Addressing Employer and Student Needs in AIS Education through a Platform Approach to Curriculum Development

It is no secret that the demand for practitioners who can combine accounting skills with an IS background is growing. Recent activity in the accounting profession emphasizes the importance of AIS to the profession’s growth. A knowledge of AIS enhances a practitioner’s ability to implement the suggestions of the AICPA’s Special Committee on Assurance Services for new accounting services focused on the quality of information (AICPA, 1996). Recommendations of the Jenkins Committee on business reporting require a knowledge not only of the measures important to management but also of ways of extracting these measures from the company’s information system (AICPA, 1994). Notions of “on demand” audits or analyses of selected financial data have attracted attention and will require coordination with the company’s information network (Elliott, 1994, 1992). The AICPA has recently begun offering training in systems through a collaboration with Microsoft and Great Plains Software (the AICPA Technology Advisor Program). The AICPA also has initiated certification in electronic commerce assurance services (AICPA WebTrust), an area which requires a strong AIS background. (See the AICPA web site at www.aicpa.org for details.