Managing IT Change—Program Governance

• Author: Thomas R. Weirich,Frank Andera,Art Worster
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22283
• Date: 01 July 2017

53

© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI 10.1002/jcaf.22283

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Managing IT Change—Program

Governance

Art Worster, Thomas R. Weirich, and Frank Andera

INTRODUCTION

As we have

described over the

past articles in this

series, the introduc-

tion of integrated

business processes

into functionally

organized businesses

creates challenges

that are significantly

different. This is both

in scope and com-

plexity, from issues

we have dealt with in

the past. From the

perspective of man-

agement accountants,

understanding how functional

areas relate to each other

provides the ability to both

understand data presented to

them and to provide input to

the design and implementation

of enterprise resource planning

(ERP) applications. There are,

however, two additional aspects

of these programs where the

management accountants can

provide guidance and oversight

once they acquire understand-

ing of how these systems

operate. The role of getting,

collating, and analyzing busi-

ness performance to provide

guidance to senior leadership

is key, and ERP provides the

opportunity to increase the

importance of that role. These

two areas are:

1. Management

information. Ulti-

mately, an orga-

nization must

capture accurate

and timely data

used to sup-

port reporting

and analyses

necessary for

leadership to

make informed

decisions. This

applies to both

the immediate

operations of the

company and the

development of

long-term strategy.

It is this relationship

between strategic informa-

tion needs and the design

of applications that capture

data that is key. Data is

used to support the analy-

ses that are critical to the

health of the organization.

Without individuals in the

organization who under-

stand strategic information

In this article, the authors describe a new role for

management accountants related to the design

and implementation of enterprise resource plan-

ning (ERP) applications. Their intimate involve-

ment, working with leaders to identify the reports

and analyses necessary for making business

decisions, ensures that, working backward, the

data elements that will be required are included

in design requirements. The second role the

management accountant can play is to establish

a comprehensive audit program that will work

intimately with the project team to ensure that the

program stays on time and budget, while deliver-

ing the information necessary for leaders to make

informed decisions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This is the final (eleventh) installment in a series of articles that have appeared in JCAF. Art Worster and his associates,

Thomas R. Weirich and Frank Andera, address matters that arise during and after the implementation of integrated IT

applications in a business.

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