Page 452 - Introduction to Business

426 PART 4 Accounting

power as measured by processing speed, storage capacity, and portability will con-
tinue advancing. Are there limits to what technology can accomplish? Before the
invention of microcomputers and spreadsheet software, few could have predicted
their impact on the accounting profession.
Our world is changing. International trade and technological advances have
dramatically shaped our modern culture. There have been periods of rapid change
throughout recorded history. Like the invention of the printing press, the computer
and the Internet are having a profound impact on how people communicate, work,
and relax.
Information technology has dramatically altered the business world, especially
in accounting. The accumulation, storage, and processing of vast amounts of finan-
cial data once required armies of “number-crunchers.” Now the number-crunching
is turned over to computers. Accountants are able to focus on other aspects of their
role in the firm, such as financial analysis, operational auditing, internal control
evaluation, and managerial planning.

American Institute of CPAs Top Ten Technologies

The Information Technology Division of the American Institute of CPAs identified
technologies expected to have an impact on accounting or business in general. On
an overall basis, the top ten technologies were listed as follows: 2
1. Information security. The hardware, software, processes, and procedures in
place to protect an organization’s information systems from internal and
external threats. They include firewalls, antivirus procedures, password man-
agement, patches, locked facilities, Internet protocol strategy, and perimeter
control.
2. Business information management. The process of capturing, indexing, stor-
ing, retrieving, searching, and managing documents electronically, including
knowledge and database management (XML, PDF, and other formats).
Business information management brings to fruition the promise of the
“paperless office.”
3. Application integration. The ability of different operating systems, applica-
tions, and databases to “talk” to each other and for information to flow freely
regardless of application, language, or platform.
4. Web services. Applications that use the Internet as their infrastructure and
access tool, including both Web-enabled and Web-based applications. Exam-
ples include Java applications, Microsoft’s .Net initiative, and today’s Applica-
tion Service Providers (ASPs) and business portals.
5. Disaster recovery planning. The development, monitoring, and updating of
the process by which organizations plan for the continuity of their business in
the event of a loss of business information resources due to impairments such
as theft, virus infestation, weather damage, accidents, or other malicious
destruction.
6. Wireless technologies. The transfer of voice or data from one machine to
another via the airwaves without physical connection. Examples include
cellular, satellite, infrared, Bluetooth, wireless (WiFi), 3G, and two-way paging.
7. Intrusion detection. Software or hardware solutions that list and track suc-
cessful and unsuccessful log-in attempts on a network, such as Tripwire.
Intrusion detection capabilities are being built into many of today’s firewall
applications.

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