Cloud Computing Strategic Information Systems

Question: Discuss about the Cloud Computing for Strategic Information Systems. Answer: Introduction and overview of Accounting Software Industry: Australia has numerous companies providing software for accounting. Along with the advancement and development in the technology, the need of softwares has increased with a high speed. The companies of all the sectors like medical, IT, finance, logistics etc any of these industries are in need of accounting softwares which is capable of managing huge data of the companies and securely handling them (Zimmerman et al. 2011). Accounting softwares are needed by each of the companies, small or large for managing its inventory, stocks and other financial records. The accounts of any organization are the important assets of the comapny6 which needs to get maintained in a secure and systematic way through which the data and information contained it can be easily accessible. These data provides the past, current and future predictions and data about the company and thus are very necessary to maintain. Thus due to a high significance of accounts management the accounting softwares have emerged as a huge development (Taylor, 2010). Functions and importance of the Accounting softwares The accounting softwares have numerous functionalities along with managing the account information of the organization. The accounting softwares available currently have immense features which can be utilized in order to get systematic management software for the organization. Here are several features the accounting softwares have (Michelberger et al. 2012). Account and register handling The accounts of the company are the most important assets of any organization. The more systematic and clear the accounts are, the more likely the company is to achieve desired monetary success. The proper storage of the data and easy accessibility is provided by efficient accounting software (Taylor, 2010). The details regarding the companys products are stored in the accounts thus security is also a very important aspect of the accounting softwares. The information like the unit production the company does, the orders etc information is stored in the accounts of the company. Thus the account management is the most significant part of the accounting softwares (Gara, 2010). Invoice Management: Invoice management is a very integral part of the accounting software where the bills of each department and products are made under this system. The invoice management consists of the invoices of the purchases and sales of the company and the expenditures made by the company on several products and materials (Gara, 2010). Salary management The salary management is a so an integral and important part of the company. The salary management has the keeps the record of the salary and wages of all the employees of the company. The payroll keeps a track of the regular wages, the incentives, compensation etc payments that are to be done to the employees. If this system is not managed properly, there can be severe issues in the financial records of the company. The accounting softwares are delivered with an inbuilt salary management system where the records regarding the employee wages can be maintained with the accounts, sales and purchases of the company (Nacionalni, 2010). History of Australian accounting softwares Accounting serves a huge importance in any sector. The companies require an accounting system to balance the finance and budget of the expenditures. Also for the profit calculations and future predictions, the account has to be managed. In the previous times, the softwares wee not available and the accounts were managed in the account registers. But with the development of computers, the accounting softwares emerged. The first software for accounting was developed in 1995 by a private electronic firm (Gara, 2010). This first accounting software did run on the huge personal computers which were large and took a lot of time in loading and performing transactions. The accounting softwares were not performing a desired speed and needed to be changed. Along with the technical advancements several new companies attempted to develop new accounting softwares which were speedy and easy to manage (Nacionalni, 2010). The computers were getting developed and the new concept of programming langua ges emerged and the softwares were developed using these programming languages. The IBM was the first company to develop programming language and to develop softwares for accenting and several other usages. The concept of relational database was introduced in which the data was stored in form of variables. The data was easily structured and manageable in these softwares. The concept of SAP is very famous in todays account management softwares. The SAP system made it immensely easy for the companies to store data. The GUI and accessibility of the softwares crossed the limit of all the previous softwares which were available in the market and marked its presence significantly in the software industry. After the development of these softwares, Microsoft came up with the concept of excel sheets. Though the excel sheets had numerous problems and were not completely considered as the accounting software, the changes in the software and new additional features has now made it a very useful and important software. The mathematical formulas and calculations of this software are considerable and very useful in companies for managing accounts and information. The accounting softwares were considered to be very simple in looks and complex in operability. This was an important issue to be solved. Teleware Inc came up with such a kind of software with immensely si mple GUI and even simpler usability (Grance et al. 2005). Compared to the traditional markets, the accounting software industry in todays era is quite developed and furnished with amazing features and usability. There are softwares like Tally which are very useful in managing the accounts of the companies and also provide immense facilities along with the account management (Nacionalni, 2010). Current Market Leaders and market Share: The Australian software market for accounting is occupied by several major players who have an adopted the most of the market share of the industry (Hoopes, 2012). The companies which hold a large share of the Australian market are New Zealand based and other companies which started as small firms and emerged as huge companies providing accounting softwares with amazing features to the customers. The market of the Country is covered by three major companies Xero, MYOB and Intuit. These three companies hold a much share of the software distribution and development in the accounting sector. These three companies rigorously compete with each other to come up with new technologies and advancements in the accounting softwares (Kun Ma et al. 2012). Xero is a huge company which holds 65% of the market share in Australia for accounting softwares. Intuit grabs a share of 20% market and the rest market is occupied by other companies like MYOB, Sage etc (Hall, 2014). Xero has developed huge market share having around 400,000 customers worldwide and huge transaction ratio. Compared to the other companies, MYOB has a high turnover and profit ratio which is $27 billion. The companies have now adopted cloud based services to provide the customers with more flexible and useful softwares (Krutz and Vines, 2010). Competitive Advantage: The three companies competing for attaining a high market share in Australia come up with various new features and facilities which benefit both, the company itself and the customers of the company. These three companies get benefited due to the strong competition developed to sustain in the market. If the company does not develop new strategies and do not take risks and experiment with new advanced technologies, the other companies will compete and would grab a huge market share. Thus the companies are in the constant race to analyze the needs of the customers and develop the products needed by the customers (Romney and Steinbart, 2009). The customer is highly benefited due to this competition as, their needs are analysed by many companies and in order to sustain the competition, the needs are fulfilled very quickly. On the other hand, the companies compete to develop the features required by the customers in a rapid manner (Milosavljevi and Grubor, 2010). The companies hire professionals and use the resources to develop unique and innovative product. Thus the benefit of the competitive advantage is quite high among the companies. Challenges and Issues: The companies are nowadays looking forward to develop cloud based services which would provide the companies with a huge platform to store and access data. The cloud based computing id quite beneficial in which the companies can provide immense services through which the companies would be able to access their data from anywhere and could also be able to store immense data in a very simple manner. This system however comes with some disadvantages too. This system has a huge security concern as it uses internet for easy access. The data can be easily hacked by the hackers if the passwords are not properly set and are easy to hack. The security is a very important aspect to be considered as if the data of huge companies get hacked; it may lead to several adverse conditions (Milosavljevi et al. 2011). Recommendations: The companies use various softwares for the accounting. The companies must not get confused regarding the numerous ranges of softwares available in the market. The companies must identify the requirement of the accounting software it needs. According to the needs, the software must be chosen. Also the companies must select the softwares which provide high data security, data integrity, data backup facilities, data storage and other facilities. Use of accounting softwares is very important in companies but also the requirement analysis must be given importance while selecting accounting software (MMSC, 2011). References: Grance, T., Chevalier, S., Kent. K. and Dang, H.,(2005). 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