I.T.Management Handbook

Developments in information technology (IT), particularly during the 1980s, have had a fundamental impact on anyone working in the financial field at whatever level. Indeed, many of today's newer accountants will never have known a working environment in which computerization has not played a major part in their day-to-day activities. Those with longer experience have had to adjust rapidly at the risk of being cast adrift in the wake of the changes which have swept through the profession. All of this is particularly true for management accountants, whose work has been revolutionized, partly by the widespread adoption of spreadsheet and other modelling packages available on microcomputers, but more generally by the various other progressions in the computing field which have left an impression on the business environment which will never be reversed. Certainly, as a major user of IT, the management accountant has potentially more techniques and tools available to him or her than ever before and, with information holding the key to business survival and success, the role of the information user and provider has never been more important.
In the 1990s there are few signs that the rate of IT developments will slacken, which implies that more changes will be afoot for the management accountant of tomorrow. The talk in the 1990s is of such topics as interaction between systems on a previously unheard-of scale, as manufacturers of hardware and developers of software work towards common standards and open systems which can, ultimately, only be of benefit to the users of the technology. In the world of microcomputers, predictions show that processing power will have multiplied many times by the end of the decade. The management accountant of the year 2000, whilst probably possessing broadly the same core skills as today, will be operating in an environment in which the pressure to rapidly assess and present information will almost certainly have intensified even further. Hence, there are so many developments proceeding in so many directions that capturing a "snapshot" in technical terms is almost worthless, as it will date, if not within the time of the publication cycle, then shortly after.
Hence it is more sensible to concentrate upon some of the overall management issues and to deal with some specific areas in a broad context. The management of IT does not necessarily involve knowing a bit from a byte (although there is little doubt that some technical knowledge helps), but is rather a discipline of keeping abreast of current developments and repeatedly asking the questions: "can I do it better?", "can I do it quicker?", "can I do it more cost-effectively?". In the developing world of IT, the answers to these questions can change over a short period, and it is the manager who can grasp this tenet and then act accordingly who is likely to force the competitive edge. One of the problems which many companies have found in their use of IT is that the pressure for development and implementation has largely been driven, probably in a piecemeal fashion, by the lower and middle management of specific departments. This may have resulted partly from the surprise element of microcomputers in the early 1980s, when their sudden appearance in user departments started a trend which the established data processing (DP) management found hard to reverse.
In any event, senior management often became involved only at a much later stage, and even then only if something had gone seriously awry. With this lack of strategic control, it is hardly surprising to find the disparate range of systems which have mushroomed in an ad hoc fashion over the years in many organizations. This provides, therefore, a wide ranging summary of some of the principal aspects of IT management which are likely to affect management accountants in the years to come. No text can be comprehensive in such a wide and rapidly changing environment, but the authors, with considerable practical experience in their various fields, have created a stimulating volume for those who hope to be at the forefront of information management in the 1990s.
 
Developments in information technology (IT), particularly during the 1980s, have had a fundamental impact on anyone working in the financial field at whatever level. Indeed, many of today's newer accountants will never have known a working environment in which computerization has not played a major part in their day-to-day activities. Those with longer experience have had to adjust rapidly at the risk of being cast adrift in the wake of the changes which have swept through the profession. All of this is particularly true for management accountants, whose work has been revolutionized, partly by the widespread adoption of spreadsheet and other modelling packages available on microcomputers, but more generally by the various other progressions in the computing field which have left an impression on the business environment which will never be reversed. Certainly, as a major user of IT, the management accountant has potentially more techniques and tools available to him or her than ever before and, with information holding the key to business survival and success, the role of the information user and provider has never been more important.
In the 1990s there are few signs that the rate of IT developments will slacken, which implies that more changes will be afoot for the management accountant of tomorrow. The talk in the 1990s is of such topics as interaction between systems on a previously unheard-of scale, as manufacturers of hardware and developers of software work towards common standards and open systems which can, ultimately, only be of benefit to the users of the technology. In the world of microcomputers, predictions show that processing power will have multiplied many times by the end of the decade. The management accountant of the year 2000, whilst probably possessing broadly the same core skills as today, will be operating in an environment in which the pressure to rapidly assess and present information will almost certainly have intensified even further. Hence, there are so many developments proceeding in so many directions that capturing a "snapshot" in technical terms is almost worthless, as it will date, if not within the time of the publication cycle, then shortly after.
Hence it is more sensible to concentrate upon some of the overall management issues and to deal with some specific areas in a broad context. The management of IT does not necessarily involve knowing a bit from a byte (although there is little doubt that some technical knowledge helps), but is rather a discipline of keeping abreast of current developments and repeatedly asking the questions: "can I do it better?", "can I do it quicker?", "can I do it more cost-effectively?". In the developing world of IT, the answers to these questions can change over a short period, and it is the manager who can grasp this tenet and then act accordingly who is likely to force the competitive edge. One of the problems which many companies have found in their use of IT is that the pressure for development and implementation has largely been driven, probably in a piecemeal fashion, by the lower and middle management of specific departments. This may have resulted partly from the surprise element of microcomputers in the early 1980s, when their sudden appearance in user departments started a trend which the established data processing (DP) management found hard to reverse.
In any event, senior management often became involved only at a much later stage, and even then only if something had gone seriously awry. With this lack of strategic control, it is hardly surprising to find the disparate range of systems which have mushroomed in an ad hoc fashion over the years in many organizations. This provides, therefore, a wide ranging summary of some of the principal aspects of IT management which are likely to affect management accountants in the years to come. No text can be comprehensive in such a wide and rapidly changing environment, but the authors, with considerable practical experience in their various fields, have created a stimulating volume for those who hope to be at the forefront of information management in the 1990s.