E-Star Solutions
Team Members Lim Tze Wei (Daniel) (Deakin University)wilson lac (Deakin University)
Synopsis
Cancer Council Australia (CCA) is the premier non-governmental organizations involve in cancer control and it is also involve as an important advisory body for the Australian government and other organizations. The CCA is also works with its members in all eight states in Australia to combat cancer through the undertaking and funding of cancer research, prevention and control of cancer and providing information and support to people inflicted with this terrible disease.
As a result the CCA relies and needs a stable income stream to undertake its various projects. There are two very obvious methods which the CCA employs to gain the funds needed for their projects namely the usage of Cancer Council Australia brand, name and image in Licensing and Cause Related Marketing (CRM) with a large number of third party organizations of whom many come from the private sector.
As a Chartered Accountant firm, E-Star Solutions has been called in to help assess and develop and assurance model to help streamline and ensure the policies and inner workings of the CCA regarding its Licensing and CRM's campaigns are governed effectively and efficiently. We at E-star Solutions have identified four major criteria that CCA should consider before getting into agreements with third parties. They are:
•Reputation - The CCA should take in to consideration the reputation and standing of the third party organizations in relation to the business world and within society.
• Brand and product quality - Ensuring that all products and services endorsed by the CCA are of significant quality to prevent any breach in trust and getting the CCA involve in any scandals involving products and services of dubious quality
•Financial Strength - The third parties involve in licensing and Cause Related Marketing Campaigns must have the financial capability before going applying for endorsements with the CCA. This allows for a stable generation of revenue for booth parties.
•Type of product - The product and services use in CRM's and licensing campaigns must be compatible with the image and brand of the CCA.
Also included is an assurance model that we will recommend to aid in CCA CRM's/Licensing campaigns.
As a result the CCA relies and needs a stable income stream to undertake its various projects. There are two very obvious methods which the CCA employs to gain the funds needed for their projects namely the usage of Cancer Council Australia brand, name and image in Licensing and Cause Related Marketing (CRM) with a large number of third party organizations of whom many come from the private sector.
As a Chartered Accountant firm, E-Star Solutions has been called in to help assess and develop and assurance model to help streamline and ensure the policies and inner workings of the CCA regarding its Licensing and CRM's campaigns are governed effectively and efficiently. We at E-star Solutions have identified four major criteria that CCA should consider before getting into agreements with third parties. They are:
•Reputation - The CCA should take in to consideration the reputation and standing of the third party organizations in relation to the business world and within society.
• Brand and product quality - Ensuring that all products and services endorsed by the CCA are of significant quality to prevent any breach in trust and getting the CCA involve in any scandals involving products and services of dubious quality
•Financial Strength - The third parties involve in licensing and Cause Related Marketing Campaigns must have the financial capability before going applying for endorsements with the CCA. This allows for a stable generation of revenue for booth parties.
•Type of product - The product and services use in CRM's and licensing campaigns must be compatible with the image and brand of the CCA.
Also included is an assurance model that we will recommend to aid in CCA CRM's/Licensing campaigns.
View the Submission
- CASC Assurance Report PDF File PDF Document (Click to download)
Hiya! fellow aspiring accountants feel free to give your opinions on the merits and drawbacks of our report. Feedback is much appreciated.
By Lim on April 10 2009, 12:11 PM
IMPO, I felt your report was providing a framework for creating an evaluation model, rather then an actual model for evaluating proposals. The report is well rounded, but I felt it lacked depth? But overall, I think it's still a very nice entry. :)
By Cameron Kuek Jin on April 10 2009, 4:42 PM
Well thank you for your opinion it was much appreciated. In a way you’re partly right, my report contain both a framework for creating an evaluation model and as well an actual model for evaluating licensing and CRM's proposals. It contain elements of an evaluation model as I felt it was necessary to give the report more flexibility especially if the CCA wishes to customize or modify the final model my team proposed to better accommodate unforeseen circumstances or scenarios especially since the CCA did not make their current model for evaluating such proposals easily available on their website. Overall I was aiming for a well rounded report that covered a wide spectrum of factors that will add value to the assurance report which I believe does add depth to the report. Thanks for your opinion again. =)
By Lim on April 10 2009, 6:25 PM
Your submission provides a great answer to the first half of the question, by developing a model which will allow Cancer Council Australia to evaluate partnership proposals. However, the ‘assurance model’ you developed seems to focus on first half of the question, rather than the second half: ‘to gain assurance in relation to the amount of royalties payable by third parties’. There is also no mention of any ‘provisions which should be included in contractual arrangements to allow for this activity’.
By Elliott on April 10 2009, 8:42 PM
Thank you for your honest opinion Elliot and yes I do admit that the the report may not be detail enough for some people. Due to the constraints place on the number of pages, the provisions you mentioned was written in such a way that it was 'merge" within the background of the report. I will be the first to admit that such a strategy would not be able to satisfy everybody as it would create an appearance of a report that may or may not be as detail as many people would have hope. However I did the report to the best of my ability and would regard it as sufficiently detail for the task it was set out to do. Once again I would like to thank you for giving your honest opinion on the matter and all the best wishes from me as well.
By Lim on April 10 2009, 11:03 PM
Hi E-Star Solutions, Great idea to use a PDF document for your report, they provide a really professional touch to submissions. Your proposal evaluation model was well done however I have to agree with Cameron and Elliott that I would have liked to see more depth - especially in regard to the Assurance Model. Your PDF could have been more effective in my opinion if you were more concise about your points and used more paragraphs and subheadings. Congrats for putting in the effort, Good Luck, **The Innovators**
By George on April 14 2009, 12:48 PM
Hi back to you George from the Innovators. Thank you for your comments and your praises. We did the report to the best of our ability. Completing the report was challenging but incredibly rewarding as we are just a team completely consisting of first year university students straight from year 12. Regarding your comment on paragraphs and subheadings, due to the constraints on the number of pages we have to unfortunately 'fudge' some aspects of our report. However I believe due to such circumstances we have provided enough paragraphs and subheadings needed for this report. Once again I would like to thank you for your insight and wish 'The Innovators' all the best as well. Thank you and have a nice day.
By Lim on April 14 2009, 6:35 PM
We agree with Cameron's opinion that your report has built a framework for evaluation but lacks the logical mechanism on how to assess the prospective company on every criterion. The report will be more complete If you can explain practically how you assess each criteria, e.g. rating/checklist/balance scores. However, since you are all year 1 students straight from year 12 like you said above, the quality of your report is impressive. Good Luck! MQ-ACCG
By Ching Suet on April 16 2009, 10:14 PM
Thank you for your comments Ching Suet from MQ-ACCG. Yes once again I would grudgingly admit our report may not be detail enough for some people and due to the limits place on the number of pages many aspects of our report was unfortunately needed to be edited out. Some parts of the report that we started in early February (yes we did began that early after by chance we came across reports of last year competitors on the net and was inspired to try to to see if we can emulate them) have to be edited out once we realize much later that the maximum number of pages is five excluding the cover. However I am proud of what my team accomplished so far and still feel that it has its strong points when it comes to to relevancy to the question posed by Cancer Council Australia. I also would like to thank and wish you guys at MQ-ACCG for commenting and the best of luck to you as well!! Have a great day and enjoy the holidays while it lasts! =)
By Lim on April 16 2009, 11:38 PM