Self-Service Business Intelligence verktyg – möjligheter ochbegränsningar : En jämförelse av teorier om Self-Service Business Intelligence verktyg och praktiska resultat av verktyget PowerPivot

Inom Business Intelligence har begreppet Self-Service Business Intelligence (Self-Service BI) vuxit fram. Self-Service BI omfattar verktyg vilka möjliggör för slutanvändare att göra analyser och skapa rapporter utan teknisk support. Ett av dessa verktyg är Microsoft PowerPivot.På Transportstyrelsens Järnvägsavdelning finns behov av ett Self-Service BI-verktyg. Vi fick i uppdrag av Sogeti att undersöka om PowerPivot var ett lämpligt verktyg för Transportstyrelsen. Målet med uppsatsen har varit att testa vilka tekniska möjligheter och begränsningar PowerPivot har samt huruvida PowerPivot är användbart för Transportstyrelsen.För att få en djupare förståelse för Self-Service BI har vi kartlagt vilka möjligheter och begränsningar med Self-Service BI-verktyg som finns beskrivna i litteraturen. Vi har sedan jämfört dessa med våra testresultat vilket har varit syftet med uppsatsen.Resultatet av testerna har visat att Transportstyrelsens Järnvägsavdelning initialt behöver teknisk support för att använda PowerPivot. Testerna har även visat att vissa av Transportstyrelsens krav inte kan uppfyllas. Detta minskar användbarheten för Transportstyrelsen.Vidare har vi kommit fram till att Self-Service BI inte alltid är enkelt att använda för slutanvändare utan teknisk support. Resultatet visar även att det krävs en BI-infrastruktur för att enkelt skapa rapporter med god kvalitet och högsta möjliga korrekthet.

Preparers’ and non-preparers’ lobbying on the proposed prohibition of goodwill amortisation in ED3 ‘business combinations’

In this paper preparers’ and non-preparers’ positions regarding accounting for goodwill are examined through studying submitted comment letters on ED3 ‘Business Combinations’. Preparers have, because of economic consequences, incentives to lobby for the non-amortisation approach and non-preparers for the amortisation approach. As hypothesised, non-preparers are found to support amortisation of goodwill to a greater extent than do preparers. Moreover, the two groups’ supportive arguments, i.e. how they argue for or against the non-amortisation or amortisation approach, are studied. Again, as hypothesised, the results show that the two groups use the same type of ‘sophisticated’ framework based arguments instead of economic consequences arguments. Taken together the examination of the comment letters thus indicates that both preparers and non-preparers point at conceptual strengths and weaknesses, instead of pointing at the real cause of the lobbying activities, i.e. perceived economic consequences, when they try to affect the final outcome of the standard. These findings confirm earlier research which has suggested that self-interested lobbyists use accounting theories and concepts as useful justifications.

Manager's task to support integrated autonomy at the workplace : Results from an intervention

A new managerial task arises in today’s working life: to provide conditions for and influence interaction between actors and thus to enable the emergence of organizing structure in tune with a changing environment. We call this the enabling managerial task. The goal of this paper is to study whether training first line managers in the enabling managerial task could lead to changes in the work for the subordinates. This paper presents results from questionnaires answered by the subordinates of the managers before and after the training. The training was organized as a learning network and consisted of eight workshops carried out over a period of one year (September 2009–June 2010), where the managers met with each other and the researchers once a month. Each workshop consisted of three parts, during three and a half hours. The first hour was devoted to joint reflection on a task that had been undertaken since the last workshop; some results were presented from the employee pre-assessments, followed by relevant theory and illuminating practices, finally the managers created new tasks for themselves to undertake during the following month. The subordinates’ answers show positive change in all of the seventeen scales used to assess it. The improvements are significant in scales measuring the relationship between the manager and the employees, as well as in those measuring interaction between employees. It is concluded that the result was a success for all managers that had the possibility of using the training in their management work.