Abstract: The workshop members started by discussing the early issues involved in deciding whether or not the Big Eight accounting firms should be admitted to ADAPSO. Although the panel felt that the accounting firms were unfair competitors at the time and had a large percentage of the professional software services, they concluded that on the whole, the Big Eight were a benefit to the industry because they legitimized the outsourcing of these services. Andersen Consulting (a part of the Arthur Andersen auditing firm) was singled out as the most aggressive of these firms and the panel discussed Anderson’s business practices. After talking about the characteristics of the accounting department customers at the time, the group covered software capitalization rules and practices. They finished by talking about how the accounting firms helped validate the industry but how their taking unfair advantage of their special relationship with their customers eventually led to problems.

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