The rate of technological innovation has increase for many industries, and the life of a particular product can be quite short. Managers must be able to respond quickly and decisively to changing market conditions. Information to allow them to accomplish this must be available.For example,Hewlett-Packard has found that it is better to be 50 percent over budget in new product development than to be six months late.This correlation between cost and time is the kind of information that should be available from a management accounting information system.