Hallo Money and its impact on the on the accounting workplace - Essay Example

? Hallo Money and its impact on the on the accounting workplace OF YOUR FIELD OR DISCIPLINE: ACCOUNTING Describe the workplace change issue you chose that will affect (or is just now affecting) the way professionals in your field or discipline do their jobs. Make sure it is either about to happen or is just getting underway. Be specific. Answers such as “technology” will earn you a failing grade on this essay. WORKPLACE CHANGE: Hallo Money and its impact on the on the accounting workplace Hello Money is a mobile baking service that allows Barclays Bank customers to carry out execute financial transactions by using mobile devices such and personal digital assistant or mobile phone (Barclays, 2012). It is worth noting that Hello Money, like other mobile banking services, is different from the mobile payments, which entail the use of the mobile devices to pay for goods. Hello Money is performed through mobile web or SMS. The service has been particularly facilitated by the evolution of an array of technologies, such as smart phones and web based technologies, which create the allowance for installation of special features that support mobile banking. Currently, the popularity Hello Money continues to grow as many customers are increasingly using it. Its full implementation implies the adoption of the automated accounting systems and this would significantly change the way accountants work. 2. Identify a primary and secondary stakeholder and explain why they qualify as stakeholders. Use the “Choosing a Stakeholder Decision Matrix,” located in Lesson 15, to identify a high influence/high importance stakeholder, as well as a secondary stakeholder who is either high influence,/low importance, or low influence/high importance. PRIMARY STAKEHOLDERS: The primary stakeholder is the senior management team and the executive committee. The senior management team comprises of David Walker, who serves as the Group Chairman, and Anthony Jenkins, who serves as the Chief Executive (Barclays, 2013). The executive committee comprises of Tom Kalaris (Barclays Wealth management CEO), Valerie Keating (CEO Barclaycard), Richi Ricci (Barclays Corporate and Investment banking CEO), Chris Lucas (Group Finance Director) and Shagyan Kheradpir (Officer in charge of Operation and Technology). These have been pivotal in making the crucial decisions about Barclays Bank (Barclays, 2009). They have been behind the full implementation of the Hello Money mobile banking service. These stakeholders are high influence/low importance. SECONDARY STAKEHOLDERS: my secondary stakeholder is Mr. Harold, a close friend and an accountant at one of the Barclays Bank local branches. Mr. Harold has a lot to gain or lose from the introduction of the Hello Money service because the service prompt adjustments in the accounting systems. Mr. Harold does not have an authority to make decision for Barclays Bank, yet he is important to the firms operations. Mr. Harold is high importance/low influence stakeholder. 3. Describe the vested interest of these stakeholders in the issue you chose. Explain any current events or trends that may be currently affecting your stakeholder’s interests. This is the interests of the primary stakeholders, who include the senior managers and the executive committee members, is to enable the firms reach great heights of success. These vested interests have been informed by various advantages associated with mobile banking. First, mobile banking is expected to cut down the costs of service delivery to customers. For instance, it has been cited that the costs of conducting a mobile transfer is cheaper than teller transfer by about fifty times and ATM transfer by about ten times (Delloitte 2010; p 4). In addition, they are convinced that mobile banking comes with a lot of flexibility, both to customers and the firm itself. For instance, the service makes it easy for the bank to combine and sell other services and products that are offered in the bank, such as credit cards and loans, with relative ease. In addition, they are convinced that Mobile banking is the surest way of realizing drastic growth. This is in reference to the fact that the banking environment is characterized by competitive innovativeness and keeping abreast would only entail adopting the innovations and technological developments. Moreover, mobile banking is flexible because it enables the users to make transaction at the convenient time and place and it is simple (Delloitte Development 2010; p 6). My secondary stakeholder Mr. Harold, vested interest pertain the question of whether the innovation would be accompanied by positive outcomes. Technological adjustments, as organization changes, are accompanied by far-reaching implications that may threaten the nature of his job or even his employment opportunity. Mr. Harold is aware about what it takes to successfully adopt elaborate accounting systems for mobile banking services 4. What position does the stakeholder have on the issue you chose? Note that stakeholders do not always spell out their positions. You may need to consult newspaper articles, trade publication articles, and journal articles to collect the necessary information about your stakeholder’s position. The senior management team and the executive committee are in full support of the implementation of mobile banking service in Barclays Bank. In particular, the senior managers have been featured on various occasions emphasizing the potential that exists in technologies for banks to realize success and keep abreast the highly competitive market environments. They have also featured during the Hello Money launching functions across the world and have been equivocal about the need to adopt the mobile banking innovation (Matinde, 2012). For instance, in deal sealing ceremony with one mobile service operators, the Barclays managing director said “… the new deal will facilitate the banks strategic efforts to provide convenient consumer access platforms. The partnership will also allow the bank to innovate and develop new products and services for its customers. Mobile marketing has become one of the important offerings for banks in Africa…” (Matinde, 2012). Considering that other banks have sought full adoption of the innovation, the senior management has been justified in suggesting it is one way of keeping abreast the competition. 5. Explain why you disagree with your stakeholder’s position. I disagree with the stakeholders. There is no evidence that adopting an innovation because other firms have adopted it would lead the firms to success. Furthermore, the adoption of such technologies is accompanied by other challenges that may frustrate the achievement of the goals to which it was meant to accomplish. The effectiveness and convenience of the mobile baking service is also governed by security issues such as confidentiality and integrity. Confidentiality refers the information technology aspect that restricts access and disclosure of information to persons who are unauthorized. In this case, authentication approaches such as the use of passwords and identity cards are utilized in the identification of user systems, barring those that with invalid identity items from accessing the information and these underpin the goals of confidentiality. Integrity is threatened by IP Spoofing, Eavesdropping, Hacking, Phishing and DoS. Integrity of refers to the nature of trustworthiness that is accorded to the resources of information. Lately, it has been synonymously associated with data security, implying the inability for data to be altered for the malign or by accident. The element of integrity in information technology tests originality and the validity of the information. The interaction of an array of technologies creates the loophole for security elements to b compromised. The process of adjustment of accounting systems may prove disadvantageous to the staff, such as the accountants. 6. Describe elements of your stakeholder’s position that you sympathize with. In Essay 3, this will form part of your counterargument section. Considering the demanding and disadvantageous nature of adopting mobile banking, I sympathize with the Mr. Harold on his concern about the full adoption of the mobile banking innovation. Conventional manual accounting systems is what should be considered to be particularly crucial for the success of banking for it has often been reliable. Moreover, success is largely determined by how the firm’s decisions should strike a balance between the stakeholders’ vested interests in making decisions aimed at realizing success. I side with Mr. Harold that full adoption of the mobile banking has its inherent challenges. However, the fact that it can also change the accounting profession cannot be overlooked. Thus, there would be need research this point. 7. What values and beliefs does your stakeholder have that would affect the choices you will make in Essay 3 regarding the caliber of sources, the word choice you will use, and the tone you will strike? My stakeholders are both administrators and professionals. The primary stakeholders have a background of experience both as administrators and professional while my secondary stakeholder has a professional experience in the area of accounting. As far as their views are concerned, both are concerned about the wellbeing of the firm. The fact that the stakeholders have differing views only requires to be reconciled some proven facts. This has to be very objective. Reconciling the two sides would require that one uses the current sources and researches documenting real implication of mobile banking to the banking workplace. The sources that need to be used should be reliable and these include professional journals. 8. What biases might your stakeholders bring to your issue? The potential bias emanates from the fact that the two stakeholders have differing professional backgrounds. The primary stakeholders have an administrative experience while my secondary stakeholder has an accounting experience. The primary stakeholders may tend to justify their bias that they that they cannot be wrong. 9. How much background information will your stakeholder need to be prepared for your argument? What information about the issue would be considered “old” to your stakeholder? What would be considered “new?” The fact that my primary stakeholders hold administrative position implies that they may have widely consulted an array of information regarding the effectiveness of online mobile banking. It would not be necessary to inform them about these developments. However, I only intend to introduce to them the background information regarding the field, including the advantages and disadvantages, and this is meant to let them know how I am also versed in the area. In this regard, what would be particularly pertinent is to rely on the emerging information to ascertain to the groups as to whether the introduction of Hello Money has is more beneficial that costly, as well as whether it has an impact on the accounting profession workplace. 10. Why would your stakeholder want to read your argument? My stakeholder would be interested in reading my argument because it touches on components that are particularly pivotal to the success of Barclays bank. The driving goal behind the adoption of mobile banking is to see Barclays Bank reach great heights of success. It is expectable that my stakeholder would be deeply information that tends to outline any success constraints. References Matinde, V. (2012). Cellulant to Provide Barclays Banks with Mobile Banking Services. Retrieved on april 6th, 2012, from http://www.humanipo.com/news/101/Cellulant-to-Provide-Barclays-Banks-with-Mobile-Banking-Services Barclays. (2013). Barclays PLC and Barclays Bank PLC (“Barclays”) announce that Antony Jenkins has been appointed as a Director and as Group Chief Executive of Barclays with immediate effect. Retrieved on April 7th, 2012, from http://group.barclays.com/news/news-article/1329926264067 Barclays (2009). Barclays Broadens its executive Committee. Retrieved on April 7th, 2012, from http://group.barclays.com/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobheadername1=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=attachment%3Bfilename%3D11+03+09+_RNS_Barclays+Broadens+Executive+Committee.PDF&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1330686329127&ssbinary=true Barclays (2012). Hello Money. Retrieved on April 4th, 2012, from http://www.barclays.com/africa/kenya/consumer/premierbanking/products/hello-money.html Delloitte Development. (2010). Mobile banking A catalyst for improving Bank performance. Retrieved on April 6th, 2012, from http://www.deloitte.com/assets/Dcom-UnitedStates/Local%20Assets/Documents/us_consulting_MobileBanking_010711.pdf Read More