Accounting Information Systems Final Report Paige Pennington Kelly Broyles Vanessa Giovanini Neil Bergman Phillip Kallal 1 I Executive Summary 3 Table of Contents II U S Government 4 III Description of the Delphi eInvoicing System 5 a Unique Features 5 b Cost 6 c Accounting Information System 7 IV How the Delphi eInvoicing System is Used 10 a eInvoicing 10 b Federal Aviation Agency 11 c National Credit Union Association 12 d National Endowment for the Arts 13 V Benefits 15 a Analytical capabilities 15 b Integration Capabilities 15 c Benefits of eInvoicing 16 d Strong Supplier 17 VI Risks 19 a User Hesitation 19 b Complex Implementation 19 c Network Security 19 VII Conclusion 21 VIII References 22 2 Executive summary This report provides an analysis of the Delphi eInvoicing1 accounting information system currently being used by the U S government This system is offered by Oracle the leader in database systems design The sources used in our analyses are a combination of related articles scholarly reports and government documents All citations can be found in the footnotes present on each page Our group found that the Delphi system is an extremely effective accounting information system for the government to use We illustrate what characterizes it as an accounting information system as well as some of its risk and benefits After our analysis we determined that the benefits provided by the Delphi system greatly outweigh the cost and the risk We have predicted that the system will continue to grow at an expedient rate and that in the future a majority of government agencies will be using this system 1 Upon our research we learned that eInvoicing is the correct way to spell eInvoicing despite it being marked incorrect on Microsoft Word spell check 3 U S Government As a group of aspiring accountants we have chosen to study and report on the Delphi eInvoicing system This system is relatively new and is being quickly adopted by many government agencies This system is powered by Oracle s iSupplier platform and intends to be implemented by all Operation Administration by Fall 2012 Ochs 2012 Although the system has not met its goal of being fully implemented the current administration has been putting heavy pressure on all organization to switch over to it The U S government has complex accounting needs as the government can be seen as the largest public organization in the world The U S government makes payments and receives payments just like any other corporation One unique thing the government does that no other organizations do is hire government contractors These government contractors may be privately owned companies who are selected based on merit and prior performance to do work that the government does not have the internal resources to do themselves Dunbar 2013 The contracts that these companies receive to work can span several years and hundreds of millions of dollars Due to their massive size the government needs an accounting system that can accurately manage the payment of any grants and contracts they give out The Delphi eInvoicing system has provided a lot of support to the government in regards to grant payment 4 Description of the Delphi eInvoicing System Unique Features The Delphi system has some unique features that set it apart from other information systems that also offer eInvoicing The Delphi system allows for the creation of standardized invoices which is extremely important because it eliminates different grant recipients from submitting different types of invoices Once users select the Create Standard Invoice tab the system will lead them through the invoice creation process Delphi einvoicing system 2011 This preformatted screen also has required fields that ensure that all invoices contain a standardized amount of information and are not missing any necessary information Another unique characteristic of the Delphi system is auto generated email notifications to expedite the payment process When an invoice is submitted financial personnel receive an automated email that a payment request is pending Ryder 2012 By receiving this email employees who are hired to review payment do not have to consciously search for new pending payments This email feature also gives them a way of going back and confirming that they have reviewed every payment that was submitted The Federal Aviation Administration for example states that FAA staff will review these payment request within 30 days Ryder 2012 The Delphi system has given them the ability to always know how many payments are pending which payments they have reviewed and how many days ago it was sent All of these abilities help them ensure that they maintain their reputation and actually review each request within the 30 day window Cost Apart from all of the technical characteristics of the Delphi system it also can be characterized as very expensive This system costs about 100 million to develop and deploy 5 Ochs 2012 Despite this high cost reponses to the system in regards to personnel responses and revenue response have both been positive Petri Hallikainen an economics professor describes how the system helps the bottom line by explaining how receiving the invoice data in electronic format makes the invoice handling process at the buying organization more efficient and generates cost savings Hallikainen 2011 In the long run it is predicted that the system will end up paying for itself because of all of the cost savings The cost of implementing this system is also not as material as it may seem to the average person Since government agencies are the organizations which are adopting this system the Office of Management and Budget funds its implementation and maintenance Its 100 million cost also lacks materiality as the Office of Management and Budget is currently spending 34 661 million dollars on information and technology management Miller 2012 Not only is the Delphi system relatively inexpensive to implement in relation to the total sum that they are spending but it also would save the OMB millions of dollars if every government agency began implementing the Delphi system A large portion of the OMB s expenses comes from having to maintain hundreds of different types of IT systems In an attempt to cut their IT cost OMB is currently giving agencies four months to figure out their shared IT services Miller 2012 This pressure will cause more government agencies to implement the Delphi system in the near future Accounting
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