Management of an entity has to perform various kinds of functions to operate its business. Accounting is one of those functions which is necessary to be carried out in every business. As accounting is recognised as the language of the business as it covers recording of all the data relating to the significant transactions and events undertaken by the entity. The scope of accounting is therefore very vast. To ascertain the performance and financial health of the business, the timely provision of correct information is quite important. To perform the accounting function, management has to hire accountant or a team of accountants in case of large business organisation. In the absence of accurate data, managers cannot determine the true picture of company’s financial situation. However, with the development of business intelligence processes, the scope of accounting function has enhanced.
Due to the manual intervention the accounting function has to suffer various limitations. It was not performed with the complete accuracy and also due to its extremely wide scope, the accountants could not perform the function of accounting on the timely manner. They could not help the management of the company in understanding the actual picture of company’s financial performance by providing necessary and relevant information on time. The results of accounting functions performed by humans were not as accurate as that of accounting software.
Nowadays, with the advancement of technology such as business intelligence, the function of accounting has become simplified (Negash, 2004). The use of business intelligence tools has not only made the accounting simpler but it has also improved the ways in which the accounting function is performed by the entities. Business intelligence is completely driven by the technologies and it is used to collect and analyse so that such data can be used for taking various important businesses (Chaudhuri, Dayal & Narasayya, 2011). The tools of business intelligence are aimed to improve the decision making of the businesses.
The implementation of business intelligence in the businesses has enhanced the overall quality of accounting function as it helps the managers in collecting the necessary data from internal and external sources of data. As business intelligence uses a huge database it allows the managers to critically analyse the financial data using its various tools and applications (Turban, Sharda & Delen, 2011). It also facilitates the business managers in preparation of several business reports that are required to assess the financial situation of the business. Financial reporting, which is the most important part of accounting function has become quite manageable for the managers as business intelligence simplified the complex business data and provides it on time to time basis so that any performance failures could be identified within the reasonable time. The use of key performance indicators also aids the business managers in measuring and analysing the financial performance of their business. In traditional accounting the financial information was used to be provided only on annual basis to the management but with the use of business intelligence tools, the managers can be promptly provided with all the significant information so that they can take appropriate decisions on appropriate time. Also, BI helps the managers in budgetary planning by providing basis for budgets and financial planning.
The development of business intelligence tools has undoubtedly affected the role of management accountants but it has not reduced their roles. Rather, the role of accountants has now expanded. Earlier the accountants had to indulge in the core accounting functions such as recording, summarising, classifying the financial information. However, the introduction of concept of business intelligence has released the management accountants from these roles and has allowed them to perform strategic roles in the organisation. These accountants are now required to emphasise on strategic objectives of the company by formulating various policies and strategies.
Conclusion
Hence it can concluded that the introduction of business intelligence application has positively contributed to the overall business functioning specially in the areas of accounting function. It has improved and simplified the business accounting which has released the management accountants from performing the typical functions of accounting such as collecting and analysing the data. Now, the released capacity can be utilised by them in performing the roles of strategic decision making. The scope of their roles is thus widened.
The demand for cyber-security has increased vastly these days due the occurrence of numerous cyber-attacks in past few years. Those organisations which are big enough are mainly targeted by the attackers. As these organisations have a great amount of data stored in the electronic mode, they are more prone to the cyber-attacks. In this report, the impact of ransomware attack on the hospitals, is discussed. There can be implemented several controls by the management of hospital to protect the organisation from the attack.
Ransomware attack that happened in May, 2017 was one of the major cyber-attack which has affected various countries. The attack was named as Wannacry as crypto-worm named Wannacry was involved in the attack (Mohurle & Patil, 2017). The virus was internationally spread and it was targeting the users of windows operating systems. Hence, a large number of organisations and individuals were severely affected by the attack (Perlroth, Scott & Frenkel, 2017). Due to the ransomware attack, the access to the significant data of the corporate offices and other bodies was blocked by the intruders with the intention of demanding ransom in return of allowing back the access to the valuable data. The ransom was demanded in the form of crypto-currency i.e. Bitcoin.
Database maintained by hospitals is the most critical area which can be severely impacted by the cyber-attacks. The record of data containing necessary information about the functioning of hospital, its employees and patients is of the utmost (Gordon, Fairhall & Landman, 2017).
The record of intellectual properties such as the results of various researches and experiments, drug formulas etc. is generally kept confidential by the hospitals as it provides its competitive strength in the market. Hence it is critical enough for the organisation.
The health of patients is also the most important factor for the hospitals. The cyber-attacks can cause severe disruption to the overall operations of the organisation leading.
There can be adverse impact of cyber-attacks, like ransomware attack, on the medical institutions such as it could lead to severe injuries to the health of the patients as a result of disturbance caused due to attacks. The patients with critical health issues could also lose their lives as a result of heavy disruptions of operational functions of hospitals. The loss of sensitive and valuable financial data could also make the organisation suffer heavy financial losses. It can also amount to loss of institution’s credibility in the eyes of general public. It can also call for heavy legal actions on the hospital due to the performance failures as a result of ransomware attack (Martin, Martin, Hankin, Darzi & Kinross, 2017). Loss of competitive strength over the competing medical institutions could also be another impact of ransomware attack.
The organisation must use the system of firewalls to block the access to the unauthorised network. The firewall can help in preventing the unauthorised access of the attackers to the valuable data of the organisation. The use of updated software with upgraded security features such as antivirus software, for the systems and devices used by the hospital can also prevent the ransomware attack (Kruse, Frederick, Jacobson & Monticone, 2017).
Conclusion:
From the above report, it can be concluded that the hospital organisation must implement all the adequate controls to protect itself from the cyber-attacks otherwise it may not only affect their functioning but will also lead to heavy business failures.
References
Chaudhuri, S., Dayal, U., & Narasayya, V. (2011). An overview of business intelligence technology. Communications of the ACM, 54(8), 88-98.
Gordon, W. J., Fairhall, A., & Landman, A. (2017). Threats to Information Security—Public Health Implications. New England Journal of Medicine, 377(8), 707-709.
Kruse, C. S., Frederick, B., Jacobson, T., & Monticone, D. K. (2017). Cybersecurity in healthcare: A systematic review of modern threats and trends. Technology and Health Care, 25(1), 1-10.
Martin, G., Martin, P., Hankin, C., Darzi, A., & Kinross, J. (2017). Cybersecurity and healthcare: how safe are we?. Bmj, 358, j3179.
Mohurle, S., & Patil, M. (2017). A brief study of wannacry threat: Ransomware attack 2017. International Journal, 8(5).
Negash, S. (2004). Business intelligence. The communications of the Association for Information Systems, 13(1), 54.
Perlroth, N., Scott, M., & Frenkel, S. (2017). Cyberattack Hits Ukraine Then Spreads Internationally. The New York Times.
Turban, E., Sharda, R., & Delen, D. (2011). Decision support and business intelligence systems. Pearson Education India.
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