MUSCAT -- ISACA Muscat Chapter jointly with the College of Banking and Financial Studies (CBFS) organised a seminar on the theme, 'Activity-Based Cost Management and Balanced Scorecard' recently. Nasser H S al Rawahy, Deputy Chairman of the State Audit Institution, presided over the seminar. Dr Fuad Jaffer al Sajwani, Chairman of CBFS and Deputy Chairman of Central Bank of Oman (CBO), was among the large turnout of professionals from the banking, audit and IT fraternity, attending the event.
Al Rawahy praised the efforts of ISACA Muscat in educating the corporate community and government institutions on the importance of IT controls, security and audit. "However, any such effort should be managed efficiently in a cost-effective manner. This is where ABCM and Balanced Scorecard helps organisations understand what they are doing and for what," he said.
Dr Nayar, Acting Dean of CBFS, welcomed the gathering and emphasised the importance of professionals being aware of new concepts and techniques that are relevant to the current economic and business environment. "We should be determined in the pursuit of knowledge which is relevant to our field of activity. ABCM and Balanced Scorecard cut across all industry and service sectors and are applicable more so in the banking sector. It is an important tool for all organisations."
The main theme of the seminar was presented by Madhav Kshirsagar, Director & CEO of Kirtane Pandit Consulting Pvt Ltd, Pune, India. The audience was given an overview of the two concepts and the methodology for implementing these aspects. "In Activity Based Management, the end-to-end business processes of the enterprise, is broken down to various activities. These activities are identified as Value-added and Non-value added activities and efforts are taken to optimise them.
The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) methodology essentially has four perspectives that collectively describes and articulates any organisation's business strategy viz financial, customer service, internal business processes and its growth aspects. BSC heavily depends on ABCM in order to effectively balance the strategies of any organisation. That is how ABCM and BSC are linked," he said.
The seminar highlighted the simplicity of the concepts brought out by ABCM and BSC. "These can be developed and implemented by any organisation at any time and at minimum cost. They become very exciting because meaningful decisions can be taken based on quantified facts and not on subjective opinions," Madhav added.
ISACA was formed in 1976 as an educational foundation to undertake large-scale research for the expansion of knowledge in IT governance and control. Today, ISACA is recognised as a global leader in IT governance, control and assurance. ISACA has more than 47,000 strong members worldwide with more than 170 chapters in 60 countries.
© Oman Daily Observer 2005
