Information Technology Based Competencies And The Roles Of Professional Accountants In Malaysian Small Medium Sized Enterprises

In Malaysia, there is an increasing concern about how accountants possess a certain level of competencies in the use of IT and whether accountants are prepared to meet these challenges. Therefore, The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has been reviewed as a guideline with the other three sources, i.e. higher academic institutions, Malaysian Institute of Accountants (MIA) and Malaysian government. However, there is no common ground among them. Each of them has been looking in generic skill set rather than specific set, i.e. accounting. This research takes a comprehensive view of IT competence for professional accountants. The role of professional accountants is particularly intensive in small medium sized enterprises (SMEs). These types of organisations are extremely dynamic, customer oriented, information driven, project based, flatter in structure, and consist of a number of functional and cross functional teams. Role of IT in accounting and finance small to medium sized enterprises extends from simple data collection, aggregation, processing, and storage, to integration, strategic advisory, control, and management of the overall business. This research employs a qualitative interpretive research methodology with exploratory case study method. It uses diverse data collection strategies including, and relies on triangulation of evidence to resolve the research questions in this study. This research, thus, makes significant contribution to academic and professional bodies and provide theoretical base for developing IT related competencies for knowledge workers in general and professional accountants in particular.