Systems Applications and Products is a comprehensive set of programs, used through client-server networks, for accounting, manufacturing and sales. Corporations are increasingly turning to client-server systems to help them streamline their financial reports and gain a competitive edge. This text should guide financial managers in their decision-making process.

In an attempt to fight the growth of bloated, centralized staffs, companies of the 1960's began to use decentralization. However, decentralization did not solve their problems, instead it led to the proliferation of financial organisations, tripling and quadrupling the cost of finance. With the trend toward downsizing, companies today have been forced to centralize accounting and transactional operations thereby creating a shared service. Shared services are rapidly becoming an important component of many corporation's strategic plans. By using shared services corporations can hope to reduce...