Accounting

There is no doubt that there exists an unofficial communication pipeline with questionable information merely to stir up controversy in the workplace. This can offer devastating results to every organization if not handled properly. It can not be eradicated.  It is there as a means to be leveraged by toxic employees and managers to advance there economic and political  interest.

I used to be at this high tech ERP Consulting firm that includes Accounting Software implementation, and there is one employee who always gets updated news ahead of everyone else. She starts spreading this unofficial information before the actual announcement. Her information is quite accurate but I suspect, the management is using her to stir controversies. But I view her as making the organization weaker and other bullying employees can leverage her situation and can fall victim and suffer major catastrophic consequences. She’s playing a dangerous game I must say.

Spreading out rumors can promote distrust and disrespect among employees and can become a major conflict and hinder growth and development of the organization. It should therefore be squelched fairly quickly to prevent people from getting hurt.

Tracing the source of the rumor can be easy using Social Networking Analysis(I heard this term while watch an episode of the tv series “Numb3rs”).  Social network analysis [SNA] is the mapping and measuring of relationships and flows between people, groups, organizations, computers, URLs, and other connected information/knowledge entities. I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject so I advice you to just check what it is by googling the keyword “Social Networking Analysis” for further reading.

Two years ago, I featured an issue about the two giant business software makers(Oracle and SAP) fighting over copyright infringements “Oracle sues SAP over ’stolen’ software“. The details of the matter is that SAP has stolen propreitary algorithms from Oracle and used it to gain at least 400 new clients.

And today, it is all over the news that Orcale won the case and SAP will pay Oracle $1.3B in damages.  You can read the rest of the story here. Copyright infringement is a serious offense in the IT Industry. You can see the reason and explanation why it is so in my previous post entitled “Copyright Infringement in the Software Industry“. Enforcing copyrights is vital to maintaining a healthy technology industry and funding innovation.

The effect of the Jury’s decision is very devastating to SAP’s reputation and a golden moment for Oracle. So who do think will reign as leader in the Business Software Industry particularly Accounting Software? Despite this issue, innovation, existing support industry, competency of the consultants will still be the name of the game…I am not sure if people in the industry should look at this issue seriously.

by: Hunter Richards(Guest Blogger)

Employment  in accounting is expected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to undergo “much faster than average” growth between now and 2018 - the field is resilient even in these dreary economic times. But anyone moving to a career in accounting should must gain practical skills in advance to stand out from the rest of the crowd with the best resume. The most marketable skills involve accounting software experience.

Information from five hundred randomly-selected accounting job posts from Monster.com, Career Builder, Craigslist, Simply Hired, and Accounting Jobs Today have shown which software skills employers most often desire in their new applicants. Some strategic lessons have arisen for accounting job applicants who want to find the best training and maximize their chances of landing a job.

Key Takeaways

You simply must know Microsoft Excel to even be considered as a candidate for accounting jobs. But the more sophisticated software - including deeper accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software systems - is not quite as clear. However, the key research findings have uncovered important lessons that will help you get a good accounting job:

• When finding your first job, look for a company that uses a “big name,” widely-used accounting system like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics or Oracle. That will improve your odds of getting hired next time you’re in the market for a new position.
• More and more companies are focused on business intelligence - the tools that analyze financial data to uncover business trends and opportunities. Try to gain experience in Business Objects, Crystal Reports, Cognos, etc.
• If you’re looking to work in a big corporation, you should learn systems like SAP and Oracle. If mid-size companies are your preference, learn Sage and Microsoft Dynamics. Quickbooks skills are always in demand, but especially by smaller companies.
• As the Microsoft Dynamics products converge, knowing any one of these systems will give you transferable skills across the entire Dynamics product line. For now, Dynamics GP appears to be in highest demand.
• Don’t get too comfortable with PeopleSoft or JD Edwards; although they are often mentioned by employers, they’re likely to decline in use as Oracle migrates to its Fusion apps. But it’ll take a while, so skills with these systems are still valuable.

Hunter Richards is a blogger for Software Advice, a free online resource with reviews, comparisons, and analysis of accounting software. His original article on tech skills for the accounting job hunt can be found here.

Many organizations have certain behavioral and ethical standards for its employees to follow. This is really true when you are in a very prestigious IT Consulting Company. Somehow it can be at least be tolerated if not done frequently but when it is abused and overdone…it will result in a catastrophic consequence. Companies like those in the Accounting Software Development industry needs to maintain and constantly improve lines of communications between its employees and the use of appropriate words(obscene and curse words) are not tolerated.

There are certain individuals in the industry that would find weakness of other people and use this weakness to harass that person with frequent use of jokes to express their hate towards this person using obscene and profane words very frequently. The unsuspecting victim was clueless not until he is able to see the result when his productivity was severely affected and all the odds has slowly turned against him unaware that his weakness was being attacked and taken advantage of. If you are as innocent as this person and unable to detect early the motive of these bullying individuals, it will harder for you to succeed in life.  Always remember that you as an employee is entitled to a good and proper working environment not a hostile environment. Hostile Work Environment refers to harassment or discrimination that is a violation of a person’s civil rights - based on gender, sexual orientation, race, color, nationality, ancestry, ethnic origin, religion, physical handicap/disability, medical condition, physical appearance, marital status, veteran status, education. Harassment in so may forms and variants in the office is prevalent nowadays because of resources getting scarce and some people would take advantage of any opportunity available in order to survive.

Each and everyone of us must be strong enough to fight these people by knowing the rules and if these rules are violated, do not hesitate to escalate to your superiors so that appropriate actions against the offender will be vested upon. Of course, you should be aware of office politics and gather enough evidence to support your claims. So is profanity in the workplace cool? No, of course not!