Accounting Information Systems and ERP in the UAE: An Assessment of the Current and Future Challenges to Handle Big Data

Accounting Information Systems (AISs) are fundamental for the recording of the accounting transactions of any company and for the preparation of financial statements, as required by the legislation on financial accounting. However, information systems are not only limited to accounting for the management of a company, but it is often necessary to implement additional information systems to manage other operational aspects such as inventory management, personnel, security, big data management for marketing and the provision of a broad corporate strategy. All these aspects, in general, in order to lead the company towards success, must be integrated with each other. Many software can manage all these aspects of management, but they do not allow integrated management and top management cannot control and reconcile all information. For this reason Enterprise resource plannings (ERPs), formed by different modules, are very common. ERPs allow the flow of information to be managed in an integrated manner using a single system, avoiding duplication, errors and loss and information. All the operations are reported systematically also and above all on the accounting module, which is the one that guides all the others. This research paper is focused on the comparison of currently most used AISs and ERPs in the UAE, also analyzing the market and the size of businesses in the area. The research highlighted the opportunities and limitations of the information systems currently available, as well as the characteristics of the companies that determined the dissemination of the programs in use.