HI5019 Strategic Information Systems

1. Identification and discussion of the chosen company’s structure, products and services under consideration
2. Operations and functionality: Identify and discuss
   1. The current processes   
   2. Any gaps and what is not working properly
   3. Which specific issues that the new system will fix
   4. Criteria that will be used to prove the proposed system meets requirements
3. Discuss what constitutes an Information Systems (IS) Strategy and explain why such strategy is needed as part of the overall organisational strategy.
4. Discuss why the organisation may experience difficulties in developing an Information Systems Strategy. As part of your answer you should suggest solutions to the difficulties you discuss.
5. With reference to your studies on Information Systems failures:
6. Analyse the typical problems that might be expected to arise within Information Systems projects.  
7. Illustrate your answer with reference to literature and any relevant examples.  
8. Suggest remedies to the problems you have identified.

Strategic information system is the information system, which are developed for the business initiative of any organization (Cassidy 2016). The strategic information management or SIM is the most significant characteristic in the field of information technology. This strategic information management helps the organizations or companies in storing, categorizing, processing and transferring the information or data that are received or created (Cresswell and Sheikh 2013).  Moreover, it offers several techniques for applying analytical tools to the information repositories, which allow them in recognition of the opportunities for growth and improvement of the efficiency in operations.

The following literature review provides a brief discussion on the famous and accepted bank of Australia, namely, Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The literature review discusses about the organizational structure, products and services. It also helps to understand the operations and functionality like the current processes and gaps of the organization. The problems or issues that are to be fixed by the new system and the information systems strategy are also explained here.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Commonwealth Bank of Australia is one of the most famous multinational banks in New Zealand and Australia. It has its businesses in Asia, Fiji, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States (Commbank.com.au, 2017). The main financial services of this particular bank include funds management, retail banking, investment, insurance, broking services and institutional banking. The bank is famous for its specific and great strategies, which have helped them to gain extreme popularity amongst the customers.

1. Structure, Products and Services of Commonwealth Bank of Australia

1. i) Organizational Structure: The organizational structure of Commonwealth Bank of Australia comprises of all the governing bodies of the organization (Commbank.com.au, 2017). It has all the important management bodies that include top, middle and lower management.
2. ii) Products and Services: The main products and services of this particular bank are those that are provided to their customers. The customers are the main and the most important part of any bank (Arvidsson et al. 2014). These products and services help the bank to attain the organizational goals and objectives. The main products and services of the bank are as follows:
3. a) Business Credit Cards: This is the most important and significant service of this particular bank. These credit card services help the customers in their personal expenses like shopping, paying bills and many more (Peppard and Ward 2016). The interest rate of the credit card service of this particular is extremely low and affordable.  
4. b) Business Loans: Business loans are the second services of Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Cassidy 2016). The interest rate of the loans of this bank is reasonable and affordable and thus this is well accepted by all the customers.
5. c) Merchant Services: Merchant services are the best category of financial services, which is used by any organization (Arvidsson et al. 2014). This type of service allows any organization to accept bank debit transactions or credit card by utilizing online ordering.
6. d) Online Banking: This is the fourth important and helpful service of Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Customers do not have to visit bank premises for any type of banking transactions. Rather, they can do everything online.
7. e) Investments: CBA is famous for its investments. Customers invest their money in the bank and thus the bank enjoys profit to the fullest.
8. f) Business Insurance: Since this Australian bank is a multinational bank, the investment in this particular bank is extremely safe and secured (Claver-Cortés et al. 2012). The business insurance is high and there is less chance that the bank will face losses.
9. g) Superannuation: The superannuation services are again one of the most important services of this bank (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). The regular or daily payment is made into a fund by any employee towards the future pension is known as superannuation.
10. h) Funds Management: Commonwealth Bank of Australia is popular for its funds management. The funds are easily managed with the help of this bank.

2. Operations and Functionality

1. i) Identification of the Current Processes: The current processes of the organization are include the unique way of inclusion of the several customers. The involvement of the customers is the most important part of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta 2016). This helps to maintain the willing power of the work and this involvement is helping the bank to obtain its organizational goals and objectives. There are three types of processes of this bank. They include work processes, behavioural processes and change processes.
2. ii) Identification of the gaps: The gaps are those that are identified on a daily basis in Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The major cause for the degradation is the infeasible strategies. Several approaches are taken by this particular bank for overcoming these problems and for improving the shares of the bank (Claver-Cortés et al. 2012). Almost all of the strategies went wrong for of the regular changes in the market trends.

iii) Specific issues that should be fixed by the new system: The new system that should be able to fix the specific problems or issues. The main issue or problem of Commonwealth Bank of Australia mainly includes money-laundering issue (Commbank.com.au, 2017). This first came into count in the year 2009. The second major issue of this bank is the sudden downfall of the prices of the shares. The new system is supposed to fix all these issues promptly.

1. iv) Criteria for proving that the proposed system meets requirements: The criteria for proving that the proposed system meets the requirements are the verification and validation of the information system (Dutta et al. 2012). The software should be verified and validated so that there exists no loophole for meeting the requirements in a secured manner.

3. Information Systems Strategy

Information systems strategy is the strategic decision that is taken by any organization for the betterment of their business. This particular type of strategy mainly deals with the information system of the organization. Information systems strategy is extremely important for all organization as it solves all the significant information system problems of the organization (Claver-Cortés et al. 2012). Commonwealth Bank of Australia is popular for its innovative information system strategy. This strategy has helped them to obtain their organizational goals and objectives easily and successfully.

4. Problems and Solutions in Information Systems Strategy

In spite of having several advantages or benefits, information systems strategy does have some of the major problems (Willcocks 2013). The main problems of information systems strategy in Commonwealth Bank of Australia are as follows:

1. i) Failure of the system: This is the most important and significant problem for information systems. The system has the high risk of failing.
2. ii) Maintenance: This is again one of the most important problems. Maintenance is frequently required for information systems.

iii) Expensive: This type of systems are extremely expensive and many organizations are not able to afford them.

However, these above mentioned problems have relevant solutions for them. The solutions for the problems are as follows:

1. i) For the Failure of the system: Regular maintenance is the only way for solving this problem (Peppard and Ward 2016).
2. ii) For the Maintenance: The system can be easily maintained if the organization will hire an information system specialist (Willcocks 2013).

iii) For the Expenses: They can reduce the cost by opting for less expensive systems, however they should not compromise of the quality.

5. Information Systems Failures

1. i) Analysis of the problems within Information Systems projects: There are several types of problems that are expected to arise within information systems projects. These problems mainly include failure of the system, cost effectiveness and regular maintenance (Alhawari et al. 2012). These problems often create major loss to the projects and the projects either are not finished on time or are not finished with perfection.
2. ii) Recommended remedies for the identified problems: However, these above mentioned identified problems do have some of the remedies. The recommended remedies for the identified problems are as follows:
3. i) For the Failure of System: It is recommended that the organization should go for regular maintenance. This will save the system.
4. ii) For the Maintenance: It is recommended that the organization should hire an information system specialist for their information system.

iii) For the Expenses: It is recommended that the organization should choose low cost system, however, with great quality.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above discussion it can be concluded that, strategic information system is the most important and significant requirement for any organization. It is developed for the business initiative of any organization. This particular type of information system provides competitive advantage to any organization. Strategies are extremely necessary for all organizations as they help to deliver the products or services at lower costs and thus focus on a particular segment of market. It is even utilized by several organizations for the categorization, storing, procession and transfer of information.  The review has discussed and identified the organizational structure, products and services under consideration. It also focuses on the operations and functionality of the organization. The review also describes about the information systems strategy and the reasons and solutions for information systems failures in Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

References

Alhawari, S., Karadsheh, L., Talet, A.N. and Mansour, E., 2012. Knowledge-based risk management framework for information technology project. International Journal of Information Management, 32(1), pp.50-65.

Arvidsson, V., Holmström, J. and Lyytinen, K., 2014. Information systems use as strategy practice: A multi-dimensional view of strategic information system implementation and use. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(1), pp.45-61.

Cassidy, A., 2016. A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.

Claver-Cortés, E., Pertusa-Ortega, E.M. and Molina-Azorín, J.F., 2012. Characteristics of organizational structure relating to hybrid competitive strategy: Implications for performance. Journal of Business Research, 65(7), pp.993-1002.

Commbank.com.au. (2017). Personal banking including accounts, credit cards and home loans - CommBank. [online] Available at: https://www.commbank.com.au/ [Accessed 3 Dec. 2017].

Cresswell, K. and Sheikh, A., 2013. Organizational issues in the implementation and adoption of health information technology innovations: an interpretative review. International journal of medical informatics, 82(5), pp.e73-e86.

Dutta, S., Bilbao-Osorio, B. and Geiger, T., 2012, November. The global information technology report 2012. In World Economic Forum (pp. 3-22).

Pearlson, K.E., Saunders, C.S. and Galletta, D.F., 2016. Managing and Using Information Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Peppard, J. and Ward, J., 2016. The strategic management of information systems: Building a digital strategy. John Wiley & Sons.

Willcocks, L., 2013. Information management: the evaluation of information systems investments. Springer.

Holtshouse, D.K., 2013. Information technology for knowledge management. Springer Science & Business Media.

Liebowitz, J. and Frank, M. eds., 2016. Knowledge management and e-learning. CRC press.