The Power of IT: Maximizing Your Technology Investment.

• Author: Neubert, Dale

Reviewed by Dale Neubert, director of finance, Howard County, Maryland, and member of GFOA's Committee on Retirement and Benefits Administration and also GFOA's Special Task Force on Technology.

It is the acronym for information technology and is of great significance to finance professionals, as a lack of understanding of IT can jeopardize financial systems, the heart and soul of every finance department. As finance departments have become more and more automated, reliance on computer software has escalated. Basic systems of financial software typically include a combination of general ledger, real and personal property, water and sewer, parking violations, payroll, purchasing, and online cashiering systems. In addition to the basic systems, finance departments can rely on external systems and programs such as retail lockboxes, direct debit which automatically accesses payments from customers on due dates, mass payment of property taxes from banks, outsourced payroll, and uploads and downloads from banking systems. As the dependence on software systems has grown, so has the need for IT knowledge. It is safe to say that IT knowledge is a lifeline for finance professionals.

This book, planned as an aid to making businesses more profitable by using IT successfully, "is directed to those business managers who are more frequently making far-reaching, expensive, and high-impact decisions concerning the technological path their company should take in a desire to remain competitive and profitable. These business managers are generally nontechnical by training, but are expected daily to not only run a business, but also to learn a technology that even computer professionals find difficult."

Braithwaite provides insight into the basics of quality management as a preamble to automating the business requirement. There are interesting examples of how critical quality is in the development of systems and the embarrassing and occasionally devastating consequences of poor quality systems and information. Two such examples are the automated baggage system at Denver Airport, which delayed its opening at a cost of $1.1 million each day, and Bank of America's trust accounting and reporting system, which was brought on-line without complete debugging and which...