Subject : System Information Auditing Please read carefully for the following case: Tractors Inc., is employing the system development life cycle for its new information systems development. One of new systems that was developed is sales system. This system covers order transactions, billing, account receivable and cash receipts transactions. Rudy Hamilton, a manager of the credit collection department for this company is extremely unhappy with a new system that was installed three months ago. His complaint is that the data flows from the billing and accounts receivable departments are not occurring in the manner originally requested. Further, the updates to the database files are not occurring as frequently as he had envisioned. Thus, the hope that the new system would provide more current and timely information has not materialized. He claims that the systems analysts spent three days interviewing him and other workers. During that time, he and the other workers thought they had clearly conveyed their needs. He feels as if their needs were ignored and their time was wasted.

Another system that was developed is Cash Disbursement system. The system has database that consists of the following tables: 1. Purchase Order 2. Receiving Report 3. Vendor Invoice 4. Cash Disbursements Angela Alper, the cash disbursement clerk of Tractors, Inc., has the database access presented in table below

In addition to develop new systems, last year Tractors, Inc., purchased a SaaS application from Next Gen Systems (a cloud service provider) to run mission critical financial transactions. The SaaS application runs on an IaaS server, which Next Gen Systems outsourced to another service provider. You have been chosen as a member of the development team because of your strong accounting background, you are required to provide the answers for the following questions:

1. What went wrong during the systems design process as Rudy Hamilton complaint about?
2. What suggestions would you make for future projects?
3. Regarding the database access privileges assigned to Angela Alper, discuss the appropriateness of her access privileges. What, if any, internal control problems may result?
4. Discuss the various feasibility measures that should be considered by the developer team prior to develop the new systems? Give examples.
5. In terms of purchasing a SaaS application from Next Gen Systems, explain the key features of cloud computing.
6. As an Accountant, explain how you will assess the relevant internal controls related to these mission critical financial transactions that is run on a SaaS application.
7. Explain the risks that need to be anticipated by Tractors, Inc. and Next Gen Systems in outsourcing their IT.

Database Table Purchase Order Receiving Report Vendor Invoice Cash Disbursements Y Y Y Y Authority Level Read Insert Modify Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Delete N N N Y Y = Yes; N = No Database Table Purchase Order Receiving Report Vendor Invoice Cash Disbursements Y Y Y Y Authority Level Read Insert Modify Y Y Y Y Y N N Y Delete N N N Y Y = Yes; N = No