Executive Summary

Rebecca Smith runs a small business ‘Ready To Eat’ (RTE) to prepare and supply pre‐packed healthy meals in the coastal town of Yowie which is far away from the city. Initially, employees in this business consists of one kitchen‐hand who was also the delivery person and a qualified nutrition specialist. After acquiring management certificate course, Rebecca set up the business through buying a personal computer with essential business and productivity software, and ran the business quite smoothly by mastering various of information details in respects of customers, materials, expenses and other financial figures. However, following the increase of demand for the pre‐packed meals, Rebecca decided to hire more staff. Because of the laggard PC and the software, and insufficient time, she realized that it is difficult to manage pricing information, raw material and communicating with the customers. This report is aimed at giving advice to Rebecca in order to select appropriate information systems to help RTE in managing the business, and models will be applied to meet the requirement of business improvement, also advantages and issues will be discussed as well.

Introduction

Accounting information systems typically as form of computer-based, which are generally adopted by managers in terms of decision making, strategies development, and reports generation for shareholders, internal personnel, and regulatory agencies. It could effectively reduce the incidence of accounting errors. This report firstly will indentify information systems and discuss their benefits for business. Secondly, it is going to explain why the choosing information systems are benefit for RTE and how the management decision making could be affected. Then, Porter’s Competitive Forces Model will be introduced to illustrate how to achieve competitive advantages by application of these information systems. Followed by this, information requirements and business processes of RTE will be discussed. Moreover, explanation of supporting internal collaboration and communication by utilizing information systems and service via computer net works and the Internet will be referred. Additionally, management challenges will be detected when the computerised information system is implemented. Finally, several security and issues are going to be mentioned which are generated by information systems.

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First and foremost, the principal purpose of transaction processing system is to answer routine questions and to track the flow of transactions through the organization. Implementation of transaction processing system helps RTE add value to its products and services. According to the condition of RTE, the growth of meal demand has contributed to a series of difficulties if the previous PC and the software are continuously utilized. In order to meet increasing needs of customers, Rebecca requires inputting a large amount of data and producing a large amount of output without requiring sophisticated process via applying transaction processing system in forms of batch or on-line. For example, she could input the specific order entry, inventory control, invoice processing, items of payroll, accounts payable and receivable, and general ledger. It is explicitly that billing details could be presented and Rebecca is able to adjust the amount of raw materials, the pricing and supply quantity of meals.

Furthermore, information retrieval by storing data in a central location could be simplified and speeded up by using management information system which is accessible via a network. This system requires experiencing 4 stages which are about data collection, collaboration, interpretation and presentation. Once a network is set up, a central database can be linked by retail outlets, retailers and members of a supply chain, RTE can frequently obtain daily sales and processing data, which encourages manager to make decisions in accordance with the latest information.