Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

News

La Trobe helps itself

It was literally a case of La Trobe University helping itself when the academic Department of Accounting and Management helped the administration Finance Division to streamline an auditing process.

In the process 50 students gained practical hands-on experience in modernising a real life accounting procedure. Early in 2003, Dr Rajiv Khosla, an Associate Professor Accounting and Management, approached Dr Diane Kraal, Manager (Taxation and Banking) of the University's Finance Division, for project ideas for second and third year Management Information Systems students.

Dr Kraal told him that the Finance Division's manual system for cross-checking receipts and other data needed updating and refining and threw out the challenge to Dr Khosla's students to come up with answers.

The students were charged with producing a workable Accountable Documents Management System prototype and were given one semester to complete their project and to prepare their presentation.

Four teams presented their projects to the Finance Division which selected two students, Danny Walsh and Benjamin de Vaus, to devise and produce a commercial version of the system.

Mr Walsh, a mature age student, and Mr de Vaus, were paid for six weeks to develop their system and a user manual. The two students met with Finance Division staff and the University auditor to determine final specifications.

'The previous system was a laborious manual procedure that did not allow efficient crosschecking,' said Mr Walsh.

'Developing the system was hands-on 'real life' stuff, a steep learning experience for me as I had been virtually computer illiterate before starting this course. Benjamin developed the software while I worked on the user manual and between us we came up with the goods,' he said.

Mr de Vaus said: 'There were a few problems we had to resolve - getting it right and ensuring it met everybody's needs - and making it user friendly. It was a chance to achieve something practical.'

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