Activity-Based Cost Management in Government (Editor's Choice)

Rating:
Summary: Very Informative
Review: Gary's book sheds light on a subject that I have heard a great deal about but had no practical experience in. The use of ABC/M tools and techniques is growing rapidly in the federal government. This book is an essential primer for managers within the Federal government as well as government consultants. I particularly enjoyed reading about the example projects in Chapter 18.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE
Review: I have an earlier book written by this author entitled, "Activity-based Cost Management, Making It Work" that was written during earlier days of implementing activity-based costing. Cokins' new book, while it addresses activity-based functionality for government, also presents some "matured" thinking and advice on ABC/M which I found to be extremely helpful in validating some of my own observations and learnings from implementing ABC/M. For a newcomer to ABC/M, the book presents the case for why government entities can profit from using ABC/M, how to get an implementation going, critical factors for success and some case studies of actual government implementations. But, it also gets into more advanced applications such as using ABC/M to support performance measurement, supply chain management, and budgeting. These chapters are not as easily digested, but they are a rich source of reference for those planning to broaden the use of activity-based cost/management.

Rating:
Summary: A MUST HAVE
Review: I have an earlier book written by this author entitled, "Activity-based Cost Management, Making It Work" that was written during earlier days of implementing activity-based costing. Cokins' new book, while it addresses activity-based functionality for government, also presents some "matured" thinking and advice on ABC/M which I found to be extremely helpful in validating some of my own observations and learnings from implementing ABC/M. For a newcomer to ABC/M, the book presents the case for why government entities can profit from using ABC/M, how to get an implementation going, critical factors for success and some case studies of actual government implementations. But, it also gets into more advanced applications such as using ABC/M to support performance measurement, supply chain management, and budgeting. These chapters are not as easily digested, but they are a rich source of reference for those planning to broaden the use of activity-based cost/management.

Rating:
Summary: Finally an ABC book that addresses both Why and How
Review: I have read most of the ABC books published since the topic first surfaced in the mid-1980s. Some books have covered how to build ABC models in detail, providing a wealth of direction as a guide book to implementation. Others have dwelled on the theory of strategic cost measurement and management, backing up their obsevations with case studies in a variety of industries. Gary has tackled the most difficult of application areas in his new book, that of government and public sector.
Reading through this book will build a sound knowledge of why a government organization should implement ABC, how to go about it, and how to avoid the problems that pioneering government organizations have already discovered and learned to avoid.
After gaining that understanding,you will use this book as a reference for how to address model building issues and questions, how to answer the questions and biases of managers and executives who must understand ABC to have it affect their decision making, and how to build onto what is learned in your organization from ABC to implement performance measurment and improvement. Performance improvement is what these system exist to support, and ABC concepts and systems work well to integrate scorecard, process reengineering, continuous improvement, and other managment tools and decision support systems that are all to often implemented independently. That is the viewpoint that Gary has used to guide this book.
Gary's book is one that I pick up to get a trusted viewpoint when I have an difficult issue to address implementing ABC and performance measurement.