Securing Business Beyond Boundaries †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Securing Business Beyond Boundaries. Answer: Introduction Macquarie Group is a well reputed Australian company. It is based in Sydney. Macquarie is a well diversified financial group that is responsible for providing asset management and all kinds of financial services like banking and risk solutions to the clients. They have a robust risk management structure that has helped them to generate huge profit and revenue over the years. This report focuses on the implementation of accounting software in the Macquarie Group. It describes the organizational structure and what is the competitive advantage of the company. It talks about the importance of accounting software used by the organization and the existing loopholes in the accounting software. Accounting software is a type of software that helps a company to carry on with its accounting works more efficiently in less time. Macquarie group is involved in providing financial services like banking, asset management and other financial aids to the clients. The company was founded in the year 1969 (Macquarie.com 2017). Macquarie follows a non hierarchical structure. This type of structure follows no hierarchy or levels. This can also be called as a flat structure. This type of structure is beneficial as it promotes an employee participation in decision making and motivates the employees to work better (Smither Houston and McIntire 2016). This also helps to increase the productivity of the organization as the response to the clients is faster. There are five divisions in Macquarie, each having different functionalities. The managing director, deputy managing director and the chief operations officer form the central or main group in the organization. This division takes the responsibility of managing the entire organization as a whole. The other departments in the company are also managed by the member of th is group. The divisions in the company have interrelations with one another. There are services divisions too. The divisions are: legal department, financial management department, risk management department and also corporate operations division. Operational problems faced by Macquarie due to its Structure The non hierarchical structure of the company has led to certain troubles. Organizations have faced issues regarding losing control. This kind of structure is still applicable in case of small organizations. But when the number of employees increase, it becomes difficult for the management to keep control over the organization. There have been issues in the area of power struggle among the employees of the company (Rothaermel 2015). The company has also faced accusations of giving wrong financial advices and misconduct. This led to severe financial loss of the clients due to wrong advice. This would not have been possible in case of a strong hierarchical structure where the strict adherence to rules and governance of the higher authority would monitor the activities of the financial advisors of the company. The financial advisors have also been blamed for investing the money of the investors in high risk projects (Hall 2012). The non hierarchical structure has led to this no monitori ng of the activities of the employees leading to such troubles. Macquarie group is known for using three types of vendor software from the providers. This method is followed by the company as an acquisition method. One of the software used by Macquarie is Intralinks (Intralinks.com 2017). This software is used for the purpose of project management. It provides for the collaborative solution of different types of industries like finance, management, science and technology. This software helps the company to provide financial solutions and improve its efficiency and productivity. One more software used by Macquarie is called Manage Engine (Manageengine.com 2017). This software enables the company to take management decisions by providing the company with management related tools. This software helps Macquarie to take real time decisions and perform efficiently. Synopsis is the name of another software provider that is responsible for providing optimization and testing tools (Synopsys.com 2017). This software enables Macquarie to perform financial t ransactions in a safe manner. Macquarie group has also developed its own software that is customized to their own needs. This software helps to improve the relationship with its clients (ComputerWeekly 2017). They have developed a data layer through the use of database tools are open source in nature. System Flowchart of the Sales Procedures The sales procedure of Macquarie starts from the customer and ends with the fulfillment of the order. Initially the customer places an order, may be for a credit card. This leads to a procedure of checking the details of the customers. Based on the financial background, Macquarie approves or disapproves the request. The order is also reviewed for the approval or disapproval. Then the execution of order takes place. After that the client receives the order. The figure below shows the sales procedure of Macquarie group. The Macquarie Group has a non hierarchical structure that causes the main problems in the system. This leads to loss of control of the management in the organization (Ting 2014). There are chances that the financial advisors might take wrong and fraudulent decisions in order to invest the money of the clients in a risky project (Li, Allan and Evans 2015). If the structure would have been a tall structure then it would not have created any such problems. The organization would have great control and hold over the employees in case of a tall organizational structure. In this type of case the system is well organized and well managed leading to better productivity of the company. This flat structure creates problem in monitoring the activities of the company. These issues lead to severe problems. The ASIC had even ordered Macquarie to compensate for 160000 customers approximately due to such fraudulent activities (Mossa and Silvapulle 2012). Development and Adoption of the Accounting Software Packages The accounting software used by Macquarie group is Xero (Dimitriu and Matei 2014). It is third party software. This software is also based in Australia. This software helps the company to provide financial services over the internet. It is an online service. This software allows the customers to get the transaction details that they have performed online. This software also allows the customers to get an online mini statement. This software also helps to keep an accounting bookkeeping of the customers (Mageto 2017). This accounting software helps in carrying out all the transactions in an effective manner. The graph provided below reflects the current market size. Macquarie bank is being compared with three other leading banks called the Commonwealth bank, Westpac Banking Corp and the Scentre Group. The performance of Macquarie is better in comparison to the rest of the banks. The share price is up by 11.27 per cent that shows that this bank s performing well in the market. The graph clarifies the fact that Macquarie is at the top of all the other top ranked banks in the current market. The blue line represents the performance of Macquarie group. It is the best performing bank among its competitors. There are many companies that play leading role in the market like Commonwealth Bank in Australia. The other leaders are the Westpac banking Corporation along with the Scentre Group. The reasons behind their success are their unique competitive advantages (Bhattacharya, Romani and Stern 2012). These strategies have kept them ahead of all their rival firms. The strategy that is adopted by the Commonwealth bank is to focus on the customer satisfaction. The Westpac Banking Corporation on the other hand follows to improve its technical efficiency in the market. Macquarie group focuses on the different types of services that they provide and focuses on bringing unique features to the services. Macquarie group is known for its efficiency and competitive advantage over the rest of the companies in the market. They believe in integrity, commitment to the clients, team work and following the highest standards in order to retain customers and increase the number of customers. The most competit ive feature of the company is its remuneration package. The training provided by Macquarie to its employees is considered to be the best in the industry. These different varieties of financial services provided by the bank have led to the tremendous success of the Macquarie group in leading the market. Existing Challenges Encountered by Users of Accounting Software The existing challenges that are faced by the Macquarie group while using the accounting software are lack of security and non user friendly features (Simkin, Norman and Rose 2014). The software is difficult to customize according to the needs of the customers. On the other hand the software is involved in handling financial data of the clients. Any kind of security breach leads to loss of the sensitive information of the user data. This will also affect the reputation of the company in a serious manner (Mutongi 2014). The accounting software also has weak reporting ability along with a poor access speed. Proper security policy must be installed in the organization to overcome the risks and challenges of the accounting software. The system must have a strong firewall configuration that will protect the sensitive data from any type unauthorized access. Network security software will help to protect the software from any type of misuse of the data. Financial models used by the Macquarie group must use a flexible model for the proper efficiency of the system. A driver based solution will allow the use of software for any other purpose too. The adaptability of the system must be good in order to get accustomed to any type of work. Conclusion This report concludes that the accounting packages used by the Macquarie group are provided by the vendors. The software used by the company has several challenges but these challenges can be rectified by following certain steps and procedures. This report also discusses about the competitive advantages that has led to the success of the company. This report also gives a brief outline about the organizational structure and its loopholes. This report also gives recommendation about overcoming the limitation of the accounting software. References Bhattacharya, A., Romani, M. and Stern, N., 2012, May. Infrastructure for development: meeting the challenge. In Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, Londres. www. cccep. ac. uk/Publications/Policy/docs/PP-infrastructure-for-development-meeting-the-challenge. pdf. Consultado el (Vol. 15). ComputerWeekly. 2017. Customer experience transformation at Macquarie bank brings legacy system retirement as a bonus. [online] Available at: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/450418866/Customer-experience-transformation-at-Macquarie-bank-brings-legacy-system-retirement-as-a-bonus [Accessed 17 Aug. 2017]. Dimitriu, O. and Matei, M., 2014. A new paradigm for accounting through cloud computing. Procedia Economics and Finance, 15, pp.840-846. Hall, J.A., 2012. Accounting information systems. Cengage Learning. Li, Y., Allan, N.D. and Evans, J.R., 2015. An analysis of Australian Banks Operational Risk Events using evolutionary techniques. Macquarie.com. 2017. Macquarie Group. [online] Available at: https://www.macquarie.com/in/corporate [Accessed 17 Aug. 2017]. Mageto, J., 2017. Accounting Softwares in Australia. An Overview. Manageengine.com. 2017. Desktop Management Software | Desktop Administration Software | Mobile Device Management (MDM) Software. [online] Available at: https://www.manageengine.com/products/desktop-central/index.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw_dTMBRBHEiwApIzn_F6__J9DI2QeeBUgBlGxbT1fsvGFhjpJHqTSwaJ7nOJhgC5Jqk5BMhoC83QQAvD_BwE [Accessed 17 Aug. 2017]. Moosa, I. and Silvapulle, P., 2012. An empirical analysis of the operational losses of Australian banks. Accounting Finance, 52(1), pp.165-185. Mutongi, B., 2014. An analysis of the effectiveness accounting information systems on decision making: a case of MMCZ. Rothaermel, F.T., 2015.Strategic management. McGraw-Hill Education. Simkin, M.G., Norman, C.S. and Rose, J.M., 2014. Core concepts of accounting information systems. John Wiley Sons. Smither, R., Houston, J. and McIntire, S., 2016.Organization development: Strategies for changing environments. Routledge. Synopsys.com. 2017. Synopsys. [online] Available at: https://www.synopsys.com/ [Accessed 17 Aug. 2017]. Ting, A., 2014. Now you see it now you don't: Who is the taxpayer in the Macquarie Bank case. Austl. Tax F., 29, p.477. Www2.intralinks.com. 2017. Securing Business Beyond Boundaries. [online] Available at: https://www2.intralinks.com/global/en?531406168gclid=CjwKCAjw_dTMBRBHEiwApIzn_JQBUKJzOerEURndxw62_89V-Kr1aGf02GVz7MKZ3fgldxufruaKNxoCYsgQAvD_BwE [Accessed 17 Aug. 2017].