CMA - the Management Accounting Magazine articles from March 1997

CMA - the Management Accounting Magazine archives from March 1997

Aligning information resources with business strategy. (part one)
March 1, 1997... Aligning information resources with business strategy is not just the tide of this column, it is also my job description. It is critical in business today to converge the information and business roles and I am pleased to share some of the...

Communication starts with rapport.
March 1, 1997... We all find ourselves in situations where our attempts at communication are met with glassy stares, defensive body postures, and answers that do not seem to have anything to do with our questions. In these instances, we are victims of...

Making sustainable development a corporate reality.(Cover Story)
March 1, 1997... A newly emerging field of accounting for sustainable development can help us meet the needs of the present without compromising those of the future. Many corporate shareholders, managers, employees and an array of stakeholders recognize the...

The outsourcing alternative: making sure it will work for you.
March 1, 1997... Outsourcing is a viable alternative to in-house management that can either provide new value, or a new set of problems. Here are some of the key issues to consider and a suggested proven approach for addressing them. A significant number of...

ABC for government contractors? (activity-based costing)
March 1, 1997... Activity-based cost analysis has repeatedly shown that the use of volume-variable output measures can result in distortion in the assignment of indirect cost. Could this also be true of government contract costing? The federal government is...

Software giants: get the big picture.
March 1, 1997... A checklist for objectively evaluating the software giants and choosing the right mission-critical system. Every year, giant software vendors like SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, Baan and D&B sell hundreds of millions, and even billions, of dollars...

Toolkit. (memory devices)
March 1, 1997... Plug-in storage There is still no agreement on the age-old question of "what came first... the chicken or the egg." Did computer software programs become huge because large amounts of disk storage space were inexpensive, or did the need for...

Quality and "do-it-right, first time" has to include bottom-line viability.
March 1, 1997... We all know the value of "doing things right the first time." We have learned from experience that going back to fix things just doesn't make business sense (and often never happens anyway once a program or system is implemented). So, why do we...

Materiel must be better management.
March 1, 1997... The term "materiel," as used in the Government of Canada, refers to all moveable public property and all assets other than money and real property. It encompasses a broad range of items, from pencils and paper to ships and aircraft. Departments...

Harmonized sales tax: times (and taxes) are changing!
March 1, 1997... On April 23, 1996, the federal government and three Atlantic provinces signed a memorandum of understanding to implement what could be the most significant change to public policy in this country since Confederation. The separation of powers...

Developing comprehensive performance indicators.
March 1, 1997... To improve performance, many firms are introducing new management techniques. But often their performance management systems have not been sufficiently redesigned to meet the needs of the environment, future needs in addition to past ones, and...