Internal Code: 1AJHFI
TASK1
What is the accountant’s role in the computer acquisition process? In what aspects of computer acquisition might an accountant provide a useful contribution?
Required:
Identify the accountant’s role in the computer acquisition process.
Describe the useful contribution an accountant might make the computer acquisition process.
TASK2
What risks, if any, does offshore outsourcing of various information systems functions pose to satisfying the principles of confidentiality and privacy?
Required:
Describe at least TWO possible risks offshore outsourcing of various information systems functions,
TASK3
Queensland’s Bedrooms Furniture QBF has experienced tremendous growth which has given the company a serious problem. Customers would often wait months for QBF to fill orders and process invoices. Repeated attempts by QBF’s understaffed IS department tosolve these problems met with failure. Finally, QBF hired a consulting firm to solve its revenue tracking problems and expedite prompt receipt of payments. The 18-month
project turned into a doubly long nightmare. After three years and $10 million, the consultants were dismissed from the unfinished project.
The project failed for many reasons. The systems development process was so dynamic that the failure to complete the project quickly became self-defeating as modifications took over the original design. Second, management did not have a clear vision of the new AIS and lacked a strong support staff. As a result, a number of incompatible tracking systems sprang from the company’s distributed computer system. Third, the project was
too large and complex for the consulting firm, who had little experience with the complex database at the heart of the new system. Finally, the project had too many applications. Interdependencies among subprograms left consultants with few completed programs. Every program was linked to several subprograms, which in turn were linked to several other programs. Programmers eventually found themselves lost in a morass of subroutines with no completed program.
Identify the organisational issues that management must address in the future.
Recommend steps the company could take to guarantee consulting service quality.