A Literature Review On Commonwealth Bank Of Australia's Organizational Problems And Strategies Essay. (70 Characters)

Write a literature review the review should demonstrate that the student has thoroughly researched their topic.

1. The current organizational structure
2. What operational problems 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 sales procedures 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. Identify the leaders in the market and what gives them the competitive advantage,
3. Identify the current gaps or challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software/packages and make relevant suggestions or recommendations.

Accounting software is a kind of software of execution, which tracks and operates different transactions of the department of accounting in the diverse effective modules like the trial balance, accounts payable, accounting records and payroll (Galliers and Leidner 2014). It is usually acquired from a third party vendor, or is spread by the company that is planning to take accounting software or it can be an integration of both cases with slight changes.

The discussion of The Commonwealth Bank of Australia is given below. This review helps to understand the basic organizational structure of the bank, the various organizational problems in the systems such as the inefficiencies and the error with proper information and graphs (Hallikainen et al. 2017). The review provides the sales flowchart of CBA. The market size and the competitors are also mentioned here.

One of the most recognized and popular banks is The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Commbank.com.au, 2017). They provide various finance related services. These services include providing loans, investments, different banking.

The organizational structure of Commonwealth Bank of Australia covers the complete management and corporate structure of the bank including all the managing bodies and employees of the organization (Ismail and King 2014).

Figure 1: Organizational Structure of CBA

(Source: Commbank.com.au, 2017)

The above figure describes all the important managing bodies including the top management, the middle management and the lower management levels of Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

CBA is considered as the best bank in Australia. However, they have faced major turmoil in their business and market shares (Kavanagh and Johnson 2017). Over the years, the shares of the bank have fallen down. The main reason for this degradation is their wrong strategies. Various approaches are undertaken by the bank to overcome the problems and to improve the bank shares. Almost all of the approaches went wrong because of the constant alterations in the trends of the market (Hallikainen et al. 2017). The main reason for the alteration in the structure of the organization is the involvement of Commonwealth Bank competition. The bank was not able to satisfy their existing customers and was not able to fulfill their necessities. Due to the constant downfall in the shares, they were not even able to provide loans to the customers. Another important reason that lost the interest of clients was the higher rate of interests (Ismail and King 2014). People were not able to pay back their loan with ease and ultimately reduced to take loans or open accounts in their bank.

Organizational Structure

Figure 2: Downfall of shares in Commonwealth Bank

(Source: Commbank.com.au, 2017)

The figure given above represents the drastic fall of the shares of the CBA. Previously, the shares were above 76, which were extremely good for the organization. However, after few years, there was a drastic degradation in the shares of the bank and was a sharp downfall in the shares (Kavanagh and Johnson 2017). The shares have even gone down to 75.5. This is effecting to the new and the existing clients. They are scared to invest their money in the bank. They are even not taking loan from the bank because of the higher interest rates. The clients of any bank always take loans or invest their money in those banks, where the interest rates will be lower and they will be feeling that their money is safe (Li Cui and Lu 2017). Another problem with this bank is that sufficient staffs are not present in the branches with respect to the huge amount of clients visiting everyday and the staffs and employees present in the bank are not polite enough with the clients, which is again creating a negative impact in the minds of the clients.

The strategies that Commonwealth Bank of Australia follow are for the betterment of the bank and its clients. They focus on four major components. They are as follows:

1. a) Customer: The customer is the first and foremost element of any bank. If the customers will stop coming to the bank, the bank shares will fall down and the bank even can be closed (Nguyen, Nguyen and Bosch 2017).
2. b) Technology: Another important component is the technology. The bank should change their ideologies according to the modern technologies to match with the rest of the world.
3. c) Strength: The main strength of Commonwealth Bank is their teamwork (Peppard and Ward 2016). The staffs and the employees work together to obtain the organizational goals.
4. d) Productivity: The final strategy is to focus on the productivity. They keep regular and annual records on the productivity of the bank and the employees.

Figure 3: Strategies of Commonwealth Bank of Australia

(Source: Commbank.com.au, 2017)

Customers carry 40%, technology carries 15%, strength carries 15% and productivity carries 30%. The main focus is given on the customers and they carry the maximum weight age by CBA.

ERP is the procedure through which an organization, mostly a  manufacturer controls and amalgamates the major portions of a particular business (Peppard and Ward 2016). An information system of management of ERP combines the major areas of an organizational business like the marketing, planning, sales, finance, purchasing and human resources. This is the method or technique that is used by various organizations to achieve the goals and objectives of the organizations (Li, Cui and Lu 2017). Commonwealth Bank uses the basic Systems, Applications and Products model or the SAP model in their business. Introducing SAP in the business is extremely complex and it requires sufficient training and knowledge. This model helps the technical team of any organization to attain maximum benefit (Madhavaram and Hunt 2017). Another important advantage of SAP that brought success to Commonwealth Bank is the flexibility and extreme integration with all other modules of the business. Another advantage of SAP is its cost. It is absolutely cost effective. The main problem that Commonwealth Bank has faced during its business is because of the wrong strategies that they were following in the past days. The SAP of Commonwealth bank is updated and renewed to make the shares of the bank steady (Nguyen, Nguyen and Bosch 2017). The shareholders of the bank are trying to reduce the interest rates of the banks so that the clients will be interested again in taking loans.

Organizational Problems

Figure 4: Systems Flowchart of Commonwealth Bank

(Source: Commbank.com.au, 2017)

The above figure shows the basic flowchart of the processes of the bank. It gives an illustration of all the procedures of the bank in details (Appelbaum et al. 2017). It helps to find out the loopholes in their processes. The flowchart is divided in three basic components. They are the review, evaluation and the respond. The review part comprises of the feedback of the bank from their customers. The evaluation portion comprises on the answers and necessary steps taken from the feedback. The third portion is the respond. It comprises on the functions and the processes of the bank (Peppard and Ward 2016). Even if the bank does not respond on time, there are necessary steps that can be taken. E-banking, credit card service, deposit service and many more are the main functions of CBA.

The problems that Commonwealth Bank of Australia is facing have created various modifications in the banking shares of the bank. The growth of any organization mainly depends on the shareholders, clients and the marketing team of that organization (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016).

The inclusion of various clients is extremely important for all organizations. The clients should be involved with Commonwealth bank and this will help to maintain the willing power to work and the involvement of the employees of the organization (McKnight et al. 2017). The process of service is the basic need in this particular case. The organization was started in the year 1911 and it should have altered the structure of the organization with the innovative trends in the market. The bank employees are not enough for the bulk quantity of the clients who are the regular clients.

Banks deal with clients and it their duty to fulfill the requirement of the clients. Customer Relationship Management is the characteristic, which refers to the techniques and the various strategies that an organization use to maintain a good relation with their clients (Madhavaram and Hunt 2017). The CRM of Commonwealth Bank is not at all up to the mark. They are maintaining a good relation with their customers. They should focus on the customer relationship management so that the clients will seek interest in their bank.

The major challenges that CBA is facing recently can be mitigated or stopped by the implementation of an accounting software in their organization (Cassidy 2016). Commonwealth is using the B2C or Business-to-Customers software package. The advantages of B2C software are as follows:

Strategies

i) It reduces competition gap

ii) Flexibility

iii) Cost Effective

iv) Eradication of Middlemen

v) Training not required.

Figure 5: Margin of Commonwealth Bank shares

(Source: Commbank.com.au, 2017)

The figure given above represents the fall in the market shares of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). Previously, the shares were 283; however, recently it has gone down to 262.

There are few core competitors of CBA (Appelbaum et al. 2017). They are as follows:

i) NAB Australia

ii) ANZ Australia

iii) ASB Bank

iv) Westpac New Zealand

v) Bank West

vi) St. George Bank Australia

vii) Kiwi Bank New Zealand (Coviello and Tanev 2017)

Figure 6: Core Competitors of Commonwealth Bank.

(Source: Commbank.com.au, 2017)

The figure given above describes the core competitors of Commonwealth Bank. Seven banks are the core competitors of this particular bank (Abraham and Dao 2017). However, Commonwealth Bank is gaining the maximum shares as per the given chart. 20% of the total shares and clients are taken by it. 16% is taken by ANZ Australia and 13% is taken by NAB Australia. The rest banks are getting the remaining shares and clients (Ismail and King 2014). The pie chart clearly defines that Commonwealth Bank is in a winning position and is getting the competitive advantage than the rest banks and it means that it is the market leader.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is going through various problems and issues in their business. The main problem of this bank is the higher interest rates. It is recommended that the shareholders should focus on the problem and try to reduce the interest rates so that clients will again take loans from the bank. The second problem is that people are not investing in the bank because of the downfall in the shares of the bank. They are scared as they think that they will lose their money. The managers and the shareholders should solve this problem as soon as possible so that the clients will again invest in their banks. The third problem is the less amount of employees in the banks. They are not sufficient for the large amount of clients in the banks. The bank authority should hire more employees and staffs so that they are able to serve the bank clients properly. Another problem is the lack of customer relationship management. They should behave with the clients with respect so that the clients will give a positive feedback about the back. All these recommendations will help Commonwealth Bank to regain its position in the top list.

System Acquisition Method

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, Commonwealth Bank of Australia is one of the leading banks in Australia and New Zealand. In spite of being on the top four list, it is facing various turmoil in its business. These problems are making the bank less popular amongst the clients and the shares are going down massively. However, they are trying to evolve out of the situation by bringing new ideologies and strategies in their business. The above literature review covers a basic discussion on the structure, errors, inefficiencies and the process designing of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It further covers the market size, market leaders and competitors of the bank. Specific recommendations are also provided to overcome the risks and challenges of the organization.

References

Abraham, T. and Dao, V., 2017. An Empirical Investigation of Sustainability Innovation Systems and the Stages of Sustainability Maturity.

Appelbaum, D., Kogan, A., Vasarhelyi, M. and Yan, Z., 2017. Impact of business analytics and enterprise systems on managerial accounting. International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, 25, pp.29-44.

Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.

Commbank.com.au. (2017). Personal banking including accounts, credit cards and home loans - CommBank. [online] Available at: https://www.commbank.com.au/ [Accessed 4 Sep. 2017].

Coviello, N. and Tanev, S., 2017. Initiating a New Research Phase in the Field of International Entrepreneurship: An Interview with Professor Nicole Coviello. Technology Innovation Management Review, 7(5).

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

Hallikainen, H., Paesbrugghe, B., Laukkanen, T., Rangarajan, D. and Gabrielsson, M., 2017, January. How Individual Technology Propensities and Organizational Culture Influence B2B Customer’s Behavioral Intention to Use Digital Services at Work?. In Proceedings of the 50th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

Hatton, C., Hatton, C., Kolk, M., Kolk, M., Eikelenboom, M., Eikelenboom, M., Beaumont, M. and Beaumont, M., 2017. Four approaches for staffing and structuring a product development team to identify the crucial unmet needs of B2B customers. Strategy & Leadership, 45(2), pp.25-32.

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.

Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics, applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.

Li, M.H., Cui, L. and Lu, J., 2017. Marketized state ownership and foreign expansion of emerging market multinationals: Leveraging institutional competitive advantages. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 34(1), pp.19-46.

Madhavaram, S. and Hunt, S.D., 2017. Customizing business-to-business (B2B) professional services: The role of intellectual capital and internal social capital. Journal of Business Research, 74, pp.38-46.

McKnight, D.H., Lankton, N.K., Nicolaou, A. and Price, J., 2017. Distinguishing the effects of B2B information quality, system quality, and service outcome quality on trust and distrust. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 26(2), pp.118-141.

Nguyen, T.V., Nguyen, N.C. and Bosch, O.J., 2017. Enhancing the competitive advantages of Vietnamese coffee through the exploration of causal loop modelling in the supply chain. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 26(1), pp.17-33.

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.

Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.