INTRODUCTION
Information technology (IT) becomes more tightly
woven into the fabric of business with each pass-
ing year. Harvard Business School scholar Warren
McFarlan suggests the extent to which firms de-
pend on information technology: "If information
early in the study of AIS, so we begin our survey in this chapter and continue throughout the remain-
ing chapters of the textbook. The first part of this chapter examines why IT is important to accoun-
tants and considers its effect on the development
and evaluation of AIS.
This chapter examines
systems should fail, then how long would it take
until the corporation is unable to conduct busi-
ness? In decades past, the answer was often mea-
sured in days or even weeks. In the next
millennium, the answer will be measured in hours
or even minutes."' IT thus needs to be considered