Organizational background of Starbox

The accounting information system comprises of the people, records as well as methods that are solely utilized for gathering several financial information regarding business events (Laudon and Laudon 2016). The recording and the processing of this information are done for making it completely useful and thus communicating the information for the decision makers and end users. The complete collection, recording and finally organizing the financial transactions for any particular organization is done by the accounting information system (Al-Hiyari, AL-Mashre and Mat 2013). The major and the most significant goal of this accounting information system is the perfect recording of financial data and finally turning them into useful and relevant financial information. Several parts or elements of the accounting information system are present. However, they are eventually broken into five important categories. They are the source documents, information storage, input devices, output devices and information processors (Ismail and King 2014). This type of information system is utilized by various organizations.

The following literature review explains about the leading provider of quality wooden boxes as well as packaging in Australia, namely, Starbox. It is considered as the most popular organization of wooden box and packaging. This literature review provides the organizational background, organizational structure and various operational problems of the selected company. Moreover, the various strategies of Starbox are also provided here. The method for system acquisition and the various control problems in their system will also be provided here. The second part of the literature review comprises of the appropriate accounting software packages, market size, market leaders and competitors of Starbox. Important and suitable recommendations are also mentioned here.

Starbox Limited is the leading organization in the field of wooden boxes and packaging (Starbox.co.nz. 2018). It was started around 70 years ago and for these long 70 years, they have been the most effective organization for wooden boxes. In the present days, Starbox is claimed as the most premier manufacturer of wooden presentations, wine boxes, cases, pallets or cable reels in all over New Zealand (Starbox.co.nz. 2018). Moreover, they even provide crates and boxes for the display and shipping.

In the beginning, they were set up for manufacturing boxes or crates for the industries of soft drinks and military (Starbox.co.nz. 2018). However, today, they also manufacture bed frames and presentation boxes. Mainly six types of products are manufactured by them. They are the wine boxes, gift boxes, display stands, pallets and cases and cable reels. The most significant feature of the products of Starbox is that they utilize the best raw materials for their products (Starbox.co.nz. 2018). The customers are dragged towards them because of their product quality. Regarding the presentation and the gift boxes, they are better than their competitors.

Operational problems of Starbox

The organizational structure of the organization of StarBox comprises of all the managing bodies and people associated with the business.

The above figure has clearly shown the several important and significant management of the business including the top level management, middle level management and the lower level management (Simkin, Norman and Rose 2014). The top management starts with the shareholders and board of directors. The organizational structure also consists of the production department, marketing department, technical department, financial department and human resources department. Each of these departments has their own sub departments and various employees work in them (Demski 2013). Starbox maintains a good relation with each and every employee of their organization.

Although, Starbox is extremely popular and the leading organization of wooden boxes and packaging in Australia, there are some of the major operational problems that are taking away the business to a degrading position (Arvidsson, Holmström and Lyytinen 2014). The first and the most important problem within this organization is that since they provide the best quality of products for their customers, the cost of their products are extremely high and could not be afforded by all. The customers thus opt for not selecting Starbox and rather find other organizations with cheaper products (Galliers and Leidner 2014). The over management of risks within the organization is the next important operational problem in Starbox. They are not being able to manage their risks at once and thus they are losing their market shares. Since, the customers are not happy with the products, the market shares of this particular organization are falling down. The main source of all these problems is the erroneous strategies that they have taken (Haux et al. 2013). As technology is getting advanced, they should change their strategies according to their strategies. However, they have not changed at all and hence they are being able to manage their problems. They should change their strategies as per the new technologies and up grade their systems so that even they can cope up with the modern world. The alterations in the market trends are becoming exclusively dangerous for them as they are still stuck with the technologies of 70 years older. Marketing is the next important problem in Starbox (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The entire marketing team is not at all effective and thus the new customers are not getting any news of their business. Losing the new customers is strongly affecting their business and they are suffering from major losses. However, there are various scopes or systems to eradicate these problems.

Strategies of Starbox

The above figure has substantially shown the downfall of the shares in the organization of Starbox. In the year 2010, the shares were above 30%; however, in the year of 2012, it has come down to below 5% (Amrollahi, Ghapanchi and Talaei-Khoei 2013). It is extremely dangerous as well as threatening for the organization, since the stakeholders of the organization is much worried about the business.

The organizational strategies of the organization of Starbox are very much different from the rest of the organizations (Abdelhak, Grostick and Hanken 2014). Since, it is the leading manufacturing organization of wooden boxes in Australia, the strategies comprise of six major components. They are as follows:

1. i) Stronger Links with Market: They always keep a strong bonding with the market. This is mainly because the raw materials are always required for their business. Moreover, they always keep track of the market so that there is no problem in the in the supply of their raw materials.
2. ii) Rigorous Financial Discipline: The SVA or shareholder value added system is incorporated within the business of Starbox (Amrollahi, Ghapanchi and Talaei-Khoei 2014). They estimate the cost and productivity with the help of a basic analysis.

iii) Balanced Investment Approach: This is the third important strategy of Starbox. They undergo an approach that is of balanced investment. This particular approach h has helped the organization of Starbox to maintain their position and popularity even after 70 years (Willcocks 2013).

1. iv) Domestic plus Export Market Strategy: Apart from providing wooden boxes and packaging items to the country of Australia and New Zealand, Starbox has started to export their items in the rest of the countries in the world (Lee et al. 2015). This is helping them to gain utmost popularity throughout the world.
2. v) Labour Flexibility: This is the fifth important and significant strategy of Starbox. The flexibility of labours is provided by them and thus they maintain a healthy relationship with their employees.
3. vi) Lean Production: This particular organization of Starbox has eventually embraced the lean production that has its own requirements (Bernus, Mertins and Schmidt 2013).

The above mentioned six strategies are extremely beneficial for the organization. However, in spite of all these strategies, few problems are present within them.

Starbox Limited of Australia is eventually following Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP as their system acquisition method. ERP can be defined as the specific kind of enterprise application, which is properly designed for utilizing by the huge businesses (Altameem, Aldrees and Alsaeed 2014). It helps to integrate the business processes in a single process and thus making it extremely easy. ERP is utilized by various larger companies in their businesses so that they would be able to maintain their business integrity and flexibility. The only disadvantage of ERP model is that the smaller organizations could not afford it as it is extremely costly. All the operations in a business like manufacturing, finance, human resources, sales, marketing and product planning could be easily integrated within this model (Bajdor and Grabara 2014). Starbox Limited has opted for the model of ERP as their system acquisition method since they are willing to integrate their business processes in a single streamline. They have got various advantages from this particular model. However, since the maintenance cost of ERP is much higher, they have faced various problems in maintaining the model. 

The above figure depicts a clear image of the sales flowchart of the organization of Starbox. The first step of this flowchart starts from the need of the product. Then, the preliminary design is prepared. The next step is to define the problem. Then, analysis of the design is done (Uçaktürk and Villard 2013). The other two steps are synthesis and optimization. After analysis, the design of the product is optimized and the prototype is evaluated. After the step of prototype evaluation, manufacturing and refinement are done and finally the final product is prepared.  

System acquisition method of Starbox

There are various significant control problems within the system of Starbox. The most important amongst all these problems are the wrong strategies of Starbox (Power, Sharda and Burstein 2015). The stakeholders of the organization are not at all happy with the business rules and thus new strategies are to be incorporated as soon as possible. The trends of the market are changing constantly and thus if the strategies of this organization are not changed and altered, they would be facing major problems within their business. As Starbox is the leading manufacturing company, when the new customers are not taking up their products, this organization is facing major problems (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The best solution for this type of problem is the service process. The employees interact amongst each other for bringing out more ideas for the business.

Accounting software packages are utilized by the organizations for gaining and obtaining extreme popularity and thus making the business operations extremely effective as well as efficient (Ismail and King 2014). This type of software is responsible for reducing the business complexities so that the threats and issues are mitigated. Financial risks are very common in any business. These accounting software packages help to mitigate the risks in the financial sector. Like various popular organizations, Starbox has chosen one of the most significant accounting software packages for their business. They have selected Xero for their business (Al-Hiyari, AL-Mashre and Mat 2013). The software of Xero is cloud based and the small and medium sized organizations utilize them in their business. Several advantages are present in Xero. They include support to maximum clients, faster, report of real time finances, higher improvement and simple collaboration.

The current market size of Starbox clears states that the position has gone down from the previous position. However, with the help of the new strategies and accounting software package, Starbox is trying to gain their previous position. This gaining back of position would be extremely needed for the organization (Simkin, Norman and Rose 2014). If they will change their strategies and maintain a good relation with the existing as well as the new customers, it is evident that they would be returning to their position. Moreover, they should reduce the prices of the products.

Starbox is the leading organization for wooden boxes and packaging items. However, apart from Starbox, there are few more organizations that are taking up the business of wooden boxes and packaging (Arvidsson, Holmström and Lyytinen 2014). These businesses would have the tendency to become the market leaders.

Sales flowchart of Starbox

The above graph provides a clear image of the position of Starbox and all of its competitors. According to the graph, Starbox is still the leader in the market (Amrollahi, Ghapanchi and Talaei-Khoei 2014). However, Sydney Crates is not far away and has the high chance that any time they would be taking up the entire market. The other competitors include ABC Crates and The Wooden Box Factory.

Starbox is facing various problems within their business. These problems could be extremely problematic for the business as they are not being able to cope up with the advanced technology. Since, Starbox is a 70 years old company; they are not accustomed with the high technology that the world has acquired. The first and the foremost problem is the high price. The costs of the products are very high and thus they are not being able to hold their customers. The customers are choosing other organizations where they can get cheaper products. For this problem, they should reduce the price of the products without compromising with the quality of the products. The second problem is not advertising their products properly. They should a hire a marketing team so that their products could be properly advertised and the new customers get to know about them.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above literature review, it can be concluded that accounting information system is the formal procedure that helps to collect and process data to information and finally distributing the information to the relevant users. The most significant purpose of this AIS or accounting information system is that it could be eventually utilized for collecting, storing and processing financial or accounting information and finally producing the various informational reports, which the managers utilize for taking decisions related to their business. Previously, this accounting information system was a complete manual system; however, now it has turned into a computerized system. The major functionalities of accounting information system include effective and efficient data operation, supply of information for taking business related decisions and to be sure that controls are within place for accurately processing and recording data. There are six parts in an accounting information system. They are the people, procedure, data, software, information technology and internal controls. The accounting software helps to gather all the applications and systems for the proper management and processing of financial data. The bookkeeping teams or the accounting professionals utilize these programs for the governance of their accounts and finally automating the various systematic operations. There are various types of accounting software packages. The most popular are the MYOB, Xero, SAP, QuickBooks and many more. The above literature review has provided the brief description about the leading wooden box and packaging organization in Australia, Starbox. The exclusive and the most important details about this particular organization are provided in this literature review. Furthermore, the various problems related to the operations are also provided here. The final part of the review helps to understand the most suitable accounting software package for Starbox and who is leading the market. Important recommendations are also provided in this literature review.

Control problems in Starbox’s system

References

Abdelhak, M., Grostick, S. and Hanken, M.A., 2014. Health Information-E-Book: Management of a Strategic Resource. Elsevier Health Sciences.

Al-Hiyari, A., AL-Mashre, M.H.H. and Mat, N.K.N., 2013. Factors that affect accounting information system implementation and accounting information quality: A survey in University Utara Malaysia. American Journal of Economics, 3(1), pp.27-31.

Altameem, A.A., Aldrees, A.I. and Alsaeed, N.A., 2014, October. Strategic information systems planning (SISP). In Proceedings of the World Congress on Engineering and Computer Science (Vol. 1).

Amrollahi, A., Ghapanchi, A.H. and Talaei-Khoei, A., 2013. A systematic literature review on strategic information systems planning: Insights from the past decade. Verified OK.

Amrollahi, A., Ghapanchi, A.H. and Talaei-Khoei, A., 2014. Three Decades of Research on Strategic Information System Plan Development. CAIS, 34, p.84.

Arvidsson, V., Holmström, J. and Lyytinen, K., 2014. Information systems use as strategy practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(1), pp.45-61.

Bajdor, P. and Grabara, I., 2014. The Role of Information System Flows in Fulfilling Customers’ Individual Orders. Journal of Studies in Social Sciences, 7(2).

Bernus, P., Mertins, K. and Schmidt, G. eds., 2013. Handbook on architectures of information systems. Springer Science & Business Media.

Demski, J., 2013. Managerial uses of accounting information. Springer Science & Business Media.

Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Haux, R., Winter, A., Ammenwerth, E. and Brigl, B., 2013. Strategic information management in hospitals: an introduction to hospital information systems. Springer Science & Business Media.

Ismail, N.A. and King, M., 2014. Factors influencing the alignment of accounting information systems in small and medium sized Malaysian manufacturing firms. Journal of Information Systems and Small Business, 1(1-2), pp.1-20.

Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P., 2016. Management information system. Pearson Education India.

Lee, T., Ghapanchi, A.H., Talaei-Khoei, A. and Ray, P., 2015. Strategic information system planning in healthcare organizations. Journal of Organizational and End User Computing (JOEUC), 27(2), pp.1-31.

Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Power, D.J., Sharda, R. and Burstein, F., 2015. Decision support systems. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Simkin, M.G., Norman, C.S. and Rose, J.M., 2014. Core concepts of accounting information systems. John Wiley & Sons.

Starbox.co.nz. 2018. Wooden Boxes & Packaging Auckland | Starbox. [online] Available at: https://www.starbox.co.nz/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2018].

Uçaktürk, A. and Villard, M., 2013. The effects of management information and ERP systems on strategic knowledge management and decision-making. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 99, pp.1035-1043.

Willcocks, L., 2013. Information management: the evaluation of information systems investments. Springer.