Finally, the test of controls for the posting and summarization objective will be to examine evidence that the accounts receivable master file is reconciled to the general ledger and observe whether monthly statements are sent to customers. Transaction-Related Audit Objectives Key Internal Controls Tests of Controls Substantive Tests of Transactions Recorded sales transactions are accurate. Sales and amounts are internally verified for description of the order and quantity. Examine indication of internal verification Compare recorded transitions in the sales acquisitions journal with the vendor’s invoice, receiving report, and other supporting documents. Sales invoices, shipping documents, and sales orders are pre-numbered for Apollo.
In an effort to reduce the need to request rate increases and to establish additional sources of revenue, Prestige Telephone obtained regulatory permission from the State Public Service Commission to spin off their computer data processing unit into a subsidiary, Prestige Data Services, in 1999. The strategic business objective for Prestige Data Services was to sell unused computer processing time to other businesses while continuing to service Prestige Telephone’s computer processing needs. Although early reporting showed sufficient customer demand, the newly formed subsidiary experienced significant issues with finding new customers. As of the end of March, 2003, Prestige Data Services had still not become profitable. When Daniel Rowe, Prestige Telephone President, become obligated to report to shareholders that their return on investment was the lowest it had been in seven years, he felt it was time to assess whether or not to continue operating Prestige Data Services.
It was a minor flaw that doctors were not involved in the initial trials to point out some critical design flaws. It is important to have proper market research by talking to customers or the end user before continuing on. This happened to turn out alright though since Newland was forced to have several suppliers where quality could be monitored more closely. Although quality was improved, manufacturing lead time was reduced in order to coordinate several different suppliers.. Newland was debating whether to focus on improving manufacturing capacity, which would boost appeal as an acquisition for potential buyers. I would recommend that they do pursue investing in manufacturing to help sell their product since their original strategy was to have the company acquired from outside investors.
Erstwhile his performance was very good till the new system of performance evaluation came into vogue. Frits Seegers, President of Citibank, California and other top management decided to introduce non-financial statistics for each branch in the performance evaluation, since evaluating only financial statistics and neglecting some of the keys non-financial statistics items in the performance evaluation such as customer satisfaction rating in the performance evaluation may lead to deterioration of bank’s performance in the long run. Hence the new performance appraisal system came into vogue since 1996 incorporating customer satisfaction rating as one of the elements determining the performance of a branch manager in Citibank. As a result of this, James McGaran's performance appraisal which usually exceeded expectations year after year had suffered in the rating of costumer satisfaction ratings which was introduced in the new performance scorecard that measured non-financial statistics for each branch. On careful perusal of the case, some of the following interesting observations were
In addition the company decided to install software from Siebel Systems Inc. of San Mateo, California. Siebel's software would aid Hershey in managing customer relations and in tracking the effectiveness of its marketing activities.Management believed that the project would help Hershey better execute its business strategy of emphasizing its core mass-market candy business. Afterward, Hershey Foods said it had completed an upgrade to mySAP.com—on schedule and below budget.It was a significant turnaround for a company that had become an example of how not to do a major software project. In 1999, Hershey stumbled while rushing to complete an enterprise systems overhaul, with a new SAP implementation at its core. Basic order management and fulfillment processes broke down, causing the company to fail to meet
Weaknesses • The development team carried dual responsibility developing the product as well market for it. • Team decided to develop small 1.3 inch drive, without doing enough market research. After the project had started they were still figuring out a market after the technology, rather than the other way around. • They took the approach that if they build it, people will buy it and had set an optimistic estimate of $100 million revenue rate for a market that did not even exist. • By laying such emphasis on the 1.3 inch drive with autonomy to make decisions etc, HP could have made the rest of the DMD team feel as if they were working on less important projects.
In addition, when CEMEX began expanding abroad, they used PMI teams to streamline a new firm, identify and retain talent, and adopt the key standards of CEMEX's business model. This ensures that their subsidiaries are working in the same fashion as the home plant. CEMEX ws also able to reduce their costs by incorporating new technology, which allowed them to maximize knowledge to everyone in the company, and allow operations to flow more smoothly. In addition, concentrating their focus on other countries can help ensure stable revenues, such that if their home country is experiencing a downturn in GDP, they can stabilize their sales in other countries experiencing GDP growth. Further, there has been a reduction on tariffs due to exporting their product.
Hugo Boss is working toward improving their efficiency and responsiveness toward the NOS items buy utilizing a SCO Pilot system that will help with product availability issues. They are currently having issues during key retail replenishment periods, such as December, and losing revenue due to stockouts (1.1% of net sales in 2004). Changes in demand and production lag time created a persistent challenge to have the right amount of inventory at the right time. NOS (never out of stock) items do not change seasonally (style, color, and fabric remain constant for three years) and before the SCO pilot system, Hugo Boss was placing orders for these products once a month. Upon implementation of this system, they changed to ordering weekly.
They should have realized that the consumer wanted something more than a bulky phone, it would have to be elegantly designed and a fashionable statement. The market size of the elite business traveler that can afford a $3000 phone is very limited, and once saturated, the growth rate would be non-existent. Also, rivals were going to launch their products within months after Iridium, at a dramatically lower cost per minute and cheaper equipment costs. The company only focused on one type of customer, the elite business traveler. They should have thought about what kind of
By expanding the number of EMS suppliers, Microsoft wanted to meet production volume requirements and help support the Xbox 360 rollout globally. • For the original Xbox, Flextronics recommended Microsoft to manufacture the Xboxes in China to minimize labor costs. But Microsoft wanted to build the plants close to customers due to shipping concerns and replenish the Xboxes more quickly once they released the Xbox consoles in the market. Flextronics manufactured its Xboxes in industrial parks in Mexico (for sale in North America) and Hungary (for sale in Europe). The co-location of Flextronics at an industrial park minimized shipping costs and improved information flow between Flextronics and its vendors.