The short answer is probably not. Cost, quality, speed and delivery describe the core tenets of lean thinking and value creation whether manufacturing products or designing and delivering services. Does your current support systems (information technologies, processes and organizational design) support, not only strategic forecasting, but day-to-day managerial decision-making?
Accounting systems should play a crucial role in not only cost reduction and improved profitability but also understanding cost allocation in relation to the most value-added business activities. Yet, most accounting systems have been shaped by financial reporting procedures and regulation.
Add to the mix the increased complexity of service offerings, changing customer demand and increased speed of innovation, and cost accounting processes and systems end up delivering less insights than ever before. Business intelligence solutions naturally help fill in the gap by enabling more than rudimentary analysis, but they are not operating systems.
