Week 8 Discussion Forum (MKT6920 Marketing Management)
Discuss with your classmates the importance of marketing and what you learned in this class that you can apply for your future career and/or business opportunities.
Week 8 Discussion Forum (MGT5430 Organizational Behavior)
- What contributions can high self-monitors make in organizations? Low self-monitors?
- What do you think will be the most stressful career stage? What type of stressors led you to make this choice?
Unit 8 Discussion Board (ACC325 Forensic Accounting)
Cermco produces and sells specialty customer relationship management (CRM) solutions to small and medium-size businesses in the United States and Canada. The company is more than 20 years old and has a steady, loyal customer base.
A major reason for Cermco’s success lies in the ability of its product to easily integrate with various accounting and ERP systems. As a result, even when clients upgrade their entire accounting systems to expensive ERP solutions, they continue to use Cermco’s CRM because of its superior features.
Annual revenues for Cermco’s three most recent years are about $11 million (20X3), $7 million (20X4), and $3 million (20X5), respectively. Overall interest expenses and operating margins have remained a relatively constant percentage of revenues.
Cermco attributes the decline in revenues to declines in market share as a result of natural client turnover and the entrance of many other small competing software companies into the market. Nevertheless, Cermco’s CRM product continues to enjoy the highest industry ratings and a loyal customer base.
Cermco’s balance sheets for the most recent three years follow:
CERMCO Balance Sheet December 31
20X5 20X4 20X3
Assets
Current assets
Cash and cash equivalents $390 $1,386 $2,603
Short-term investments — — —
Net receivables 720 664 1,225
Inventory — — —
Other current assets 412 469 892
Total current assets $1,522 $2,519 $4,720
Long-term investments 1,215 — —
Property, plant, and equipment 76 258 454
Goodwill 545 1,757 2,194
Intangible assets 999 1,844 3,644
Accumulated amortization — — —
Other assets — — —
Deferred long-term asset charges — — —
Total assets $4,357 $6,378 $11,012
Liabilities
Current liabilities
Accounts payable $469 $1,174 $1,436
Short/Current long-term debt — — 600
Other current liabilities 1,227 1,358 1,496
Total current liabilities $1,696 $2,532 $3,532
Long-term debt — — —
Other liabilities — — —
Deferred long-term liability charges — — —
Minority Interest — — —
Negative goodwill — — —
Total liabilities 1,696 2,532 3,532
Stockholders’ equity
Misc. stock option warrants — — —
Redeemable preferred stock — — —
Preferred stock 3,014 3,211 2,333
Common stock 16 16 13
Retained earnings –25,513 –23,814 –19,165
Treasury stock — — —
Capital surplus 25,168 25,564 25,862
Other stockholders’ equity –24 –1,131 –1,563
Total stockholders’ equity $2,661 $3,846 $7,480
Produce a valuation estimate for Cermco for December 31, 20X5. Use whatever valuation method you think best but justify your choice. Note that you can estimate the annual income from year-to-year changes in the balance sheet.
Unit 8 DB: Systems Development and Program Changes (ACC430 Accounting Information Systems)
Per Chapter 16 Problem 6 Systems Development and Program Changes discuss the internal control weaknesses in the system development and program change procedures. Comments should relate to (but not be limited to) the organization structure, systems development, systems maintenance, internal audit participation, testing procedures, access controls, segregation of duties, program fraud and documentation inadequacies.
6. SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT AND PROGRAM CHANGES
Winston Financial Services (WFS), located in Parsippany, New Jersey, provides financial advice to small and mid-sized businesses. Its primary opera tions are in portfolio management and financial services for clients in the health care industry. Each client has general business and financial information stored on servers in the main office in Parsippany. Client investment information is stored on a separate server in their Tulsa, Oklahoma, data center. This includes the total value of the portfolio, type of investments made, the income structure of each client, and associated tax liabilities.
WFS had purchase specialized asset management software called VIEW, which allows the company to run analytics on client portfolios and to run simulations of market trends. The customization and implementation of VIEW was performed by a team of IT professionals from the consulting firm of Cutting Edge Solutions (CES).
The contract with CES required them to train a WFS employee to maintain VIEW after the implementation. For this purpose, WFS selected a programmer from their systems maintenance group who was subsequently trained in VIEW’s proprietary language and all of its functionality and controls.
Two years after the implementation of VIEW, WFS management is now considering investing in a significant custom upgrade to the system. Furthermore, since their contract with CES has expired, they have decided to assign the upgrade task to their in-house maintenance programmer who had been trained in VIEW by CES. Once the project is completed, the programmer will be redeployed to the maintenance group. This is viewed by the WFS management team to be the most feasible and economic approach.
Required
a. Discuss the risks associated with systems development approach.
b. What controls weaknesses are apparent in this approach?