Essay On Organizational Structure And System Acquisition: A Case Study Of Lion Company

1. The current organizational structure

2. What operational problems (e.g., inefficiency, errors) do you think the organisation could experience because of this structure?

3. What is the most likely system acquisition method commercial software, custom software, or ERP?

4. Describes and prepare a system flowchart of the salesprocedures for the chosen organisation (company),

5. Identify any control problems in the system and what sorts of fraud are possible in this system?

1. Development and adoption of the accounting software packages,
2. The current market size,
3. Identify the leaders in the market and what gives them the competitive advantage,
4. Identify the current gaps or challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software/packages and make relevant suggestions or recommendations

A proper organizational structure is responsible for defining normal function of all the activities involved in an organization. The main activities involved in an organization are supervision and co ordination. Organization structure defines the hierarchical structure of the organization as well. Moreover, it helps in determining the information flow within the different levels of the organization (Christensen 2013). An organization uses accounting software to record and process the accounting transactions such as accounts payable, receivable, trial balance and so on. This considerably helps in performing the daily tasks with ease. The organizational structure of Lion Company, the operational problem, System acquisition method, sales procedure and control problems are elaborated in the following paragraphs.

Knowledge about the structure of an organization is necessary for understanding and solving all the functional as well as non-functional processes undertaken by the company for managing the different aspects of the organization.  Moreover, it provides guidance and clarity about the human resources issues in the organization. The organization structure of Lion Company is elaborated below-

                                                         Figure 1: Current Organizational Structure of Lion Company

                                                              (Source: created by author using MS office)

A smooth operation is needed in an organization for achieving the highest level of efficiency. Organizational operations deal with transformation of materials and labors in good quality materials and efficient services. This in turn maximizes the profit of an organization. Failure of maintaining a smooth operation within an organization or company may have a negative impact within an organization (Domeika 2015).

The operational problems of Lion Company due to its organizational structure are listed below-

1) Inefficient product management- effective product management is necessary for managing the product from the initial stage of its development to the final stage. Improper organizational structure may lead to an ineffective product management, which in turn leads to significant loss to the company.

An issue of less productivity has already been identified in Lion Company. This is mainly because of the lack of effective development of the company in accordance to the set objectives and goal of the company. Lion should have concentrated more on their target market and plan their operations effectively (Lionco.com 2017). Ineffective product management reflects about the ineffective organizational structure. Moreover, the organization head should be more concerned about the productivity measures and supply chain management for an effective product management.

Current Organizational Structure

2) Ineffective Human resource management- researches proves that Lion Company is ineffective in HR management as well. This hampers the work processes in the organization that hampers the operations within the organization largely. This is mainly due to the ineffective organizational structure, which ultimately affects the production and in turn the profit of the Lion Company (Hendry 2012).

3) In efficient Supply Chain Management: Inefficiency in properly managing the supply chain of Lion Company is considerably preventing the growth of the company. This is mainly due to an improper organizational structure. A weak organizational structure is responsible for all the weak organizational relationships prevailing in a company. This is one of primary causes of an ineffective operation in Lion Company (Gereffi and Fernandez-Stark 2016).

4) Poor Communication: The major operational issue in Lion Company is poor communication. A smooth communication process is essential for effective management within a company. Poor communication may lead to clashes in perspectives and decisions, which in turn affects the smooth operation of the organization. Poor management process in Lion Company gives rise to poor communication among the different levels of organization thus hampering the information flow. This is turn affects the business and the profit of the company. Therefore, an ineffective organizational structure is responsible for ineffective operations within the Lion Company (Kiani, Lamego and O'reilly 2014).  

5) Lack of Strategic Management: The growth of an organization largely depends on an effective strategic management. This may hamper the organizational operations, as proper decision-making is essential for effective operations. An organization can definitely loose the sustainability in target market if not managed properly. Proper decision-making is essential for gaining profit within the organization, which reflects to a smooth operation within an organization. Lack of proper strategic management in Lion Company is mainly responsible for an ineffective operation within the organization, which is mainly because of the improper organizational structure (Warren, Reeve and Duchac 2013).   

The Lion Company can implement ERP or enterprise resource planning system in order to deal with the problems faced. Enterprise resource planning system offers certain benefits that will considerably help in dealing with the ineffective operational and organizational structure of Lion Company. Moreover, implementation of ERP reduces the workload of the company to a considerable level thus increasing the productivity of the company and in turn the profit as well (Wallace and Sheetz 2014).

ERP or Enterprise helps in analyzing and handling the business operations with the help of software. It enables an organization to use a system of integrated applications in controlling and managing the business processes. In incorporates all the phases of the operations taking place within an organization. These include product planning, developing, manufacturing, sales and marketing. ERP implementation has been undertaken by many organizations in the past and the implementation of ERP proved to be effective decision of the organizations (Leon 2014). The success rate of ERP can be considered as a positive example in implementing it in the Lion Company. This would be helpful for the company as it will be helpful in providing effective solution to the problems persisting in the company. Furthermore, it will also eliminate the operational problem persisting in the company due to communication gap.

Operational Problem

The flowchart of the sales procedure of the Lion Company that can be undertaken to deal with the issues persisting in the Lion Company keeping in mind the organizational structure is described below-  

                                                            Figure 2: Flow Chart representing sales of Lion Company

                                                                                    (Source: Lionco.com 2017)

The control problems identified in the operations, sales and systems of the company are mainly the reason of improper organizational structure and poor operational management. The control problems associated with the Lion Company are listed below-  

1) The company has not defined a particular system of internal control and hence, it becomes difficult for the management to identify the requirements of the processes (March 2013).

2) The Company has failed to set a clear objective of the compliance activities.

3) The company lacks in proper control, activities and formalization (Cummings and Worley 2014).

4) The company lacks appropriate processes to assess whether the specified task are actually performed.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the main problem lies in the operational and sales team of Lion Company. The company also has severe control problems as well. This results in poor performance of the organization. Furthermore, a poor organizational structure adds to the ineffective production and sales of the product. In order to deal with the existing problems effectively, ERP system is proposed to be undertaken by the Lion Company. ERP is very effective in managing all the operational phases of an organization. It reduces the workload and increases the efficiency and output of the company as well.

Accounting software in a type of application that is used in recording and processing all the accounting transactions such as account receivable, payable, trial balance and so on. In is a functionality of accounting information system. The different functionalities involved with the adoption and development of different accounting software in Australian target market is discussed in this report. The report further discusses about accounting software named Xero in order to analyze the development and usage of the accounting software within the organization (Murthy and Abeysekera 2015 ).

Most likely System Acquisition method

Adoption of accounting software has proven to be beneficial in different organizations. This mainly depends on the countermeasures incorporate by the organizations in their organizational structure. Xero is New Zealand based software established in the year 2014. Organizational software in used for managing different account related problems and procedures within an organization. Xero has provided a platform for managing all the accounting related issues (Von Der Emde et al. 2014). This follows different standards and procedures for properly managing the accounting software.

The data of the competitive market shows that MYOB and XERO are the best accounting software packages available in the Australian target market. However, Xero provides the best platform for managing the accounting functionalities within an organization. Xero also provides effective support to manage all the financial transactions and operations in the organizations of Australia. Xero provides wide range of features that attracts the customers in adopting it as the accounting software. The database of Xero is well managed with regular and effective update to eliminate any type of redundancies in the data sets. This software effectively manages the needs and demands of the client and helps the client in effective management of all the accounting operations of the organization. Therefore, it can be safely concluded that Nero meets all the expectations and requirements of accountability software and thus leads the Australian target market (Robey,  Anderson and Raymond 2013).

On basis of Xero accounting software, the leaders in the market and their competitive advantages are elaborated below-

1) Software with cloud based setup: Cloud based software set-ups provide information according to the functional needs of the client or the organization. Xero provides the feature of cloud based set up and works effectively. This provides a competitive advantage to Xero over other accounting software in the market.

2) Software with fast functional output: Fast functional output is necessary in today’s competitive world. Xero provides all the functional operations and possible solutions to the user or client and hence, it leads in the Australian target market.

3) Simple and easy to Use Interface: Software with a simple easy to use interface helps the client in effective management of the software. The Interface of Xero is simple, effective and easy to use. Therefore, Xero has a competitive advantage over other accounting software in the Australian market.

The accounting software Xero has a competitive advantage in Australian market due to the features and functionalities it provide. However, there are certain issues with this accounting software, which are elaborated below-

Flowchart of the Sales Procedures of Lion

1) Security Concerns: Xero makes use of cloud for storage of information. This adds to the complexity of the software in managing the security issues related with the system. Proper measures should be taken in order to eliminate the security concerns in relation with the accounting software (Mudge 2013).

2) Complexity: Xero provides every possible feature of very good accounting software (Xero Accounting Software 2017). This adds to the complexity in designing this software and sometimes becomes difficult to handle the software. This should be improved in order to gain more competitive advantage in the target market.

3) Time Consumption: The installation and update procedure of the accountability software is very lengthy, complex and time consuming. This process should be made simple in order to retain its position in the target market and gain competitive advantage in the target market as well.

Conclusion

Form the above discussion, it can be concluded that accountability software is used in an organization for managing different account related functionalities. This considerably reduces the workload of the organization and increases its efficiency. According to the Australian target market, the best accounting software is Xero. Xero provides and effective solution of managing all the accounting related operations of the client or the organization. Along with the wide range of benefits provided by Xero, there are also certain issues or bugs in the software that should be removed in order to achieve and retain the competitive advantage. Accounting software Xero is adopted by almost small and midsized organizations of Australia in order to effectively manage the accounting operations taking place within the organization.

References

Christensen, C., 2013. The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard Business Review Press.

Cummings, T.G. and Worley, C.G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Domeika, P., 2015. Creation of the Information system of enterprise fixed asset accounting. Engineering Economics, 60(5).

Gereffi, G. and Fernandez-Stark, K., 2016. Global value chain analysis: a primer.

Hendry, C., 2012. Human resource management. Routledge.

Kiani, M.J.E., Lamego, M. and O'reilly, M., Masimo Corporation, 2014. Patient monitor capable of accounting for environmental conditions. U.S. Patent 8,740,792.

Leon, A., 2014. Enterprise resource planning. McGraw-Hill Education.

Lionco.com. (2017). Welcome! | Lion. [online] Available at: https://www.lionco.com/ [Accessed 9 May 2017].

March, J.G. ed., 2013. Handbook of Organizations (RLE: Organizations) (Vol. 20). Routledge.

Mudge, J.C., 2013. Cloud computing-its development and security. Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 1(1).

Murthy, V. and Abeysekera, I., 2015. Corporate social reporting practices of top Indian software firms.

Robey, D., Anderson, C. and Raymond, B., 2013. Information technology, materiality, and organizational change: A professional odyssey. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 14(7), p.379.

Von Der Emde, M., Hoffmann, T., Nowotny, D. and Penning, J., Sap Ag, 2014. Providing payment software application as enterprise services. U.S. Patent 8,671,032.

Wallace, L.G. and Sheetz, S.D., 2014. The adoption of software measures: A technology acceptance model (TAM) perspective. Information & Management, 51(2), pp.249-259.

Warren, C.S., Reeve, J.M. and Duchac, J., 2013. Financial & managerial accounting. Cengage Learning.

Xero Accounting Software. (2017). Xero Limited 2016 Annual Report. [online] Available at: https://www.xero.com/media/9883890/xro_2016_annual_report.pdf [Accessed 9 May 2017]