Cloud Computing
Discuss about the Application Of Cloud Computing In AIS.
Cloud computing is one of the emerging technology that have changed the market. In this report the limelight is thrown on cloud computing, its benefits and the major challenges offered by AIS based cloud computing solution. Cloud based AIS is beneficial as accounting of data is increasing in volume day by day. In order to work faster and efficient cloud in used. In short cloud computing improves the company’s experience as users do not need to worry about their application getting fixed, as cloud look for all the bugs. Cloud computing is assisting in accounting firm to attain the objective by saving money. It is a way to reduce costs, improve efficiency and make data more accessible from anywhere at any time.
Cloud computing is an emerging technology that make use of internet and provide remote services by maintaining data and applications. Cloud computing can be treated as a metaphor of internet, where users simply access the software’s and uses the resources without actually buying them. Users pay only for what they use. The growth of cloud computing has increased over the network as it cut the cost and improves the ability to access the data and perform best practices (Kranz, Hanelt and Kolbe, 2016). Cloud computing has turned out to be highly dynamic as it adapt to multiple data requests and work with all form of resources without the users efforts.
Cloud computing has changed the way business work today. Cloud computing has made the business functions cheaper as well as reliable (Islam, Bilal and Ilyas, 2017). Various functions offered by cloud are:
- Data sharing and backup- It is one of the major functions that has made cloud popular. It eliminates the overhead associated with storing the file and offer easy access from all over the globe (Islam, Bilal and Ilyas, 2017). It is scalable and keeps remote backups of all the sensitive data.
- Telecommunication- It has made businesses available to communicate from anywhere by using various advanced tools developed for communication and collaboration.
- Resource Planning-Cloud platforms has been beneficial for small business as it they allow outsourcing the management of software and resources.
There are many other functions like on demand service, customer relation management and productivity of business that have helped organisation s to grow rapidly (Islam, Bilal and Ilyas, 2017)
Accounting Information system had helped many companies to monitor, manage and secure their resources. Cloud based solution ha offered best platforms for AIS that eliminates all the issues that were faced by traditional methods. ACRON is one of the examples of AIS cloud solution that has been used in the market these days (Rittinghouse and Ransome, 2016). This work in possibly all IT departments and there is no additional maintenance cost required to manage the tasks. It is easily scalable according to the needs of an organisation.
In the views of (Scholtz, Govender and Gomez, 2016), using cloud based AIS solution increases the risk of data security and privacy. As in this the complete ownership is transferred in the hands of cloud owners. The accounting information is a very sensitive data for an organisation thus it can be trusted to maintain the privacy in hands of third party. The use of AIS based services also increases the chances of cyber-attacks, as the data stored online can be accessed by hackers from side doors which cause the risk of data leakage. The quality of service is also affected by using cloud based service. They fear is associated with the cloud service provider as they do not provide any guarantee to ensure security of any application or data. Other than that, without proper service quality the enterprise suffer from poor performance die to infrastructure of cloud. Sometimes the automatic accounting information system may cause error which cannot be tracked easily. It also requires proper governance control to ensure that all legal operations are done. Some companies do not showcases all the data to government authorities, thus AIS could be problematic in that case (Linkedin, 2016). The cloud based systems do not provide full control over the operations of infrastructure. This has somewhere increased the problems for IT as they need to offer the governance, compliance and risk management.
Functionalities
According to (Lian, Yen and Wang, 2014), the challenges faced by using by AIS cloud computing is there is always a restriction in terms of using applications, operating system and platform. Cloud service provider only offers those services that are available. It may also cause loss of information as it is computerized. There is always a risk associated as if in case cloud crashes all the important data will be lost (Son, Lee and Chang, 2014). Cloud based accounting information system cause huge lose to the company if some miss-happening occurs.
In the views of (Jones, Irani, Sivarajah and Love, 2017), cloud based accounting system is difficult to set up because every company uses unique way. In order to keep the system updated with the changes, accounting information systems need to be re-evaluated regularly which is difficult in terms of cloud based system. It is important to make changes in the system in order to process information efficiently. This can be a disadvantage to companies because it takes time for the re-evaluation and it costs money.
According to (Hao and Shihong, 2015), there are various benefits that are offered by using AIS cloud based solution. These services are much faster as compared to the old in house traditional methods. These services require minimum involvement in IT department, as AIS automatically performs solution upgrades and maintenance needed for tasks. Additionally, nowadays enterprises require financial and non-financial reporting on regular basis. The cloud based AIS solution adapts to the rapid change that occur in market (Zhang, 2012). It is helpful as this gives periodic reports that help in analysing eh business in a better way and get proper feedback. Higher competition in the market requires updated information to enable management rapidly and adapt to opportunities and answer problems.
In the opinion of (Uglietta, 2015), Cloud based AIS is beneficial as it offers ease of access. The employees can access to finical data of business from anywhere around the world at any time. It provides ease to users as they do not need to download anything to their personal system all they need to do stay connected to internet. They can keep track of all the business reports without worrying about their physical location. Apart from that price is another advantage of AIS cloud based solution, as they just need to pay monthly according to the use. It reduces all the maintenance cost and cost needed at time of server failure. These all issues are managed by cloud accounting service provider (Han and Xia, 2014). AIS system offers automatic management and if managed properly cloud accounting it provides up-to-date financial information to the business. This helps the business to make changes and allow team to access the information remotely. AIS system also offers data security by keeping backups. It offers availability, integrity, confidentiality of data packets along with disaster recovery methods.
Cloud-based AIS System
Cloud computing application offers various services as well as it raises a number of difficulties. The company before making use of cloud based application should be aware about the services offered and risk associated with it. It is necessary to get full guarantee of data protection because all the sensitive data is stored over cloud. It is recommended that before using cloud it should be clearly identified about the data controller. Additionally, it is suggested that a proper analysis should be done of the risk to identify the security measures associated with the organisation. Apart from that a system for backup of data should be designed so that if in case cloud crashes, businesses do not undergo loss. It is recommended that proper knowledge should be accomplished by the user as system is automated and no human intervention is required. Cloud accounting software’s assists similar functions like normal accounting software but this need not to be installed on personal computers as they allow remote access to data can be accessed through internet at any point of time from any location. It makes sure that no additional payment is required because AIS does that for users and they do not need any servers or desktop configurations. Thus it can be stated that it offers more flexibility to the business by making it all the accounting information available on demand. This will surely prove to be beneficial in accounting firms as they offer ease to clients that were previously unachievable.
Conclusion
In can be concluded, that cloud computing offers a wide range of possibilities for business to grow. It uses innovative ideas to develop products and services by making uses of all the available information and resources and make it available to remote clients. This has eliminated the need of physical storage and has updated the strength of security by keeping track of all the disaster recovery approach. It also provides accessibility from anywhere which has turned out to be beneficial for many accounting firm. Cloud based solutions have changed the performance of many industry as it has altered the ways of operations.
References
Han, G. and Xia, Q. (2014) A research on the application of cloud computing in AIS. In Mechatronics and Control (ICMC), 2014 International Conference on (pp. 2028-2030). IEEE.
Hao, Q. and Shihong, Z. (2015). Accounting Informationization Hierarchical Data Safety and Prevention Based on Cloud Computing, pp.45-67.
Islam, K., CH, A.R., Bilal, A.R. and Ilyas, M.U.H.A.M.M.A.D. (2017). Accounting Information Systems: Traditions and Future Directions. The Journal of Internet Banking and Commerce, 22(2), pp.1-13.
Jones, S., Irani, Z., Sivarajah, U. and Love, P.E. (2017). Risks and rewards of cloud computing in the UK public sector: A reflection on three Organisational case studies. Information Systems Frontiers, pp.1-24.
Kranz, J.J., Hanelt, A. and Kolbe, L.M. (2016). Understanding the influence of absorptive capacity and ambidexterity on the process of business model change–the case of on?premise and cloud?computing software. Information Systems Journal, 26(5), pp.477-517.
Lian, J.W., Yen, D.C. and Wang, Y.T. (2014). An exploratory study to understand the critical factors affecting the decision to adopt cloud computing in Taiwan hospital. International Journal of Information Management, 34(1), pp.28-36.
Linkedin, (2016). Advantages & Disadvantages of Cloud Accounting. Available from https://www.iqvis.com/blog/top-6-challenges-of-cloud-implementation/ Accessed on 14 MAY 2018.
Rittinghouse, J.W. and Ransome, J.F. (2016). Cloud computing: implementation, management, and security. CRC press.
Scholtz, B., Govender, J. and Gomez, J.M. (2016). Technical and Environmental Factors Affecting Cloud Computing Adoption in the South African Public Sector. In CONF-IRM (p. 16).
Son, I., Lee, D., Lee, J.N. and Chang, Y.B. (2014) Market perception on cloud computing initiatives in organizations: Information & Management, 51(6), pp.653-669.
Uglietta, J. (2015). Cloud Computing Benefits for Accounting Firms. Available from https://www.aisn.net/cloud-computing-benefits-for-accounting-firms/ Accessed on 14 MAY 2018.
Zhang, R. (2012). CLOUD COMPUTING BASED TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION. Available from https://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=pacis2016 Accessed on 14 MAY 2018.