Accounting Information System - Essay Example

ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM Accounting Information Systems Question a. What is SAP what is its significance in Australia? SAP is a business management software. As a matter of fact it is the leader in terms of market as well as technology, among all existing business management software. SAP provides very comprehensive business software via the SAP services, applications and support. b. Provide a brief history of SAP and its relation to ERP and AIS. SAP AG Company was founded in June of the year 1972.

It is a German company with regional offices worldwide. The founders were former engineers at IBM in Mannheim. It was later to change to “Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing”. SAP launched its first application, the SAP R/1 solution. Then in the year 1979; six years after launching SAP R/1, SAP R/2 was launched. Several improvements of the solution were soon to follow then in the 1990s, SAP launched SAP R/3 which also underwent several improvements and changes between 1992 through to the year 1995.

Question 2: Referring to the VDO case study on the Canada Post, please answer the following questions a. Provide a summary of the company background The company is called Canada Post; it is Canada’s postal service company. It is a group of companies which includes Pure Later Carrier Company, Progistics, IntelCon, and Noble Post. The company represents about 6 billion dollars in revenue. The company has about 66000 employees (Turner & Weickgenannt, 2009). b. Identify and discuss the 5 strategic objectives of the company To be a world leader in providing innovative, physical and electronic delivery solutions creating value for all of its customers, employees and all Canadians.

To defend its current business – this is in order to deal with the competitive threats, among them, the electronic mailing services, new delivery companies coming in, and so on. To achieve operational excellence through its business. To make employees, a competitive advantage. Presently they are not a competitive advantage. To enhance its corporate equity. Canada Post has very strong brand presence in Canada. The strategic objectives include: To have a customer driven vision and capability To have timely response to the customers Cost reduction in all of the administrative areas To leverage its distribution network To get its network expanded to the united states and the rest of the world To mobilize the post to occupy a larger share of the distribution market c.

Identify and discuss 5 challenges that the company is experiencing and 5 opportunities that can be achieved by using SAP Challenges i. Shareholders are asking for more profits ii. The expense to make the changes to other legacy systems was not working iii. Fuel prices were rocketing iv. Deregulation which is happening in other posts around the world v. Employees are asking for more; the work culture is changing Opportunities i. Technology is changing ii. Globalization iii. What their customers are asking for iv.

The need to have a relationship with more of the one million customers it is in contact with than the mere 100000 of them presently. v. Competition d. Identify the SAP solutions and services that the company uses Sales Application Procurement management system and supply chain manager Finance management system Customer and employee facing interfacing has been changed The company has put around HR and Procurement under the SAP R/3 implementation. There are automated shipping tools on the front end so that customers can give data electronically e.

Explain 4 motivations in implementing SAP There is an executive steering committee that oversees the change management processes. The company is continually working on improvement. The need to manage people and processes well Changing of the organization from a functional based organization to a process based organization. Most of the teams in the change process were working with 98% of the Canada Post employees to manage the change process. f. Describe 5 benefits of SAP to the company An internally trained work force Reengineering of about 700 processes Procurement processes have been automated and are now electronic in nature.

Innovative business processes have been put in place The company has a very business oriented web site that is well integrated with all the other applications of SAP that the company uses. References Gelinas, U., 2011. Accounting Information Systems. New York: Cengage Learning. Investopedia, 2012. Accounting Information System. [Online] Available at: HYPERLINK "http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accounting-information-system-AIS.asp" \l "axzz1tntMBBlt" http://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accounting-information-system-AIS.

asp#axzz1tntMBBlt [Accessed 3 May 2012]. Marshall, R. & Paul, J., 2009. Accounting Information Systems. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall. Turner, L. & Weickgenannt, A., 2009. Accounting Information Systems: Controls and Processes. New York: Wiley.