Business Processes and Information Technology.
ULRIC J. GELINAS, STEVE G. SUTTON, and JANE FEDOROWICZ, Business Processes and Information Technology, First Edition (Mason, OH: South-Western, 2004, pp. xvi, 543).Gelinas, Sutton, and Fedorowicz (GSF) state the following pedagogical objective: "A student will walk away with an understanding of the foundation tools and knowledge required for the analysis, design, and control of IT-driven business processes using current and emerging technologies" (vi). This book integrates three major themes: enterprise systems, e-business, and information technology. GSF is appropriate as the primary textbook for an Accounting Information Systems (AIS) course as well as a general business Information Systems (IS) course. The text has many strong attributes as well as a few points that may cause concern with some professors.
GSF is written at an introductory level and is appropriate for undergraduate courses. Each chapter opens with a real-world vignette to illustrate the concepts explained. The book incorporates many figures and tables to help clarify difficult concepts, and technology exhibits provide lucid explanations of subjects such as computer viruses, cookies, and XBRL. Finally, 12 informative appendixes cover subjects such as electronic data interchange standards, data encryption, and public key cryptography.
Student knowledge is reinforced with assignments that provide rigorous and comprehensive coverage. GSF includes a variety of review questions, discussion questions, problems, and case studies. End-of-chapter materials could be improved with additional further reading suggestions, lists of key terms, and Internet site references.
Instructional support tools are available on CD and online. Ancillaries include a dedicated website, test bank, solutions manual, PowerPoint[R] slides, and instructor's resource manual. In addition, students are supplemented with PowerPoint slides that elucidate key points and the back of the book contains a glossary of terms and subject index.
GSF is different from usual AIS texts as it is not specifically targeted at accounting students but designed more as a general purpose IS book. It appears to be written for a diverse audience due to the unique focus that emphasizes business processes and the content that covers a broad spectrum of IS issues. Another differentiating item is its coverage of the Control Matrix with applications to processes. In spite of this, one possible draw back for an AIS course is that there is no coverage of the Resources, Events, and Agents (REA) data model. If you are searching for an advanced AIS text specifically written for accounting students, GSF may not satisfy your needs.
Overall, GSF is a well-organized, appropriately balanced, and clearly written book with coherent coverage in enterprise systems, business processes, security, and internal control. It is more conceptual and less procedural with ample coverage in the area of documenting the IS process. For example, it allocates sufficient space to database modeling and the relational paradigm, but very little content is devoted to Structured Query Language (SQL). Accordingly, GSF is more concise than other comparable textbooks.
New AIS instructors searching for a text and experienced faculty who are dissatisfied with their current AIS book, should consider adopting GSF. Currently satisfied professors may want to examine GSF, if they are interested in reviewing a book that features broad coverage of the IS function.
In summary, GSF successfully achieves its purpose by covering a wide range of information technologies with a business process focus. The clear writing style and conceptual treatment of general IS topics allows for flexible applications in a business curriculum. If you are educating a diverse audience of accounting, business, and nonbusiness majors, GSF is an appropriate choice.
THOMAS J. TRIBUNELLA
Assistant Professor of Accounting
Rochester Institute of Technology
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| Title Annotation: | Book Reviews |
|---|---|
| Author: | Tribunella, Thomas J. |
| Publication: | Issues in Accounting Education |
| Article Type: | Book Review |
| Date: | May 1, 2004 |
| Words: | 586 |
| Previous Article: | Forensic and Investigative Accounting. |
| Next Article: | Principles of Auditing and Other Assurance Services. |
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