Trends in Management Accounting - Qualitygradeprofessors

The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) has a series of YouTube Videos on Trends in Management Accounting. We will continue to review and discuss some of these trends to learn about developments in this field for discussions in this course.

Listen to the following two videos in the IMA series:

Required:

(150 words) Comment and expand on a topic discussed in the videos and provide a real world example from the news or your own experience.

Presence during both weeks of the module and a minimum of three postings are expected, one original posting and two responses to colleagues. Minimum required participation does not guarantee a perfect score.

Additionally, respond to the following with at least 100 words and 1 reference:

1) Business analytics is important in management accounting because it helps in making better decisions through gathering and analyzing of data and information. With the use of business analytics an organization is able to develop a well-structured strategy map to help in achieving its mission and vision. Also, business analytics uses regression and correlation methods which enables the interpretation and prediction of different aspects within the organization leading to informed decision making and realization of financial gains in the long run. An example of a company that uses data analytics is coca cola. The company collects information through different platforms such as emails and social media which is then analyzed to determine customer preferences. This enables the company to produce products which are marketable hence increasing its customer base and financial gains.

http://www.ijstm.com/images/short_pdf/1486479632_D590ijstm.pdf

2) After viewing the Trend 4 video, I had to research more. I have a friend in Colorado who is a business analyst. I asked what exactly that entailed and he said “it’s looking at large amounts of data and using excel with custom macros”. However, back then this meant nothing to me. Now, it’s a different story. I know how important business analyst are and how much of an emerging business it is, I have many more questions to ask my friend. Apparently, there is a difference between business intelligence and business analytics. According to Gary Cokins, business intelligence allows you to “drill down and see things and then report on what happened…business analytics, on the other hand, allows an organization to investigate and answer a different question, which is “Why did it happen?” (2013) Answering this “why did it happen?”, allow businesses to reflect and plan better. This better insight into the future begins to roll into to predictive analytics (Thomson, 2013). Therefore, business analytics is the way to go instead of business intelligence. Which, if you would have asked me last year is business intelligence and business analytics different, I would have said no. However, it is neat beginning to see things come together, how business analytics provides the grounds for predictive analytics.

Thomson, J. (2013, December ). Forbes. Demystifying Enterprise Performance Management For CFOs. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffthomson/2013/12/20/demystifying-enterprise-performance-management-for-cfos/#5b8ae64129af