Professional approach to MAS;

              THE
PROFESSIONAL
APPROACH TO
Uk —U m\ —^^—^ The H&S way of helping clients build information
• M MM Mjk^^m^ systems combines our knowledge as
l ^ ^ l ^ ^ ^ k ^ ^ ^ H consultants with their experience and manpower.
I W H ^ ^ m ^ ^ ^ F by Gordon L. Murray
Our lives run on information—or so it
seems. We are exposed to a continuous
stream of new information—through
TV, radio, newspapers, periodicals,
and other sources. Our memories pro­vide
a store of historical information.
We are able to retrieve this information
from the past, and through our imagi­nation
combine it with new information
passing by, examine it all for relevancy,
and then conceptualize a situation. This
process, coupled with judgment, leads
to decisions—that is, selection of the
course of action to be pursued. Some of
us select more effective courses than
others because of differing levels of
judgment—and some because of the
quality of the information at hand.
So it is with business. While busi­nesses
involve material, machines,
money, and markets, they consist essen­tially
of men—people placed in a stream
of information making myriad deci­sions
from it that in the aggregate de­termine
the success of the business.
This success in business depends on the
quality of the judgment which man­agement
applies to information—and
the quality of that information.
Perhaps you have never thought of
it this way, but the professional ac­countant
is in the "information busi­ness."
In our accounting and auditing
work we are concerned with informa­tion—
the proper reporting of a com­pany's
financial position and results of
its operations to shareholders, credit
grantors, and other third parties. In our
tax practice we are concerned with
information for determining (and hope­fully
minimizing) a taxpayer's taxable
income. In our management advisory
services (MAS) we are consultants to
clients building information systems.
These systems are concerned with all
the types of information that confront
the management of the institutions in
our society—business, government, or
whatever.
Only in recent years has manage­ment
information been viewed as a
separate subject, susceptible of study.
Now we find the terms "information
system," "management information sys­tem—
MIS," "integrated system," "total
system," and other variations of this
theme everywhere we look. Company
after company that doesn't have an
adequate information system is seeking
to get one.
In our MAS practice at H&S we are
heavily involved in developing such
systems. We believe—in fact we know-that
we are applying some unique ap­proaches
in assisting clients to develop
them. Some may not be "total systems,"
but they are about as nearly "total" as
anyone has yet undertaken.
13