was a huge invention in terms of accounting softwares but had a lot of issues and operational defects due to which the need of new softwares did arise. The needed features were missing but along with time, the additional features were added and improved to serve the customers with all the facilities and features they needed in the accounting softwares (Reddy Satyanayan, 2009). Current Market Leaders and Market Share: Currently there are three huge players in the Australian accounting software industry which are Xero, Intuit and MYOB which consumes most of the market share of Australia. Xero alone consumes 65% of the market share of the accounting softwares in Australia while intuit has 20% share and the rest is occupied by the other companies (Singh Kaur, 2012). Accounting softwares has not been limited to the inventory and account management but it has now grown till providing cloud based accounting which facilitates huge data storage which would help in managing the accounts of the company very well. Xero is basically a New Zealand based company which has turned to be an Australian giant for accounting softwares which has around 400,000 customers all over the world and $240 billion transactions and 95 million of invoices. Intuit is a US based company which has achieved great success in Australia by adopting new methodologies like automated information extraction from bills and made the process of entering data into the accounting softwares easy. MYOB is has a turnover of $27 billion and is in a race to compete with the well established companies in the market. This company secures and has more revenues than intuit and xero. The cloud methodologies like SaaS has been [preferred by the companies to provide more flexible and required services by the customers (Akram, 2011). Competitive Advantage: As seen above there are three companies which mostly occupy the entire market share of Australian accounting software market. Xero, Intuit and MYOB are the huge companies providing accounting softwares to the small and large multinational companies. In order to compete and sustain in the market, the companies come up with new strategies and innovative features (Heidarkhani, 2013). The competition is not only healthy and beneficial for the customers where they can get the most efficient and high end softwares but this competition Is also very beneficial for the company itself as they grow in terms of developing new and effective softwares. In order to serve the customers with best products, the companies rigorously follow strategies and plans to achieve the targets and result into innovative and outstanding results. The companies, with the aim of getting huge market share and standing out from the rival companies work hard and develop new products constantly (Akram, 2011). As a result , the market gets enriched with latest, high end products and accounting softwares which are immensely beneficial for the companies. The workload of the companies gets easy and manageable and as a result, the companies too are able to provide quicker and efficient services to the customers. Thus the competitive advantage is not limited to the companies but also to the customers and the other companies. Challenges and Issues: The Australian market of accounting softwares is turning its face towards cloud based accounting where the people are able to access their data while travelling, sitting at the home or roaming anywhere. This methodology comes with numerous benefits but also has some disadvantages and issues. The cloud based services uses internet and the login system it can be very risky as if you disclose your password to anyone or the password is hacked, it can lead to adverse situations. The accounting softwares are used in small and large companies. The data of the companies are very important to manage. If the data gets leaked, the company can be subjected to face dangerous situations. The information of millions of people can be lost and in danger. Also if the software is not able to perform efficiently, it could cause data loss which would hugely affect the inventory of the company (Akram, 2011). Inventory is a huge and vital part of any company. The company can get bankrupt if the inventory is not managed properly. Thus is the softwares are missing some data and features, it can lead to some unrecoverable circumstances. Also the usage of wrong softwares for the company cannot be helpful for the company as per its requirements. Recommendations: The accounting software companies may provide softwares with various uses. The companies must select the softwares as per the requirement of the company (Gupta, 2011). The companies must select software from the trusted and branded company which provides value added services to the customers and has a concern for the data and information of the customers. The customers must also review the size and capacity of their company and the look forward to get the suitable software and packages from the developers. The companies also must check for the desired features which are essential for the company to achieve. The companies must select the providers which are hugely trusted in the market, provide affordable and reasonable prices to the customers, the providers which gives a huge after purchase support and the companies which are known for the amazing services it provides in the accounting software industry Invention (Machine Corporation, 2006). References: Akram, J. K.(2011). The Significance of Management Information Systems for Enhancing Strategic and Tactical Planning. 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