Reflective Case

I believe that in order for businesses to thrive in this day and age they must embrace information technology. Information technology is everywhere and incorporated into our daily lives that to ignore it and pretend it isn't there is virtually impossible. Not that many years ago, government auditing was done with pencil and paper and the merits of the audit were based in part on the weight of the audit package. Now, the push is to go paperless. Every year, often quarterly, there are new and updated software that has either been improved or developed to help us become more efficient at doing our job and benefit the war fighter and the American tax payer.

What factors are necessary for businesses and organizations to make use of information systems for competitive advantage and strategic decision making? The most important thing is for the owners and managers to be open to change and new ideas. Implementing an information system is viable for large corporations as well as small mom and pop shops. A small enterprise could purchase off the shelf software, or even hire an outside service, to implement an information system with price ranges that could fit most any budget. Whereas a large, global corporation could see costs in the millions of dollars for a fully integrated enterprise system that links multiple segments, subsidiaries, etc. The cost benefit, of course, needs to be weighed, but the world that we live in, necessitates the expenditure of funds on information technology, with the plans to expand as warranted.

At this time, the agency that I work for, has embraced information technology. They would like us to get to the point where we are able to virtually perform paperless audits. We receive audit guidance electronically, we are able to perform substantive and analytical procedures entirely electronically, in fact, that is preferred as we are able to substantiate our position or prove our work easier. Excel, for example,