A report based on the functional areas, business processes and information systems essay

Title Page A report based on the functional areas, business processes and information systems of NSW’s Holroyd City Council Student Name: Julie-Ann Khouri Contents Page Title Page2 Contents Page3 Executive Summary5 1.

0 Introduction6 2. 0 Organisation Description7 2. 1 Background Information7 2. 2 Goods and Services Offered7 3. 0 Functional Areas Description8 3. 1 Corporate & Financial Services8 3. 2 Library & Community Services8 3.

3 Engineering Services9 3. 4 Environmental & Planning Services9 4. 0 Business Process Description10 . 1 Corporate & Financial Services10 4. 1a Administrative Services10 4.

1b Corporate Planning10 4. 1c Customer Service10 4. 1d Financial Services11 4. 1e Human Resources11 4. 1f Information Technology11 4. 1g Risk Management12 5. 0 Information System Description12 5. 1 Council’s Information System12 5.

1a Inputs12 5. 1b Outputs13 5. 1c How the Information System and Functional Areas are connected13 6. 0 Conclusion13 References14 Bibliography15 Appendix16 1a – Holroyd City Council Organisational Chart16 Executive SummaryThe following is a business report that highlights and looks into the functional areas, business processes and information systems adapted of an organisation. Holroyd City Council (HCC) is a local government area and suburb located in the Western suburbs region of Sydney, New South Wales. Initially incorporated as a Municipality in 1872, and later proclaimed to a City in 1991, HCC covers 17 suburbs around the local government area (Holroyd City Council Website), and is the organisation used in this report.

Functional areas (or departments) have traditionally been what organisations are organised around, and they are generally related to specific business disciplines or areas such as, human resources, sales and marketing, production and IT (CIS13 Lecture Slides). Normally a business processes and functional areas of a business are associated together. A business processes allows for there to be an understanding of how business perform their work whilst the functional areas are there to provide an understanding of what is being done (CIS13 Lecture Slides). Finally, information systems are a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate and disseminate data and information that is used in that business process so it can provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective (CIS13 Lecture Slides). The below report will look into how the different functional areas of HCC are supported by the business processes adapted and how the information systems adapted by HCC are connected. Due to limited information regarding the information systems used by HCC, assumptions have been made in place of actual data collection. 1. 0 IntroductionRobbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter (2006) define an organisation as being the deliberate arrangement of people in order to accomplish a specific purpose (p.

6). Three common characteristics, their distinct purpose, deliberate structure and the people behind it identify organisations (Robbins et al, 2006, p. 6). Functional areas (or departments) have traditionally been what organisations are organised around, and they are generally related to specific business disciplines or areas such as, human resources, sales and marketing, production and IT (CIS13 Lecture Slides). Depending on the size of the business or organisation, the number of functional areas established can vary between 1 and 50, in some cases even more. Function areas are able to provide the organisation with a more focused, precise and professional working environment.

Normally a business processes and functional areas of a business are associated together. A business processes allows for there to be an understanding of how business perform their work whilst the functional areas are there to provide an understanding of what is being done (CIS13 Lecture Slides). Finally, information systems are a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate and disseminate data and information that is used in that business process so it can provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective (CIS13 Lecture Slides). The following is a business report that highlights and looks into the functional areas, business processes and information systems adapted of an organisation. For the purpose of this report, Holroyd City Council located in Sydney, New South Wales, will be used as the organisation. All information and data collected regarding he Council, has been collected from their website, which is referenced in the References section at the end of this report. Unfortunately, not all information were able to be collected from the Council website, such as the Information Systems in use, and as such, this section has been conducted based on personal assumptions, experience and general knowledge of the applications discussed. Apart from this, no other hindrances were encountered.

2. 0 Organisation Description 2. 1 Background InformationHolroyd City Council (HCC) is a local government area and suburb located in the Western suburbs region of Sydney, New South Wales. Initially incorporated as a Municipality in 1872, and later proclaimed to a City in 1991, HCC covers 17 suburbs around the local government area (Holroyd City Council Website). 2. 2 Goods and Services Offered There is no single answer as to what the goods and services offered by HCC stated on their website, however, based on personal experience and knowledge, the purpose of HCC and any other local government area is to provide services for members of the public who belong to that particular suburb.

Two kinds of services are predominately supplied by the Council. Firstly, there is the direct customer service that is directed at the public, in terms of services that they can benefit from and can pay for such as day care facilities, library services, aged services, youth services, etc. Secondly, there are the services provided for the public however, not available in terms of purchase, such as, street cleaning, waste management, parks and recreational areas, road construction and maintenance, etc. All these are services that are offered by not only HCC but also most Councils throughout the country.

3. 0 Functional Areas Description As previously stated, the purpose of functional areas are to assist people within an organisation or business to be more efficient, professional and gain a better understanding of their job descriptions, as it ideally meant to clearly state the purpose for what is being done when reviewing the business process. Based on the HCC organisation chart in Appendix 1a, HCC consists of one department headed by a General Manager followed by four other departments each headed by a Director. 3. 1 Corporate & Financial Services The corporate & financial services functional area of HCC provides the public access to any corporate and financial aids and services that they may require. Printing, computer and legal services, are offered to members of the public through the Council and are managed and overlooked by the corporate & financial services function area.

These services are not only available to benefit the public. The core business of the HCC corporate & financial services function area is to manage the finance, human resources, and customer service, administrative, information technology (IT) and risk management services to ensure that there is efficient and effective operation within the Council. This therefore means that HCC have a functional area assigned to take care of their in-house administrative purposes such as their payroll and human resource requirements, whilst at the same time being able to continually support and assist members of the public. .

2 Library & Community Services The core business of the library & community services function area is to manage and develop libraries, community facilities and specific services for children, young people, the aged and people with a disability. By overlooking the services provided such as aged, youth and children’s services as well as overlooking community development and facilities, this functional area does not provide any direct business process benefit to the Council as an organisation. Despite the possibility of small amounts of funds being generated by this area, it is unlikely that a link as big as that between the functional area of corporate & financial services can be seen. 3.

3 Engineering Services The development and management of HCC’s engineering services functional area, means that the roads, traffic, drainage and recreational infrastructure within the Council and community are taken care of. Road construction and maintenance, the set up of parks and recreational areas, and street cleaning are services which almost all members of the public use at some point in time, however, there is no direct process that relates these services to being able to benefit the Council internally. 3.

4 Environmental & Planning Services The purpose behind the functional area related to the environment & planning services is to develop, manage and enhance HCC’s built and natural environments, and to sustain environmental and public health on behalf of Council and the community. However, again, there is no direct link as to how these services are able to support the organisation in ways like the corporate & financial services are able to, however, they are able to support the organisation’s physical development in terms of the area and suburbs covered by HCC. 4. 0 Business Process Description Referring back to earlier on in this report, it was stated that the purpose of the business process is to highlight the point and ways in which an organisation carries out a particular task. While the function area highlights what needs to be done, it is during the business process stage where how it is done can be seen. 4. 1 Corporate & Financial Services Using the functional area of corporate & financial services, this section will provide an insight into how each of the below listed business processes are able to support the functional area of corporate & financial services. 4.

1a Administrative Services The administrative services to be undertaken by the Council include legal services, and record management services. Documenting any feedback, complaints and suggestions from Council employees and community members, along with ensuring policies and National Legal Acts are followed, and updated are all considered to be part of the administrative services. 4. 1b Corporate Planning Corporate development for HCC would include updating and adhering to their management plan consisting of their strategic and operational plan.

The corporate planning would allow the Council to work towards a particular goal or aim over a pre determined period of time. With the ability to work towards this goal, the Council will be showing that they are able to continuously improve in the day-to-day operations. 4. 1c Customer Service Customer service is perhaps the second most important aspect of any business or organisation.

Businesses and organisations must remember that their customer service teams are the face of their organisation and business. Depending on the time of organisation and business, the form of customer communication and feedback must be taken into consideration. Ensuring that they have polite, well-mannered and knowledgeable staff to tend to customer queries, feedback and complaints, as well as presentable office spaces and foyers, are all factors that reflect back on an organisation. 4. 1d Financial Services The financial management process is set in place to overlook all finance and accounting requirements faced within the Council.

The financial services requires the Council to lodge all statutory returns, as well as carry out all relevant and required tax reporting schemes while maintaining budgets and cash flows for both the Council and community. . 1e Human Resources Perhaps the heart of any business or organisation, the business process that involves human resource management allows for payroll and employment levels to be carried out, whilst under a chosen department. In the case of HCC, the functional area of corporate & financial services requires the human resources business process to efficiently, effectively and professionally carries out its duties to ensure that al employees are treated equally and satisfied. If required by Council, it is up to the human resources to ensure there are suitable training programs in place for both existing and new employees. 4. 1f Information Technology IT services requires the business process of continuous upgrades to IT infrastructures to enhance better accessibility to documents and any new forms of information uploads that the Council may plan to implement over the coming years.

The IT business process will allow for the other functional areas and business processes to be better organised and in sync with each other provided the Council can implement and introduce a strong enough infrastructure. 4. 1g Risk Management The Council must ensure that they carry out proper and frequent risk management analysis to ensure that both the community and Council are surrounded by as little amounts of risk as possible. It must be ensured that any applicable laws and current legislations as well as statutory obligations are monitored and revised at all times. . 0 Information System Description Information systems have been implemented since the 1950’s to relieve stress levels and workloads for employees and business owners when trying to manage their business, whilst assisting them to being able to reduce costs at the same time.

The most common of these business applications today include, management information systems (MIS), executive support systems (ESS), decision support systems (DSS), transaction processing systems (TPS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. . 1 Council’s Information System As stated in the introduction, the only visible hindrance for this report was that there was no mention of the information system adapted by HCC. However, an assumption will be made that a TPS is in place at the Council, solely because payments are made to the Council by members of the public in order to pay land rates, rental of recreational areas, and for services offered by the Council such as printing and legal services. The TPS is also able to process payroll, as well as accounts payable from the Council. 5. 1a Inputs An input is the activity of gathering and capturing raw data (Stair and Reynolds, 2010, p. 8).

The inputs for the TPS for HCC would include the number of hours worked by an employee, or the hourly rate or cost of rental a customer would have to pay for a service offered by the Council. 5. 1b Outputs Stair et al (2010), define as the production of useful information, usually in the form of documents and reports (p. 8). For a TPS such as the one that is assumingly used by the Council, outputs could include paychecks for employees, receipts of payments for customers and even financial reports for banks, managements and other government agencies. 5. 1c How the Information System and Functional Areas are connected As previously mentioned several times throughout this report, a functional area is created to state and highlight what is needed to be done within an organisation, while a business process states and highlight how it is done.

The information system is what falls between the two. It is here where the actual task of accumulating data as input is processed and turned into output for the organisation. Without an information system like a TPS, then Council employees will not know how much they are eligible to receive in terms of their wages, and customers would not have any forms of payment proofs to hold as a record. 6. 0 ConclusionIn conclusion to this report, the ability is available to be able to view how an organisation such as a Council is able to operate with four functional areas and how its business processes are connected to these areas. By further analysing each functional area, and understanding how each individual process benefits the organisation, assumptions can be made as to what form of information system is used and adapted by the Council to assist in their operations. References CIS13 Lecture Slides Holroyd City Council Website < http://www.

olroyd. nsw. gov. au>, Last accessed January 17th 2010 Robbins S. , Bergman R. , Stagg I. , and Coulter M.

, (2006), Management 4th ed. , Frenchs Forest NSW, Pearson Education. Stair, R.

, Reynolds, G. , (2010), Fundamentals of Information Systems, 5th ed. , Thomson Learning Inc. , USA Bibliography Stair, R. , Reynolds, G.

, (2010), Fundamentals of Information Systems, 5th ed. , Thomson Learning Inc. , USA Parramatta City Council , Last accessed January 17th 2010 Appendix 1a – Holroyd City Council Organisational Chart