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The evolution of MIS technology has affected traditional auditing and created a new set of audit issues. This paper describes the Continuous Process Auditing System (CPAS) developed at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the internal audit organization that is designed to deal with the problems of auditing large paperless real-time systems. The paper discusses why the methodology is important and contrasts it with the traditional audit approach. CPAS is designed to measure and monitor large systems, drawing key metrics and analytics into a workstation environment. The data are displayed in an interactive mode, providing auditors with a work platform to examine extracted data and prepare auditing reports. CPAS monitors key operational analytics, compares these with standards, and calls the auditor’s attention to any problems that may exist. Ultimately, this technology will utilize system probes that will monitor the auditee system and intervene when needed.

Purpose: Analysis and systematisation of global trends in the transformation of DSSs from the standpoint of solving their global and local problems and determining the central axioms of setting up and supporting business processes in DSSs.

Need of the Study: Decision Support Systems (DSSs) are the basis of doing business in an enterprise by automating business processes, keeping accounting and reducing various risks associated with complexity, labour-intensiveness, slow execution time and, therefore, potential loss of profit. In recent decades, the rapid development of DSSs has led to the emergence of complex enterprise information system architectures. At the same time, many local business processes are not implemented or are partially implemented. In Ukraine, such techniques include VAT accounting.

Methodology: The study is based on the literature analysis, Internet resources and practical experience obtained during the SAP ERP system implementation projects. Particular attention is paid to developing information systems architecture to solve the problems enterprises face during their growth. Thanks to the analysis of the example of the realisation of the Internet sales process and the induction method, the axioms of automation of business processes in accounting systems were formed.

Findings: Regardless of the qualitative and quantitative transformation, modern DSSs still cannot solve all the enterprise’s problems, mainly due to the use of paper documents and the diversity of national legislation. By the example of the SAP ERP system, the optimal implementation of the business process of VAT liabilities was proposed by Ukrainian legislation for sales below cost price.

Practical Implications: Compliance with the established axioms of automation of business processes will reduce the cost of resources for their implementation, maintenance and correction of potential errors and, therefore, will provide an opportunity to process more transactions. Implementing the proposed algorithm for calculating VAT liabilities in SAP ERP for sales below the cost price will simplify the existing process and enable the fulfilment of other requirements within the framework of current legislation.

An innovative approach for enhancing college courses using virtual worlds was developed to raise the students' level of engagement, promote critical thinking, and meet pedagogical objectives. Reaching to a new level of teaching delivery, this approach involves conducting tours of rich and exciting virtual world venues and assigning students' reflective assignments during and after the tour. In this chapter, the procedures for conducting virtual educational tours are presented, descriptions of explored virtual demonstrations and simulations are provided, findings from the learning experiences are discussed, and students' reactions to the technologies based on comprehensive surveys are shared. Furthermore, key lessons learned and recommended teaching strategies are provided and future plans for application of cutting-edge technologies to education are described.

The chapter describes the basics of developed high-level spatial grasp technology (SGT) and its spatial grasp language (SGL) allowing us to create and manage very large distributed systems in physical, virtual and executive domains in a highly parallel manner and without any centralized resources. Main features of SGT with its self-evolving and self-spreading spatial intelligence, recursive nature of SGL and organization of its networked interpreter will be briefed. Numerous interpreter copies can be installed worldwide and integrated with other systems or operate autonomously and collectively in critical situations. Relation of SGT, with capability of holistic solutions in distributed systems, to the gestalt psychology and theory, showing unique qualities of human mind and brain to directly grasp the whole of different phenomena, will be explained too, with SGT serving as an attempt to implement the notion of gestalt for distributed applications.

Contemporary literature reveals that, to date, the poultry livestock sector has not received sufficient research attention. This particular industry suffers from unstructured supply chain practices, lack of awareness of the implications of the sustainability concept and failure to recycle poultry wastes. The current research thus attempts to develop an integrated supply chain model in the context of poultry industry in Bangladesh. The study considers both sustainability and supply chain issues in order to incorporate them in the poultry supply chain. By placing the forward and reverse supply chains in a single framework, existing problems can be resolved to gain economic, social and environmental benefits, which will be more sustainable than the present practices.

The theoretical underpinning of this research is ‘sustainability’ and the ‘supply chain processes’ in order to examine possible improvements in the poultry production process along with waste management. The research adopts the positivist paradigm and ‘design science’ methods with the support of system dynamics (SD) and the case study methods. Initially, a mental model is developed followed by the causal loop diagram based on in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observation techniques. The causal model helps to understand the linkages between the associated variables for each issue. Finally, the causal loop diagram is transformed into a stock and flow (quantitative) model, which is a prerequisite for SD-based simulation modelling. A decision support system (DSS) is then developed to analyse the complex decision-making process along the supply chains.

The findings reveal that integration of the supply chain can bring economic, social and environmental sustainability along with a structured production process. It is also observed that the poultry industry can apply the model outcomes in the real-life practices with minor adjustments. This present research has both theoretical and practical implications. The proposed model’s unique characteristics in mitigating the existing problems are supported by the sustainability and supply chain theories. As for practical implications, the poultry industry in Bangladesh can follow the proposed supply chain structure (as par the research model) and test various policies via simulation prior to its application. Positive outcomes of the simulation study may provide enough confidence to implement the desired changes within the industry and their supply chain networks.