Accounting Information Systems 3rd Edition by Vernon Richardson Solution manual

 
My opinion of the ranking of the five primary activities would be that product design would be the most important, then sourcing (inbound logistics), then marketing, then warranty and repair and finally final assembly (or operations).
 
Which value chain supporting activities would most be most important to support a health insurance provider’s primary activities?  How about the most important primary activities for a university?
 
Of course, all of the supporting activities are important.Human Resources perhaps can be viewed as most important to make sure the right nurses and right doctors with the appropriate skills are available at the right time to service the sick and injured.Technology is increasingly becoming an important part of hospitals, especially with the digital medical records are becoming increasingly available and useful.Certainly, other arguments can be made for other supporting activities.
 
The primary activities of a university would be to attract students, educate them and then helping them find a good job once they have graduated.Educating students is probably the most important primary activities in the university as that is its primary mission.
 
List and explain three ways that an AIS can add value to the firm.
 
Accounting Information Systems add value by providing decision relevant information to management.
 
Three specific examples would include the following: Customer relationship management (CRM) techniques could attract new customers, generating additional sales revenue.  Enterprise systems can significantly lower the cost of support processes included.  Supply Chain Management Software allows firms to carry the right inventory and have it in the right place at the right time. 
Where does new product development fit in the value chain for a pharmaceutical company?   Where does new product development for a car manufacturer fit in the value chain?
 
The support activity of technology generally would include research and development for both a pharmaceutical company as well as a car manufacturer.In either case, this is a support activity that can drive the value for a company.
 
An enterprise system is a centralized database that collects and distributes information throughout the firm.  What type of financial information would be useful for both the marketing and manufacturing operations might both need?
Both marketing and manufacturing operations might both need records of the past sales as well as projections of which products are selling best.For the marketing group, this information would be helpful to optimize marketing campaigns, understand the demographics of the customer, and make predictions of future products.Manufacturing operations might need product information to decide which products to produce as well as needed changes to be able to produce future products.The enterprise systems might be able to provide answers to questions like, what manufacturing equipment might be needed to produce new products or is the existing manufacturing capacity sufficient to fulfill future product needs.
 
Customer Relationship Management software is used to manage and nurture a firm’s interactions with its current and potential clients.  What information would Airbus want to know about its current and potential airplane customers?  Why is this so critical?
 
For Airbus, understanding its customers is of paramount importance.Airbus would want to know who their potential customers are, who the key contacts are, what the customer’s business models are (e.g., short flights, long flights, fuel efficiency, loads on each flight, cargo volume and capacity, etc., who their key supplier has been in the past (Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Comac, etc.) , what they value in a plane manufacturer (e.g., financing, customer service, after sale service, parts, etc.).
 
This information is critical as it helps Airbus tailor its offering and propose new offerings based on the needs of the customer.
 
Problems
(Note – Problems with “Connect” in parentheses below are available for assignment within Connect.)
 
Accenture recently wrote an article entitled, “Meet the Finance 2020 Workforce” (2017) suggesting that accountants will need to not only embrace traditional financial questions of "What happened" and "Why did it happen" questions, but also the questions of "What should we do"? How is that consistent with the idea that the accountant should serve as a business analyst argued in the chapter?
 
It may be useful to stakeholders if some accounts are reported on a daily basis, such as sales revenue or employee expenses, as long as that information exhibits faithful representation. Other accounts are only needed periodically, such as estimates and allowance accounts, so real-time reporting would be less useful.