How Does Digitization Shape Cost Accounting?
Digitization shapes companies and enterprises, particularly cost accounting, in different ways, which are not yet thoroughly studied. As a result, cost accounting will rapidly keep changing in the next few decades. However, the implications of digitization on cost accounting need to be researched because the companies and enterprises need to realize its importance for their progress.
Therefore, to maintain healthy competition in the market, all companies and enterprises must analyze the infinite amount of information. Different definitions of digitization exist. For example, according to Wikipedia, digitization organizes information into bits and converts it into a digital and computer-readable format.
Digitization does not have a precise definition alone, and sometimes its meanings can change depending on the context. For example, business analytics and big data came on the scene in the past few years, mainly related to cost accounting. However, digitization has a significant role in shaping consulting, forecasting, reporting, budgeting, operational planning, and strategic planning.
Generally, digitization impacts the resource-intensive processes of budgeting and reporting. Digitization is not only responsible for evolving companies and enterprises, but it is also transforming the responsibilities of cost accounting. Adapting quickly to a technological change, just like digitization, puts a lot of pressure on companies and enterprises and forces them to design new business models, organization activities, and value chains.
According to some experts, digitization can change the whole market trend. For example, the cost accounting industry is one of the industries that has been profoundly shaped by digitization. Technical evolvements can be seen since the beginning of well-organized communities.
The researchers have found these studies fascinating. Results of the researches that have compared and contrasted various technical evolvements reveal extraordinary growth in the speed and progress of these technical evolvements. Technological evolution has been in process in the past few decades as the digitalized markets grew.
This massive technical evolution resulted in numerous companies and enterprises altering their business strategies from analog to digitalized business. There are multiple significant reasons behind this, and the primary three reasons are:
- Digitalizing a business reduces its cost.
- As a result, some actors are ready to take the actions required to meet these customer requirements.
- As a result, there is a significant change in the customers’ behavior because now they desire an online service rather than a personal one.
Therefore many businesses are atomizing their processes and systems for faster actions and a lower workforce. Digitization has brought many changes in the structures of companies, enterprises, and industries. In addition, there are four significant changes that digitization has brought:
- Digitization has now streamlined traditional production.
- Services that were formerly local are now globally available.
- Optimized and straightforward digital platforms are available.
- Goods previously available only in a physical form are now digital services.
In the last two decades, some researchers were conducted, and their results have revealed that some jobs are at risk because of the digitization of various businesses. As a result, digitization drastically shapes cost accounting and needs innovative solutions.
