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Question: Discuss about the Integrated Business Intelligence Framework System. Answer: Introduction This report will provide an explanation of the strategic information system of Woolworths Supermarkets chains stores by analyzing the accounting information software packages used by the firm. This assignment discusses the current organizational structure, operational problems, sales flowchart, acquisition method, control system, accounting software packages, market size, accounting software leaders, and problems for the users of accounting software (CTI Reviews, 2016). According to Baars and Kemper (2008), Woolworths is the Australian largest supermarket stores chains stores having its established business operations since 1924.Woolworth Supermarkets has more than 1000 stores, 968 supermarkets and 19 convenience stores. It specializes in the grocery, foods and other retailing products including packed foods and beverages, meats, fruits, vegetables, meats, liquor, petrol, and stationery items. Woolworths has matrix organizational structure which is combined form of both functional and divisional. This is a type of hierarchical structure that includes the chain of command, linear control on operations and decisions by top management, and hierarchy of orders (Baars and Kemper, 2008). The structure of Woolworth has different functions, such as HRM, customer service and relationship Management, marketing and sales, accounting and finance, distribution and logistics, and procurement that are connected with the divisions or departments for the achievement of the organizational goals and objectives. From the research studies of Woolworths (2016), it is reviewed that Woolworths has board of directors, functional heads, departmental managers, store managers, executive staffs, and labors. The board of directors performs their roles, responsibilities, and powers for maximizing the stakeholders values by protecting their needs, interests, and expectations. Its corporate governance includes Gordon Cairns (Chairman), Bradford Banducci (CEO and Managing director), company secretary, and executive and non-executive directors (Woolworths, 2016). The board of directors is responsible for Management, financial and investment decisions, expansion of businesses, and developing strategy plans and strategic statements (vision, mission, goals, value, and objectives). The board of director assigns the duties, tasks, and responsibility of the staff member. The store manager is responsible for the administration and Management of the overall functioning and activities of Woolworth stores. Operational problems From the reviews of Mancini, Vaassen, and Dameri (2013), Woolworths is facing the complex operational problems due to the lack of effective and high-tech accounting information software for support the financial, accounting, and auditing activities. The firm is lacking the best accounting and information software that will maintain the regular information flow among the different organizational processes and people. Woolworths is facing the lack of expertise and capability of the accounting team to collect the market related knowledge, customers needs and demand patterns, competitors strategies and product development, pricing, and distribution, and changing industry trends. The company is also facing the forecasting issues that create difficulties for Woolworths in making accurate estimation of the actual customers needs and buying preferences (Mancini, Vaassen, and Dameri, 2013). Woolworths had to close-down its more than 30 stores at different locations because of the poor sales p erformance. The poor strategic planning of the store manager, the lack of an accurate information system, forecasting issues of anticipation of actual customers demands, and lack of accountability and expertise of the sales persons at its some stores are such reasons causing for underperformance of its some stores. From the statements of hunter (2009), the socio-cultural risks and changing demographics is an increasingly operational issue affecting the sales performance and revenue growth of Woolworth stores because of not forecasting the actual customers needs. The sales revenue and market share for Woolworths in Australia is decreasing from last few times due to the entry of Aldi stores into SA and WA across the Australian markets. It also has been facing problem due to the lack of multi-expertise and talented working staff in some stores that are not capable to perform effective customer service (Hunter, 2009). System acquisition method According to Elbashir, Collier, and Davern (2008), the large business enterprises or MNCs, like Woolworths is required the system acquisition in the form of accounting software for managing the accounting, finance, and auditing related activities, such as auditing, financial statements, managing accounts of business transaction, auditing reports, bank reconciliation statement, information system, taxation, product demonstration, business intelligence, project planning, and workflow Management. There are different types of accounting information software suited to small to mid-sized enterprises and large firms for buying and installing on their accounting system for the use of professional computers to support their businesses. For this, Woolworths may contract with the accounting software developers for providing the best solution to support the financial, accounting, and auditing statements and reports for the use of the departments for getting the update data and information when r equired (Elbashir, Collier, and Davern, 2008). The software should have ability to provide the financial analysis, ratio analysis, bank reconciliation statements, managing accounts and stocks of goods, inventory management and taxation. Woolworth is required to choose the software after examining the suitability, accessibility, compatibility, accounting, software quality, location, and pricing of the accounting software. From the studies of Gangolly (2014), it is reviewed that Woolworths is the largest supermarket chains in Australia with 961 supermarket stores across the Australian markets. Woolworth relies on its more than 111,000 employee staffs in stores, distribution centers, and storage places for delivering the effective customers service with quality, superior service, value, range, and convenience. Woolworths sources 96% of its fresh vegetable and fruits and 100% of fresh meat from a range of Australian farmers and growers for delivering the fresh, energetic, nutritious, and high quality of foods products. The fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats purchased from the Australian farmers are sent to the production plants for producing the fresh consumer foods products. After producing, the goods are sent to the distribution centers or Woolworth stores for supplying the foods and grocery items to the customers through its stores (Gangolly, 2014). From the research on Woolworths (2015), it is stated that the customers visits the Woolworth stores for purchasing the foods and other retailing products as per their needs. The order is generated from the customers for the purchasing the goods. After getting the orders from the customers, the sales persons ensure the availability of the demanded products from the customers. The invoice/bill is made from the purchase counter showing the purchased items by the customers and after getting payment from the customers, the delivery is made. Woolworths also facilitates the online order tracking and purchasing facility for the convenience and comfort of the customers (Woolworths, 2015). After customer visiting the company site, they generate order for the desired goods online and after tracking orders, the booking is confirmed through a confirmation link or mail to the customer by the company and delivery is made within 2-5 days after getting cash on delivery payment or digital payment. Control problems in the system and Sorts of fraud From the scholarship research of Galliers (2012), it is reviewed that the control problems in the system include inaccurate estimation of the procured goods, excessive production compared to customer demand, theft or stealing of the goods, comparison of purchase orders by the customers and online booking record information. There are several types of frauds may be wrong entry of the raw materials procured by the firm, the entry of the goods not registered in the computer system because of system error or server application, or loss of data of production. There may be a situation in which the goods are delivered to the distribution centers are less from the goods counted in the storage centers due to stealing or theft of goods by the staffs in between. Some control problems may be at Woolworth Supermarket stores when the bills are prepared to hand-over the customers for their purchasing (Galliers, 2012). Some problem may be due to wrong entries were made in bills or over-prices were c harged from the customers because of problem of accounting control system. The problems in control system also might be because of corrupted staffs to charge higher from the customers, not give the right products or manipulation of accounting system to show less store sales. Development and Adoption of the Accounting Software Packages From the research studies of Mancini, Vaassen, and Dameri, (2013), it is viewed that in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the large business corporations needed to handle data for managing the heavy accounts and large amount of data. In 1970s, the businesses enterprises used the paper form to manage accounting and financial data in the form of ledger note and journal books for all bookkeeping records and entry of all financial statements and accounting transactions. The accounting software was first introduced in 1973 with the invention of mainframe computers since the establishment of IBM and Big Irons ruling the computer world. The mainframe computers were used by mega corporations for processing the large amount of data in batch mode by achieving the high level of reliability and security (Mancini, Vaassen, and Dameri, 2013). After this, in 1980s, the mini computers were introduced for managing accounts and data processing. Between 1980s and 1990s, the micro computers were introduce d for processing the large amount of data. From the Journal studies of Romney, Steinbart, Mula, McNamara, and Tonkin (2012), since after the development of computers and internet technologies, the small businesses used Google spreadsheets or Microsoft Excel Spreadsheets programs for managing all accounting and financial activities as well as the book keeping of financial records. In 1987, TurboCash launched the automated accounting system in South Africa for preparing the trial balance, income statement, and balance sheets. The Google Docs were introduced in the mid of 1990s and 2000s. Since 2000s with the establishment of cloud computing technologies, wide range of accounting software packages were introduced for suiting the small and mid-sized as well as large business enterprises or MNCs. Intuit QuickBooks, FreshBooks, MYOB, XERO, Recon, Saasu, SAP ERP, Zoho, Netsuite, Microsoft Dynamics C5, and Sage One are some popular accounting software used by most of the business enterprises (Romney, Steinbart, Mula, McNamara, and To nkin, 2012). These AIS packages support the functions, auditing, taxation, inventory management, book keeping, product demonstration, business intelligence, multi-currency management, workflow management, project planning, and setting of bank reconciliation statement. From the accounting research studies of Considine, Parkes, Olesen, and Blount (2012), it is reviewed that there are several accounting software used by SMEs and large businesses in Australia including Recon, Intuit QuickBooks, MYOB, Xero, and Saasu. Xero and MYOB are two leading accounting software used by most of the SMEs in Australia. Xero is the dominant player in Australia with the growth of 54% with 312,000 users in March, 2016 from 203,000 in 2015 and at present in March 2017 500,000 users in Australia. The subscribers for XERO were 498,000 in 2016 in Australia and new Zealand that were 341,000 in 2015 (Considine, Parkes, Olesen, and Blount, 2012). MYOB is the second largest player in the Australian industry with 37% growth with 195,000 subscribers in Australia and New Zealand as on 30 June, 2016 from 142,000 in 2015. The market share of Intuit QuickBooks in Australia grew by 61% with 53,000 customers in 2016 that were 33,000 in 2015. Due to the emergence of small businesses, s hopkeepers, and accountants, the market share and sales for Intuit QuickBooks software is expected to rise in the future. The cloud accounting software, Recon has 36000 users or subscribers globally in 2016. Leaders Accounting Software in the Market According to Haux, Winter, Ammenwerth, and Brigl (2013), the leading accounting software in Australia include MYOB, Xero, Recon, Saasu, and Intuit Quickbooks that are used by most of the business enterprises for supporting their accounting and information system because of their suitability, accountability, reliability, compatibility, and functionality for providing the high-tech solution to support their business systems. Intuit QuickBooks is the highly-ranked and mostly used accounting software by small businesses in Australia because of its cost-effective prices (12/month AUD sale price and max of 21/month for premier version and comprehensive features (such as security, encryptions, payroll, pay management and bills) to support the businesses to track their income, profits, and expenses (Haux, Winter, Ammenwerth, and Brigl, 2013). In the views of Advisory HQ, (2015), MYOB is one of the best accounting software programs used by medium size and large enterprises. It is multi-functional and best suitable software used by Woolworths to perform the regular accounting functions, increase business profitability, and make better and real time decisions on inventory, taxation, and finance sector. It charges between 50 AUD/month and 99 AUD/month depending upon the version to support the accounting and finance related activities. Recon is accounting software for suiting the Australian small businesses, accountants, and shopkeepers. It is cloud-computing accounting software for suited for the small businesses because of its affordable prices. It provides POS system (point of sale system) for linking sales transactions to the desktop software suite. It charges from 5AUD/month to 20 AUD/month depending upon versions. Saasu is accounting software of future based on due diligence analysis with no extra setup or syncing. It pr ovides a platform for CRM, e-commerce store, email platform, and bank reconciliations (Advisory HQ, 2015). XERO is an AIS software with real-time data monitoring capabilities for supporting the small to mid-sized business enterprises by performing account functions, such as multi-currency and multi-language support, account payable and receivables, automated bank reconciliations, double-entry bookkeeping, invoices and billing, standard business reporting, payroll management, and risk assessment. Current Gaps or Challenges encountered by users or customers and Recommendations In the reviews of Clark (2012), there are several challenges or problems encountered by the user or customers of accounting software. Some accounting software are costly, and non-user friendly, while some has weaknesses, such as weak reporting system, and lack of communication and integration. Some other accounting software are not effective because of the outdated information system. Some problems include the lack of efficiency and security, the lack of quality control, compatibility of software with the accounting system, difficulty in customization, the lack of automation of calculation of bank reconciliation statement, and weak customer relationship management are such complex problems faced by the users of AIS software (Clarke, 2012). Some AIS are more costly because of high costs of maintaining the financial and accounting activities by using these accounting software. Additionally, the AIS are required the technical expertise team compatible to these software programs by havin g the deeper knowledge and understanding about these accounting software. In the views of CTI Reviews, (2016), the users of professional customers should use the AIS packages after examining the compatibility, suitability, accuracy, and efficiency of the accounting software for supporting the financial, auditing, and accounting related activities. Additionally, the business owners should recruit the high skilled, technical expertise and experienced personnel having good knowledge and capability of working on these accounting software. The professional users should use the cost-effective and functional accounting software having extensive features and suitability to the accounting and information system of the firm (CTI Reviews, 2016). The enterprise should organize training to the accounting team to train them for working on the installed accounting software for supporting the system of the firm. References Advisory HQ (2015). 5 Best Small Accounting Software in Australia. [Online]. Available at: https://www.advisoryhq.com/articles/5-best-small-business-accounting-software-in-australia/. (Accessed: 29 April 2017). Baars, H. and Kemper, H. G. (2008). Management Support with Structured and Unstructured Data - An Integrated Business Intelligence Framework, Information Systems Management, Vol. 25, pp. 132-148. Clarke, S. (2012). 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