Profit, both economic and non-economic, must be the fundamental deciding factor when making an IT-

related purchase decision. Managers at 80 percent of surveyed firms believe that their operational and
financial data is not as effective as it should be for developing strategies and planning. (Chapter
Overview) A decision to convert existing operational and financial systems to a new vendor - or to
upgrade with an existing vendor - must be based upon the economic and non-economic profit that can
be made as a result of perfecting both strategies and planning. Let us consider the scenario of a small
company converting their accounting system from Peachtree to Quickbooks.

Conversion Project Economic Factors

In-house or Outsource
In planning for the cost of the conversion, there are two options. 1) Perform the conversion using in-
house personnel, or to 2) pay for a third-party to perform the conversion. The third party will provide a
pricing structure for the conversion. If the decision is to perform the conversion in-house, the cost will
need to be estimated using the following factors.

Team
The size of the conversion team will depend upon the size of the “small” company. On one hand, the
team could be made up of one person. On the other hand, the team could be made up of several
specialized workers such as accountant, IT manager, several semi-skilled workers, one or more
technicians, and a trainer.

Data Conversion
Peachtree will automatically convert the key lists, balance information, open transactions, and custom
fields of QuickBooks. This conversion tool will not, however, convert customer and vendor lists,
employees, items, and transactions. [ CITATION Int11 \l 1033 ] The data conversion can be conducted by
semi-skilled workers with oversight from an IT staff member. The non-converted information can be
entered by semi-skilled workers without accounting credentials.

Validation of Conversion
Verification can be done by comparing list items, reports, and the chart of accounts. [ CITATION Int11 \l
1033 ] The process of validation is a manual process and may be performed by office staff without
accounting credentials.

Conversion Project Non-Economic Factors

In the process of conversion of Peachtree to Quickbooks, the failure to ensure that risks are mitigated
can lead to serious problems, such as unwanted oversight from federal regulators, IT-related fraud, and
costly business disruptions. (Chapter Overview)

Federal Regulators
The accounting records are the most important records contained in a company’s information system.
Mistakes that are created during the process of conversion can expose a small, vulnerable company to
expensive measures stemming from, for example, an IRS audit that uncovers accounting errors that
were introduced during the conversion.

IT-related Fraud
During the conversion, a company is exposed to the risk of dishonest employees (or third-party vendors)
who intentionally take actions that are detrimental to the company. These individuals may change
information or steal information and use it in a way that will undermine the success of the company.

Business Disruptions
Doing conversions from one system to another necessitates “down-time”. The amount of down-time is
dependent upon several factors such as the degree of automation in the conversion, the size of the
dataset to convert, and the number of workers on the project. Unforeseen problems will add more time
to the conversion.

In conclusion, profit, both economic and non-economic, must be the fundamental deciding factor when
making an IT-related purchase decision. Using operational and financial data more effectively to develop
strategies and planning should be the outcome. A decision to convert existing operational and financial
systems to a new vendor - or to upgrade with an existing vendor - must be based upon the economic
and non-economic profit that can be made as a result of perfecting both strategies and planning.

Bibliography
Intuit. (n.d.). Frequently Asked Questions for the Peachtree to QuickBooks Conversion Tool. Retrieved 3 5,
2011, from Intuit ProLine:
http://accountant.intuit.com/products/conversiontool/qbconversiontool_faqs.aspx

Chapter Overview. (2010). In George Reynolds., Information Technology for Managers, (pp. [1]-3).

Boston: Course Technology. Retrieved March 5, 2011 http://vrle.go.galegroup.com:80/vrle/start.do?
prod=VRL&userGroupName=e8afd688cbebe897:4e585d64:12dbe802029:4708&eISBN=9781111061814