As I close this book, I’d like to leave you with two points. First, if you want to help your firm make money, focus on money. The Accounting Domain cannot do this because it was not designed to model money. As a result, it is not the tool you should look to for answers and guidance. That is the role of the Operations and Cash Domain. However, the Accounting Domain does play another, very important role. We have to report our results, and in that context, the Accounting Domain should be front and center. Ultimately, to have a comprehensive picture of your organization and the data and information to manage it, you’ll need both, and that’s the role of Business Domain Management; bringing the two together and maintaining business, managerial, and math integrity between them. The OC Domain is about decisions, judgments, and action. The Accounting Domain is about reporting.
Second, the transformation from accounting-focused analyses to BDM should not be a significant undertaking in and of itself. The objective is to add relatively straightforward concepts, tools, measures, and metrics to help you see your organization much more comprehensively. We shouldn’t be looking at brand new software systems, but some of the data in your current ERP system should be looked at as suspect. One CEO asked me to work with their firm as they implemented their ERP system to help them improve their decision making. The one thing I pointed out was, we’ll need some of the data before it is transformed. Once it has been transformed, it’s too late. We’ve lost the value.
Thank you for your time and attention.