| 8. Information Technology Costs. Most companies probably want to use as much information technology as is beneficial to their operations, with one limitation being the cost of use. So, a good, accurate understanding of strategic information technology use, and the costs for that use, would seem to be a high company objective. And, the Internet might be useful in helping in the understanding because of the articles and financial statements available on the Internet that provide information technology cost data. As the benefits of information technology continue to increase, costs could also rise. And, probably there will be more emphasis on indentifying cost savings. These identifications will likely be made, so it is important that companies seek out information on these identifications made by others. The Internet is one way of doing this seeking. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to information technology costs websites, and to providing recent news related to information technology costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Technology_Costs.html. 9. Postal and Shipping Costs. Postal and shipping (packages) costs can quickly be determined on the Internet by going to the websites of the United States Post Office (postal costs) and the shipping companies (US Post Office; UPS; Fed Ex; etc.). Like all costs heavily influenced by the cost of fuels, shipping costs have gone up considerably recently. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to postal and shipping costs websites, and to providing recent news related to postal and shipping costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Shipping_Costs.html. 10. Office, Industrial, and Warehouse Leasing Costs. As for many company decisions, knowing accurate benchmarks for leasing costs for needed office, industrial, and warehouse space should be very useful in making a decision to lease or not to lease. Also, leasing costs usually consist of several components and conditions, adding complexity to a leasing decision. The Internet has both benchmark leasing cost data and explanations of leasing complexities. Explanations are easier to find. For benchmark cost data, a search, with a search engine, is the best bet, because lease costs are geographically dependent. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to office, industrial, and warehouse leasing costs websites, and to providing recent news related to office , industrial, and warehouse costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Leasing_Costs.html. 11. Travel Cost. The Untied States government collects a lot of data on travel costs, including accommodations and meal costs, in support of its per diem rates. This could be the best source of such data on the Internet. Several websites offer tips on how to save on travel costs. Apparently, because of the nature and characteristics of business travel, company travel costs seem to be one area prone to abuse (perhaps unconscious) by employees, and therefore, travel costs are probably an area for cost savings, through better management. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to travel costs websites, and to providing recent news related to travel costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Travel_Costs.html. 12. Professional Fees. A company’s fees paid for outside services, such as attorney, accountant, and consultant fees, can be substantial. It may best to avoid as many of these fees as possible, as a way of increasing profits. Another approach is to negotiate fees, or to find service providers that are willing to charge less. My impression is that most who are in the business of providing services for a fee will based what they charge on what others are charging. This suggests that although fees are preset, they quite possibly are not fixed. And, because of this, negotiating fees has a good chance of success for a company. A key to successful negotiations, it would seem, is to have good knowledge of the current range of fees that are being asked by the providers of the service you need for your business. The Internet can be a source of this knowledge. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to professional fee costs websites, and to providing recent news related to professional fee costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Professional_Fees.html. 13. Office Costs. As companies rely more and more on intellectual capital for success, office costs will increase, since intellectual capital depends upon office functions for support. Considering office cost as a company-wide cost center might be a good approach to monitoring, controlling, and reducing these costs, while maintaining the necessary needed “office services”. Benchmarking is often a good way of evaluating one’s own performance, and the Internet should be useful in providing benchmarks for office costs. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to office costs websites, and to providing recent news related to office costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Office_Costs.html. 14. Environmental Management Costs. Because of the public concern with the environment, public support has led to studies related to environmental management issues. And, being publicly supported, these studies are available on the Internet. Some of these studies have costs associated with various aspects of environmental management. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to environmental management with costs websites, and to providing recent news related to environmental management costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Environmental_Costs.html. 15. Employees Costs. The US government is a good source of employee costs data. This data is based on surveys sent to US companies. Several articles are available on the Internet that cover various components of employee costs. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to employee costs websites, and to providing recent news related to employee costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Employee_Costs.html. 16. Building and Facility Costs. What appears to be an excellent database of building and facility operating costs, and related information, is available for a fee at least one website. Online magazines devoted to building and facility management are available and have articles and other sources with cost data. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to building and facility costs websites, and to providing recent news related to building and facility costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Facility_Building_Costs.html. 17. Product Costs. Social network websites, such as YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter, contain product information. And, some of this information likely is valuable to the producers and competitors of the products for which information is available. Besides including consumer reactions to these products, information might include cost data. These social network sites are easily searched. Using markup technology, such as offered by Yahoo Pipes, allows searching several of these sites with one search query. Several articles that address product costs are available on the Internet. Also, software developers are offering product management software which is described on the Internet. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to product costs websites, and to providing recent news related to product costs and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Product_Costs.html. Another unique source of product cost data is the federal government. The federal government is the source of many press releases (feeds) every day, many of which include useful information, including sometimes cost data. Using mash up technology, selected government feeds can be filtered against a topic of interest. An example of using Yahoo Pipes for just such a result is at the link provided in the above paragraph. 18. Cost Trends. Government agencies, trade associations, and other organizations will collect and analyze cost data to determine trends in costs. And, those that do often will publish the results on the Internet. This cost trend data has at least one characteristic than much of the cost data identified in the above paragraphs does not have. And this characteristic is that the data is older data, because it has been collected in the past, has been analyzed, and time has passed since this collection and analysis. The data is less current than what might be viewed as current market costs. The data is the market price at some time in the past, which may be the same, or close to the current market cost. So, cost trend data might serve more as a benchmarking data point, upon which consideration of current pricing and costs can be conducted. MAIC’s content page that is devoted to linking to cost trend data websites, and to providing recent news related to cost trend data and the Internet are at this link, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Cost_Trends.html. 19. Blogs as a Source of Cost Data. Another source of cost data on the Internet, not available through search engines, are blogs. The existence of sustaining blogs, it seems to me, that coalesce around a topic of some complexity and concern, such as economics, law, mergers and acquisitions, taxes, and insurance, can provide in the blog content cost-related data. A good way of trying to find cost data in these blogs is to use mash up technology such as Yahoo Pipes. I have used Yahoo Pipes to create a Yahoo Pipes search product for several active blogs in each of the topics listed above (economics, law, mergers and acquisitions, taxes, and insurance). Using these Yahoo Pipes search products, a keyword term, such as costs, can be entered and then recent blog posts, e.g. the last 60 days, dealing with that entered term will be given. A good example of such a Yahoo Pipes search product can be found at this MAIC content page for insurance costs, http://www.informationforaccountants.com/Insurance_Costs.html. III. Conclusions. Access to important and useful data that helps make good decisions is, to my mind, one of the most important benefits of the Internet. However, for a lot data, for many decisions, access to the data is not just turning to your favorite search engine, such as Yahoo, and spending a few moments searching for that data. Often the needed data is not found on the Internet by many who use search engines frequently, although the data is available on the Internet. This article attempts to identify cost data that is available on the Internet. Some of this data is quickly found and accessed by effective use of search engines, but a lot of it is only found by extensive searching. I wonder how often companies do not find the data on the Internet that would be very useful to them in decision making, although that data is on the Internet. This gap, between searching and not finding, and yet the data is available, represents a negative performance indicator for a company. Perhaps, a good goal for companies is to eliminate this negative performance indicator at a cost less than the loss of not finding the data. Hopefully, this article will help in reducing and eliminating such a negative performance indicator. Please click here if you would like to comment on this article or suggest a topic for an article. Please click here to return to the Management Accounting Information Center’s homepage. |
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| Finding Cost Data on the Internet |