Strategic Information System : Individual Assignment

Xerox reported stellar performance figures for 2005 and it appears set to match or exceed those figures for 2006. In 2005 Xerox reported earnings of $978m which amounted to 94 cents per outstanding share and represented an increase of 9% year on year over the previous reporting period (“True” 5). While it is certain that Xerox, being technology company heavily dependent on a value chain centred on intangible services, is susceptible to a certain amount of instability in the global market, its financial health should allow it to weather any periodic downturn. Especially since Xerox has reduced its debt structure from approximately $10b to $7.3b which is offset by operating cash flows of $1.4b (“True” 5). It is clear the Xerox not only redefined its value chain but it correctly assigned the appropriate resources to its key profit centres as well.

This text is still relevant to business today because it had the most basic processes for accounting some that are still used today; it is very outdated but nonetheless still quite useful

The purpose of accounting is to record the financial information, such as transactions and performance, related to a business. The accounting profession has been in existence for as long as business transactions have occurred. It wasn’t until 1494, however, when Luca Pacioli, a Venetian merchant, wrote Summa de Arithmetica, Geometrio, Proportioni et Proportionalita. His writings described a two-entry system of debits and credits, which became the basis for modern accounting systems. Three centuries later, with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution and the development of corporations, the profession of being an accountant became a necessity to keep track of the rising costs and cash flows. As a result, the American Association of Public

For as long as businesses have existed, so has accounting. With time, it has become more complicated and detailed, but it is still a process of keeping financial accounts in order. Through accounting, or financial reporting, a system is set up to keep track of, maintain and audit the financial proceedings. Because accounting and financial reporting of a business is so important for its accuracy and in general, a lot of ethical, technological and legal concerns are involved. In this paper, we will look identify and explore the concerns of each of these.

A key aspect of company success is the ability to track, audit, and report accounting data. This will allow Riordan Manufacturing to maintain fiscal health and make informed decisions regarding expansion. Evaluating accounting software is based on what functions the company will use, and ensure that our company gets the maximum return on the investment. The next section will summarize a few accounting software suites that will provide the needed functions that Riordan Manufacturing will use during the day to day workflow.

Please reference Appendix B for a chart outlining the organizational structure of Xerox. Xerox follows the breakdown of a matrix organizational structure. Xerox is under the command of a single Chief Executive Director and Officer (who is also the President), Jeff Jacobson who has recently taken the position from Ursula Burns. There is also a Chairman of the Board in power as well as nine directors in the board. Under the command of the CEO, the company is further divided up into several divisions focused on a specific area of work. These divisions have a specific director who answers to the Chief Executive Director (Jacobson). These divisions include; financial division, sales division, human resources division, strategy and marketing division, international operations division, delivery division, legal and secretary division,

The accounting system we use today started in Venice in renaissance period over 520 years ago. The trade business increased hugely during this time and all the financial recordings had to be written down to help people see how their business is doing. During that time in 1494 the first book about was published in accounting by Luca Paciolli and was called “The Collected Knowledge of Arithmetic, Geometry, Proportion and Proportionality”. He was called “The father of Accounting” and most of his described principles have been used up until this day.

The Riordan Industries corporate office has been performing a research project to consolidate their financial processes and production software packages. Not one of the three offices or corporate use the same system, which makes data collection, verification, and reporting difficult at best. They need to have a uniform business system throughout all the facilities, as well as procedures implemented in order to attain this goal of seamless data collection they are hoping to achieve. The customer will need to upgrade all their hardware in addition to their current software packages.

Xerox hopes to avoid mistakes of the past by having “a system to prevent technology from leaking out of the company”, according to Robert V. Adams, president of XTV. They have a $30 million dollar fund to support this intrapreneurial activity. It has supported a dozen start-ups thus far, only two having failed. These are extremely promising numbers, with 83% of ventures coming to fruition.

We live in a world where, because of the Internet and the Web, we can communicate with someone in Africa or Asia as easily as we can communicate with someone in the office next door. A company like Xerox represents businesses all over the world, and the diversity of its employees is a big plus. Acknowledging our differences and

Information systems changed forever the way accounting tasks are processed. The days of green paper pads are gone, and instead businesses have a centralized place where all accounting transactions are entered and saved. No more looking for paper

XBRL, the eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is an open standards-based reporting system built to accommodate the electronic preparation and exchange of business reports around the world. XBRL started back in 1999 with 12 organizations as the founding members. There are now in excess of 450 organizations worldwide in over 30 countries involved in its development. It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data. The idea behind XBRL, eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is simple. Instead of treating financial information as a

Financial Research – The Xerox Abstract On April 8th, 2002, the Xerox Corporation ("Xerox") announced its willingness to accept the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reach a settlement with the conditions. Thereafter, its financial fraud became surfaced. On June 28th, Xerox Corporation in accordance with the requirements of the settlement, submitted the unaudited 1997-2000 restated annual financial statements to the SEC, and recognized fraud interest income of $6.4 billion, pre-tax profit of $1.4 billion (SEC thought that should be $1.5 billion) during this period, which sparked

Major advantage with this option is the fact that Xerox operates in the market it fully knows, dominates and controls. As a market leader, having gained clear edge over main competitor IBM, Xerox can consolidate its position with the introduction of innovative new product "Book-In-Time solution" that could significantly reduce the publishing costs.

Accounting information system is systems that collect, record, stored and process the data into information for the users for decision making. However, information is data that organized and process to provide meanings to users. Users typically need information to make decisions or to improve decisions making process. As a general rule, users can make better decision as the quantity and quality of information increase. Tesci gather the information from various type of technology such as computer, mobile phone,