（2002）Holistic, Continuous Assurance Integration：e-Business Opportunities and Challenges（Discussion2）.pdfVIP

Joumal of Information Systems Vol. 16 2002 Supplement pp, 21-24 Discussion of Holistic, Continuous Assurance Integration: e-Business Opportunities and Challenges Everett C. Johnson Partner, Deloitte Touche LLP I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS AND COMMENTS lirst let me say that I thought the authors (Greenstein and Ray 2002) (hereafter, the paper) descrip- tion of the new business processes and the ei¥ects that e-businesses are having on businesses of Ftoday was excellent. Theres a lot of good material in there, which I think could be very good reading for both students and practitioners. I think, however, that some of the assumptions about how accounting firms operate today may be a little out of date. A comment in the beginning of the paper suggests that firms remain organized primarily into dis- creet functions that often compete internally for customers. Im not sure thats an accurate statement. Based on discussions at my own firm, Deloitte Touche, and discussions Ive had with my colleagues in some of the other larger firms as well, Ive observed that many of the firms today serve their clients through integrated service teams and this approach really helps avoid intemal competition. We tend to look at what are the needs of the client and then who are the best members of the team for each project to serve that client. While team members may come from different organizational units in the firm, the team is charged with providing an integrated set of services to the client. In other words, a number of firms are already moving in the direction recommended by the authors. We certainly are. And we are seeing some of the benefits that are mentioned in this paper. Also, it wasnt clear to me in readi