Literature Review

Describe about the Strategic Information System for Business Era & Globalization.

In the current time of competitive business era & globalization, a wide range of accounting/financial software/packages are used by the corporate & individual users for the purpose to gain competitive advantages, enhance market share, bring innovation within the financial reporting systems, development in the payroll systems, reduce costs. In this way, such accounting/financial software/packages offer both financial as non financial advantages to the companies. For case, by using such tools, the users are able to get real time solution of their financial and accounting issues/errors. Moreover, the current and future financial situation can be improved by using software. Additionally, such software/packages assist the companies or users to take strategic financial and accounting decisions and bring innovation within the current business processes and strategies.

 For instance, these allow the users to conduct and develop their financial reports accurately and smoothly within the pre-determined time period. Additionally, different key and significant financial and accounting functions associated with the payroll, financial reporting, auditing, job card etc can be improved effectively with the effective utilization of software/packages. On the other hand, this research would offer description about the available accounting software in the Australia. At the same time, it would also cover and analyze the history, development and adoption, the current market size, market leaders, competitive advantage to the companies, and challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software/packages.      

In the Australia, both individual and corporate users (small, large and medium sized organizations) are using various financial and accounting software (such as: MYOB, Recon, XERo, PROFITBOOKS, SAP, Quickbooks) in order to conduct different business functions related to payroll systems, taxation, inventory, supply chain management, billing, invoicing, controlling of costs & expenses. So, such software are used as strategic and core planning tolls to bring innovation, improvements and development within the current systems. Moreover, it is also important to know that, MYOB, Recon and Xero are the major players/vendors within the software industry of the Australia that had coved maximum market in the form of total sales, revenue, level of profitability, customers satisfaction, variety of services.

Xero:

Shim, and Siegel, (2005) analyzed that; Xero is one of the New Zeeland based company that provides accounting software/packages to their users. It was established in the year 2006 by the Rod Drury at Wellington city for the purpose to offer real time solution of the financial and accounting problems. Initially, it was used as traditional desktop accounting software to run general accounting functions and transactions. But, currently, the software solutions provided by the company are based on cloud such as modern accounting software. Moreover, it is found that, it came within the Australian software industry as software as a service (SaaS) solution (Xero, 2016).

History, Development and Adoption, Current Market Size, Competitive Advantage, current gaps or challenges, Suggestions/recommendation of Xero, Recon and Myob

This software was developed in order to overcome the financial and accounting inefficiencies of the companies. In the same way, this is adopted by the user organizations to overcome the financial and accounting errors through cloud based software. In addition to this, the company has only 12% market share of the total Australian software industry due to accessibility of MYOB and Recon. At the same time, it should also be noted down that, this software is most cost effective and used for the organization those having the problems related to inventory and supply chain management. Harmon, and Auseklis, (2009) stated that, by using, Xero, the users organizations are able to conduct and run their business functions related to supply chain and inventory more innovatively and effectively that provide competitive advantages to the company.

Moreover, this software assists and allows the use to access and run various key functions such as bank balance, client’s claims, and expenses more effectively. 

The users can manage and control various core and strategic business functions effectively and generate revenue on the regular basis. It also provides various solutions to the problems to the users so that they can overcome and deal with different accounting and financial errors or risks properly. But, it is not cost effective and not appropriate by the large companies. It is because the expectation process takes much more time and increase organizational operational costs directly. Moreover, through this, the user firms are not able to generate profit for the longer time. So, it is suggested that, in order to deal with such issues and overcome these challenges, the user’s organizations must understand the implementation process effectively and read properly the manual guides (Kumar and Lu, 2010).

According to Monks, and Minow, (2008), it is leading accounting software company in the Australia that came into the market in 1987. The founder of the company is Greg Wilkinson. Moreover, firstly the Recon software was introduced in the market of UK in 1983 in order to offer the financial and accounting solution to the problems. The company had made a business contract with the Intuit and entered into the market to offer unique services to the users. In addition to this, this Recon accounting software was developed as ERP solution in order to offer real time solutions to the companies facing several financial and accounting issues. It is adopted by the users as most innovative accounting solution or tools that assists the users to overcome financial errors and improve profitability. For case, basically, this software is employed to conduct business functions related to job card, payroll systems, accounting transactions (Morley, and Parker, 2009).

Xero

On the other hand, it is analyzed that, after the MYOB, it is the second largest company offering accounting solutions in the Australia that had covered more than 18% market share of the whole Australian accounting software industry. But, the main challenges associated with this are that, it can only use for the limited business functions not unlimited. Moreover, the implementation process increases the costs for the users because there is need of a special technical person to install this software (Reckon 2016). But, such issues can be overcome by using specific strategies. For instance, the user organizations must understand all the criteria, ways and process of implementation and can reduce operational costs effectively. 

Binu and Meenakumari, (2012) examined that, It is Australian most profitable and largest accounting software company that was formed by Christopher Lee in the year 1980 along with his team at Teleware Inc. It is most used and powerful accounting software available in the nation because the services and solutions provided by the company are unique, dynamic and innovative. Data-Tech Software Company was the publisher of the MYOB. On the other hand, it is also important to know that, this software is developed in order to improve and bring accuracy, innovation, speed, motivate the staff within the accounting and financial functions. Moreover, it is adopted by the users in order to run the business practices and functions those are directly or indirectly related with the taxation, payroll, job card etc (Needles, Powers, and Crosson, 2010).

At the same time, Parsons, and Oja, (2012) accessed that, offering the real time solution, up to date data, reduction of frustration, encouragement of staff etc are the key features and functionalities of this MYOB that provides it competitive advantages over the others. Furthermore, the company is the biggest and leading company that had coved more than 71% total market share of the industry. Along with this, it is analyzed that, this software has various limitations that creates issues for the users. For instance, issues related with the hacking, data security, lengthy implementation process etc are the key challenges associated with this. But, such issues can be overcome by using and adopting security policies and understanding the guidelines provided by the company (Carol, 2009). 

Conclusion

On the basis of above analysis, it can be concluded that, PROFITBOOKS, SAP, MYOB, Recon, ERP, QuickBooks etc are the major software available within the market that used by the users in order to run business functions smoothly and overcome organizational inefficiencies or errors more effectively. But, in the Australian software Industry, MYOB, Recon and Xero are the market leader that had maximum market share and providing unique solutions to the users organizations. These software/packages plays a fundamental and key role in improving the profitability, productivity and reducing several operational and others costs effectively. Simply, it can be said that, such software are used a strategic planning tools that offers strategic directions to the users about how to compete in the market by bringing improvements, development and innovation within the business functions related to the finance/accounting.

References

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