(PLEASE NOTE AUSTRALIAN)

INFO

An established transport company wishes to review its current, traditionally organised financial, accounting and staff management procedures, with a view to saving costs. One of the options the company wishes to consider is either a partial or complete redeployment of some of these functions to the cloud.

You have consulted with the office assistant, mechanic and two of the truck drivers and extracted the following information:

• Based in Benalla (a regional town in Victoria)

• Employs 10 staff, comprising General Manager, Office assistant, Bookkeeper (part-time),

  Operations foreman, Storeman, Mechanic

• Employs 4 truck drivers

• Contracts up to another 4 truck drivers on a casual basis

• Has a fleet of 10 variously sized trucks

• Has a client base for deliveries and collections of up to 200 businesses

• Provides freight delivery services to Wangaratta, Myrtleford, Beechworth, Albury-Wodonga,

  Rutherglen, Yarrawonga, Cobram, Shepparton, Nagambie, Seymour, Violet Town, Euroa,

  Mansfield, Bright and surrounding districts

• Currently runs a local network comprising 4 PCs (from 4 years to 7 years old), 2 laptops

  (aged 5 years and 2 years), one server (3 years old), and assorted printers, scanners, and

  photocopiers.

• PCs, laptops and peripherals are all different brands & models as when a purchase is

  required, the bookkeeper researches for the best price and then purchases whatever is on sale

  at Officeworks.

• Has a new NBN fibre connection

• Uses Microsoft Office 2007 (ie nearly 10 years old), MYOB Account Right (desktop version),

  and a fleet management package for all vehicles

• The accounting package looks after the General Ledger, Accounts Payable and Receivable.

• Payroll system is currently:

o Employees complete paper based timesheets o Timesheet is either faxed to the office or left on the bookkeepers desk or the mechanics workbench o Bookkeeper calculates pays and records them in a Zions Time, Pay and Wages book o Bookkeeper prepares a cash cheque which is signed off by the General Manager o Bookkeeper collects cash from the bank, distributes cash in to pay envelopes o Employees sign for & collect their pay envelopes between 3pm and 5pm on Thursday afternoon

The fleet management is currently done by a combination of: o Drivers complete physical log books including notes of any repair or maintenance issues o Mechanic reviews log books whenever truck is available in the yard to see what maintenance might be required o Mechanic writes a note on their Working Dog calendar that is hanging above their workbench to remind themselves when individual trucks are due for another service o Urgent maintenance requests are indicated by drivers leaving a bright pink sticky note on the mechanics tool bench or on the Working Dog calendar when they finish their shift o General manager orders new trucks when they feel the time is right for a replacement truck

• The trucks all have GPS navigation devices but these are only able to provide directions to

  the driver there is no ability to link up with head office

• The network management is looked after by a local IT provider currently this costs $6,000

  per year.

• The costs of staff when not working (ie in training or unable to work) is $60 per hour.

CASE STUDY

1. Determine opportunities and risks for the business and the research required.

2. Using a cloud-based collaboration tool, save and share the results of your research with your trainer.

3. Research at least two alternative options for each of the following systems the business has in

   place. Payroll

   Vehicle maintenance

   Office productivity software

4. Your research should include costs, timelines to implement and staff training required.

5. You will then need to prioritise your implementation plan and come up with an overall plan including

   total time it would take.